[99] "Men may lose little property by an act which takes away all their freedom. When a man is robbed of a trifle on the highway, it is not the two-pence lost that makes the capital outrage." "Would twenty shillings have ruined Mr. Hampden's fortune? No! but the payment of half twenty shillings, on the principle it was demanded, would have made him a slave." See Mr. Burke's speeches in 1774 and 1775. B. V.
[100] Nova Scotia, Georgia, the Floridas, and Canada. B. V.
[101] "The opposition [to Lord Rockingham's administration]" says Lord Chesterfield, "are for taking vigorous, as they call them, but I call them violent measures; not less than les dragonades; and to have the tax collected by the troops we have there. For my part, I never saw a forward child mended by whipping: and I would not have the mother become a step-mother." Letter, No. 360.
"Is it a certain maxim," pleads Mr. Burke, "that the fewer causes of dissatisfaction are left by government, the more the subject will be inclined to resist and rebel?" "I confess I do not feel the least alarm from the discontents which are to arise from putting people at their ease. Nor do I apprehend the destruction of this empire, from giving, by an act of free grace and indulgence, to two millions of my fellow-citizens, some share of those rights, upon which I have always been taught to value myself." Speeches in 1774 and 1775. B. V.
[102] This was afterwards attempted by the British legislature, in the case of the Massachusett's Bay. B. V.
[103] The lords and commons very prudently concurred in an address for this purpose, and the king graciously assured them of his compliance with their wishes. B. V.