Introduction
In 1766, Parliament truculently reasserted the right to tax and regulate Britain’s thirteen American colonies. The Americans were allowed no MPs in the Commons, but they had many friends, and barely a month before those first shots rang out in Lexington on April 19th, 1775, Edmund Burke warned the Government not to try to crush the manly English spirit that made Americans so independent.
DENY them this participation of freedom, and you break that sole bond, which originally made, and must still preserve, the unity of the empire.* Do not entertain so weak an imagination, as that your registers and your bonds, your affidavits* and your sufferances,* your cockets* and your clearances,* are what form the great securities of your commerce. Do not dream that your letters of office, and your instructions,* and your suspending clauses,* are the things that hold together the great contexture of the mysterious whole. These things do not make your government.
Dead instruments, passive tools as they are, it is the spirit of the English communion that gives all their life and efficacy to them. It is the spirit of the English Constitution, which, infused through the mighty mass, pervades, feeds, unites, invigorates, vivifies every part of the empire, even down to the minutest member.
* A year later, Scottish economist Adam Smith (1723-1790) also reminded readers of his Wealth of Nations (1776) that the empire was created by emigrants who shared a spirit of rebellious liberty and independence, rather than dutiful compliance with authority. See Home Page. So firmly was Smith of this opinion, that he argued that independent, sovereign states engaged in free trade were more efficient than a union or federation of states centrally managed like an empire. See The ‘Empire’ of Free Trade.
* An affidavit is a written declaration made under oath before a notary public or other authorised officer.
* A sufferance is a concession meaning that some prohibition will not enforced.
* A cocket was a customs seal or document indicating that duty had been duly paid on shipping.
* A clearance is an official authorisation for some act to go ahead.
* Colonial governors were issued with Royal Instructions that set out a governor’s role and relationship to the Crown. Along with the Instructions he was also handed the Letters Patent or Order in Council, which constituted the office of governor and commander-in-chief, and a Commission from the Privy Council in London, which explicitly obliged him to follow his Instructions.
* Suspending clauses allowed a colonial Governor to pause a bill passed by a local legislature until the Crown could decide whether it should be granted royal assent. For example, in 1753 the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a bill which, among other paper money matters, put an additional £20,000 into circulation. Lieutenant-Governor James Hamilton (1710–1783) sent it back to the House with a suspending clause appended. “This Act,” it read, “or any thing therein contained, shall not take Effect, or be deemed, or construed, or taken, to have any Force or Effect, until the same shall have received the Royal Approbation of his Majesty, his Heirs or Successors”. This brought a stinging rebuke from the Assembly. “The House cannot agree to this Amendment, because we apprehend the Clause destructive of the Liberties derived to us by the Royal and Provincial Charters, as well as injurious to the Proprietaries Rights, and without any Precedent in the Laws of this Province.” The authors of this riposte included Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).
Précis
On the eve of the American Revolution, Edmund Burke MP urged Parliament to extend to Americans the same Constitutional rights enjoyed by Englishmen. He warned that two such peoples could not be united by mere compliance with government regulations; what united them was a shared sense of Englishness, as heirs of the legacy of liberty inherited from our common forefathers. (60 / 60 words)
On the eve of the American Revolution, Edmund Burke MP urged Parliament to extend to Americans the same Constitutional rights enjoyed by Englishmen. He warned that two such peoples could not be united by mere compliance with government regulations; what united them was a shared sense of Englishness, as heirs of the legacy of liberty inherited from our common forefathers.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, despite, may, must, otherwise, ought, since, unless.
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