These excellent and trusty
servants of the king, justly fearful lest they themselves should have
lost all credit with the world, bring out the image of their gracious
sovereign from the inmost and most sacred shrine, and they pawn him as a
security for their promises:--"_His Majesty_ relies on your prudence and
fidelity for such an explanation of _his_ measures." These sentiments of
the minister and these measures of his Majesty can only relate to the
principle and practice of taxing for a revenue; and accordingly Lord
Botetourt, stating it as such, did, with great propriety, and in the
exact spirit of his instructions, endeavor to remove the fears of the
Virginian assembly lest the sentiments which it seems (unknown to the
world) had _always_ been those of the ministers, and by which _their_
conduct _in respect to America had been governed_, should by some
possible revolution, favorable to wicked American taxers, be hereafter
counteracted. He addresses them in this manner:--
"It may possibly be objected, that, as his Majesty's present
administration are _not immortal_, their successors may be inclined to
attempt to undo what the present ministers shall have attempted to
perform; and to that objection I can give but this answer: that it is my
firm opinion, that the plan I have stated to you will certainly take
place, and that it will never be departed from; and so determined am I
forever to abide by it, that I will be content to be declared infamous,
if I do not, to the last hour of my life, at all times, in all places,
and upon all occasions, exert every power with which I either am or ever
shall be legally invested, in order to obtain and _maintain_ for the
continent of America that _satisfaction_ which I have been authorized to
promise this day by the _confidential_ servants of our gracious
sovereign, who to my certain knowledge rates his honor so high _that he
would rather part with his crown than preserve it by deceit_.
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