always have thought," he said, "and ever shall think, that both Ireland and America are subordinate to this country, but I shall likewise retain my former opinion, that they have rights, the free and unimpaired exercise of which should be preserved inviolate. The principal fundamental right is that of granting their own money. That this invaluable privilege is going to be wrested from America, I take to be the true grievance. Remove that away and everything I daresay will return into its former channel. I do not here promise to meet the ideas of every person on the other side of the Atlantic indiscriminately. There may be some factious, turbulent, ambitious spirits there. I would be understood to speak of the prevailing governing dispositions of both countries. There may, on the other hand, be many people in this country so mistaken as to desire a revenue, but what I mean is, that if the claim of taxation were fairly relinquished, without reservation, I am confident the supremacy of the British Parliament would be acknowledged by America, and peace between both countries be happily restored"; and he went on to show that even if there were no other objection to the ministerial policy, the fact of the penalties and prohibitions laid on the Colonists including guilty and innocent alike, and condemning them without a hearing in their own defence, was alone fatal to it.[1]
"I execrate the present measures," said Barré in the House of Commons. "You have had one meeting of Congress; you may soon have another; for if they submit they are slaves."[2] His words were prophetic. The answer of Massachusetts to the Port Bill was a summons to a General Congress at Philadelphia, and whatever unwillingness or hesitation at first existed among the other Colonies was removed as the news arrived of the still more oppressive measures which had followed. The Acts themselves were set at nought; nobody could be found to act as Sheriff or as a nominated councillor, while General Gage, who had been sent out armed with full civil and
