Mr. Pitt spoke some time before one could divine on which side of the Question relating to America he would be; but beginning first to mention the Stamp Act by the soft Term of that unhappy Act, he went on, and every Time he had Occasion to mention it, it was by a Term still stronger, as unconstitutional, unjust, oppressive, &c. till he finally declar’d in express Terms that the British Parliament had in his Opinion no Right to raise internal Taxes in America, tho’ it had to regulate their Commerce and even restrain their Manufactures. He said many Things in favour of America, particularly that they had always readily granted Aids to the Crown in all our Wars, on Requisitions made to their several Assemblies, and particularly in the last War far beyond their Abilities, which the Parliament here considering had made them some Compensation; that the Act was therefore unnecessary; that no Minister before the last, (naming all the Ministers in order from the Revolution, and giving their Characters, some of whom were remarkable for their Firmness and Resolution, as well as their Understanding, had never thought fit or ventur’d to tax the Colonies; that he himself was sometimes represented as rash enough for any thing; and there had not been wanting some during his Administration that urg’d him to it as a thing that would have been acceptable to Gentlemen here, but they could not get him to burn his Fingers, with so unnecessary, so unjust, and therefore so odious a Measure: The Arguments of virtual Representation, of the Case of the Colonies being the same with that of Corporations in England, or of the Non Electors here, he treated with great Contempt as trifling, and insignificant and ridiculous; asserted that Representation in Parliament was originally and properly of Landed Property; that every 40s. a Year of landed Property in England still is represented by the Owner’s having a right to vote in County Elections; but that tho’ a Man in America had £1000 a Year in Land, it gave him no right to vote for a single Member of Parliament. That the Representation of the Commons, was not an original Part of the Constitution; the Owners of Lands only were call’d to Parliament and all the Lands in England were divided between the King, the Church, and the Barons. The Church, God bless it, had one Third at least. The Commons, were mere Tenants or Copy holders. But now the Case was greatly alter’d. The church was stript of most of its Lands, and the Nobles had sold so much of theirs, that what remain’d in their Hands was but like a Drop of the Bucket compar’d to what was now in the Hands of the Commons. It was therefore on Account of their Lands properly that the Commons were represented in Parliament. As to the Representatives of Burroughs, it was wrong to suffer their Sitting in Parliament. It was the rotten Part of our Constitution, and could not stand another Century. How could we with any Face maintain, that a Burrough of half a Dozen Houses ought to have a Representative in Parliament to take care of its Interests; and yet that three Millions of People in America with many Millions of Landed Property should not have a single Vote in the Election of any one Member.

Mr. Grenville saying in Defense of the Act that he had before the Measure was entred into, call’d upon the House, and ask’d if there was any one Member that doubted the Right of Parliament to lay an internal Tax on America; and there was not one,. Mr. Pitt answered, that That by no means prov’d the Rectitude of the Measure: for that there had long been in the House a Tenderness of opposing Ministerial Measures, a kind of—what shall I call it— Modesty, that made the Members rather doubt their own Judgments. He wish’d therefore that the young Members would apply them selves more to the Study of Public Affairs, and qualifie themselves better to judge of them. That their Silence should be no Proof of the goodness of a ministerial Measure, he reminded the House, that from Year to Year he had in the same Manner call’d upon the House, to know if any one dislik’d our then Continental Connections, and but one ever took the Freedom to speak his Mind on that Head, and he should like him the better for it as long as he liv’d; for he indeed said frankly, “that he did not like what he was pleas’d to call my German War.” But with the rest it went down glibly. That Oppositions were generally interested; but his Sentiments of this Act had always been the same, and he had ever dislik’d it as destructive to Liberty; a Word often made use of by ambitious Men only as a Horse on which they might mount and ride into Preferment; but he had no such Views. Mr. Conway remark’d on this, that the Preferment he was in, was not of his own seeking; and that whenever the honorable Gentleman, for whose Abilities and Integrity he had the highest Veneration, should be, as he sincerely hop’d he soon would be, appointed to supersede him, he should with great Pleasure mount his Horse and ride out again.

These are the Particulars you chiefly desir’d an Account of. ’Tis the best I can give you. But I am sensible the Expression is far short of that used by the Speakers.