repeal; and he would have spoken for it, too, if an illness (not, as was
then given out, a political, but, to my knowledge, a very real illness)
had not prevented it.

The very next session, as the fashion of this world passeth away, the
repeal began to be in as bad an odor in this House as the Stamp Act had
been in the session before. To conform to the temper which began to
prevail, and to prevail mostly amongst those most in power, he declared,
very early in the winter, that a revenue must be had out of America.
Instantly he was tied down to his engagements by some, who had no
objection to such experiments, when made at the cost of persons for whom
they had no particular regard. The whole body of courtiers drove him
onward. They always talked as if the king stood in a sort of humiliated
state, until something of the kind should be done.

Here this extraordinary man, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, found
himself in great straits. To please universally was the object of his
life; but to tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is
not given to men. However, he attempted it. To render the tax palatable
to the partisans of American revenue, he made a preamble stating the
necessity of such a revenue. To close with the American distinction,
this revenue was _external_ or port-duty; but again, to soften it to the
other party, it was a duty of _supply_. To gratify the _colonists_, it
was laid on British manufactures; to satisfy the _merchants of Britain_,
the duty was trivial, and (except that on tea, which touched only the
devoted East India Company) on none of the grand objects of commerce. To
counterwork the American contraband, the duty on tea was reduced from a
shilling to three-pence; but to secure the favor of those who would tax
America, the scene of collection was changed, and, with the rest, it
was levied in the colonies. What need I say more? This fine-spun scheme