WARNING AND A
PROPHECY- To the HOUSE of COMMONS - From an ENGLISHMAN and DEFENDER of AMERICAN
LIBERTY in 1775.
*
[Apart from Edmund Burke the great parliamentarian
who fought against the Tories who forced the conflict with America.
Another name that will live
in English history is that of another equally great parliamentarian of the
eighteenth century -the redoubtable John Wilkes .]
‘JOHN WILKS, one of the most
effective agitators against Tory policies of the eighteenth century, was born
at Clerkenwell, London, October 17th, 1727.
His father, a rich
distiller, educated him at the University of Leyden, where he became
proficient in the classical languages and where, supposedly, he lost the
restraining influence of the English scholastic tradition.
At any rate, when he entered public life as a Member
of Parliament in 1757, and journalism a little later as editor of the
‘North Briton,’ he developed such power as no other Englishman had ever shown
to disturb and exasperate the conservative and aristocratic classes.
He was imprisoned in the TOWER
because of a criticism of the King’s message published in the ‘New Briton,’
APRIL 23rd, 1763, and in November of the same year, on a
motion of lord North, the administration majority in the House of Commons
ordered that a number of the paper to be publicly burned.
On January 19th,
1764, he was expelled from the House of Commons, and on February 21st
convicted in default in the King’s Bench.
At this time he was living
in Paris, and for several years he remained on the continent, supported by
contributions from the English Whigs.
In 1768 he returned to
England, stood for Parliament, and on his election from Middlesex, was expelled by
the Tories, February 3rd, 1769, Middlesex re-elected him, and, when
the Tories refused to seat him, re-elected him a third and fourth time.
When finally Wilkes’s
opponent, whom he had defeated by votes of more than FOUR to ONE, was declared
lawfully elected, the indignation of the Whigs was intense.
Wilkes was in jail at the
time under the old judgment, and his cell became, for the time being,
headquarters for the Whig party.
Money was liberally
subscribed and issues forced, until he was released from prison and elected
ALDERMAN, SHERIFF, and finally
LORD
MAYOR of LONDON.
In 1782 the resolutions invalidating
his election to Parliament were expunged, and he served until 1790.
During the period of Tory
activity which forced the war with America, he uttered strenuous warnings
against the policy which finally lost the colonies and created the
UNITED STATES of AMERICA.
“The Americans will triumph!” he said in 1775;
“the whole Continent of North America will be dismembered from ENGLAND
and the wide arch of the raised empire fall”.
He died September 20th, 1797, after having
lived to see his prophecy fulfilled.
*
A WARNING AND A PROPHECY
(Delivered in the House of
Commons, February 6th, 1775.)
I AM INDEED, surprised that in a business of so much
moment as this before the HOUSE, respecting the British colonies in America, a
cause which comprehends almost every question relative to the common rights of
mankind, almost every question of policy and legislation, it should be resolved
to proceed with so little circumspection, or rather with so much precipitation
and heedless imprudence.
WITH WHAT TEMERITY are we
assured that the same men who have been so often overwhelmed with praises for
their attachment to this country, for their forwardness to grant it the
necessary succours, for the valour they have signalized in its defence, have
all at once so degenerated from their ancient manners as to merit the
appellation of
Seditious, ungrateful,
impious rebels!
But if such a change has,
indeed, been wrought in the minds of this most loyal people, it must at least
be admitted that affections so extraordinary could only have been produced by
some very powerful cause.
But who is ignorant, who
needs to be told of the new madness that infatuates our MINISTERS? [As they do today in 2006
and have done over the last nine years of Blair’s reign.]
Who has not seen the
tyrannical counsels they have pursued for the last ten years? [We all hope in 2006 that
Blairdom will soon be at an end]
They would now have us carry
to the foot of the throne a resolution stamped with rashness and injustice,
fraught with blood, and a horrible futurity [As with Blair’s illegal war in Iraq and his
growing dictatorship at home in 2006]
But before this be allowed them, before the signal of
civil war be given, before they are permitted to force Englishmen to sheath
their swords in the bowels of their fellow-subjects [Americans], I hope this HOUSE
will consider the rights of humanity, the original ground and cause of the
present dispute.
HAVE WE JUSTICE ON OUR SIDE?
No; assuredly
no
[As
with Blair’s illegal war in Iraq since 2003]
He must be altogether a stranger to the BRITISH CONSTITUTION
Who does not know that
contributions are voluntary gifts of the people; and singularly blind not to
perceive that the words
“LIBERTY and PROPERTY”
[In 2006 -our Freedom and OUR
Country]
-so grateful to ENGLISH ears,
are nothing better mockery and insult to the Americans, if their property can
be taken without their consent.
And what motive can there
exist for this new rigour, for these extraordinary measures?
Have not the Americans always demonstrated the utmost
zeal and liberality whenever their succours have been required by the
MOTHER COUNTRY?
In the last two years they
gave you more than you asked for, and more than their facilities warranted;
they were not only liberal towards you, but prodigal of their substance.
They fought gallantly and
victoriously by your side, with equal valour, against our and their enemy, the
common enemy of the LIBERTIES of EUROPE and AMERICA -the ambitious and
faithless French, whom now we fear and flatter.
And even now, at a moment
when you are planning their destruction, when you are branding them with the
odious appellation of rebels, what is their language, what their protestations?
READ, in the name of heaven,
the late petition of the CONGRESS to the KING, and you will find
“they are ready AND willing
as they have ever been, to demonstrate their loyalty by exerting their most
strenuous efforts in granting supplies and raising forces when constitutionally
required.”
And yet we hear it vociferated by some inconsiderate
individuals that the Americans wish to abolish the NAVIGATION ACT;
-that they intend to throw off
the supremacy of GREAT BRITAIN.
But would to GOD these
assertions were not rather a provocation than the truth!
They ask nothing, for such
are the words of their petition, but for PEACE, LIBERTY, and SAFETY.
They wish not a diminution of the ROYAL PREROGATIVE; they
solicit not any new RIGHT. They are
ready, on the contrary, to defend this PREROGATIVE, to maintain the ROYAL
authority, and to draw closer the bonds of their connection with GREAT BRITAIN.
BUT our MINISTERS, perhaps
to punish others for their own faults, are sedulously endeavoring, not only to
relax these powerful ties, but to dissolve and sever them FOREVER.
Their address represents the
Province of Massachusetts as a state of actual rebellion. The other Provinces are held out to our
indignation, as aiding and abetting.
Many arguments have been employed by some learned gentlemen amongst us to comprehend them all in the
same offence, and to involve then in the same proscription.
Whether their present state
is that of rebellion, or of a fit and just resistance to unlawful acts of
POWER, to our attempts to rob them of their PROPERTY and LIBERTIES, as they
imagine, I shall not declare. But I well know what will follow, nor, however
strange and harsh it may appear to some, shall I hesitate to announce it, that
I may not be accused hereafter of having failed my DUTY to my COUNTRY, on so
grave an occasion, and at the approach of such direful calamities.
[And by the many warnings as
to the tragic aftermath of the illegal invasion of IRAQ in 2003 claiming the
lives of so many innocent people]
Know, then, a successful resistance is a REVOLUTION, not
a REBELLION:
REBELLION, indeed, appears
on the back of a flying enemy, but REVOLUTION flames on the breastplate of the
VICTORIOUS WARRIOR.
WHO CAN TELL, whether, in
consequence of this day’s violent and mad address to HIS MAJESTY, the scabbard
may not be thrown away by them, as well as by us; and whether, in a few years,
the INDEPENDENT AMERICANS may not celebrate the glorious era of the
REVOLUTION of 1775, as we do
that of 1688?
The generous effort of our forefathers for FREEDOM heaven
crowned with success, or their noble blood had dyed our scaffolds, like that of
Scottish traitors and rebels; and the period of our history which does us the
most HONOUR would have been deemed a rebellion against lawful authority of the
PRINCE, not a resistance authorized by all the laws of GOD and man, not the
expulsion of a detested TYRANT.
BUT suppose the Americans to
combat against us with more unhappy auspices than we combated James [ II] , would
not victory itself prove pernicious and deplorable?
Would it not be fatal to
British as well as American LIBERTY?
Those armies which should subjugate the colonists would
subjugate also their PARENT STATE.
Marius, Sylla, Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, did they not oppose ROMAN LIBERTY with the same troops
that were levied to maintain ROMAN SUPREMACY over SUBJECT
PROVINCES?
BUT the impulse once given,
its effects extended much further than its authors expected; for the same
soldiery that destroyed the ROMAN REPUBLIC subverted and utterly demolished the
IMPERIAL POWER itself.
In less than fifty years
after the death of AUGUSTUS, the armies destined to hold the PROVINCES in SUBJUGATION
proclaimed three EMPERORS at once, disposed of the EMPIRE according to caprice,
and raised to the THRONE of the CAESARS the object of momentary favour.
I can no more comprehend the
POLICY than acknowledge the JUSTICE of your deliberations.
WHAT IS YOUR FORCE-what are
your armies, how are they to be recruited, and how supported?
The single Province of Massachusetts has, at this moment,
thirty thousand men , well trained and disciplined, and can bring in an
emergency, ninety thousand in the field; and, doubt not, they will do it, when
all that is dear is at stake, when forced to defend LIBERTY and PROPERTY
against a cruel oppressors.
The Right Honourable
Gentleman with the BLUE RIBAND [Lord Bute] assures us that ten thousand of our
troops and four Irish regiments will make their brains turn in the head a little,
and strike them aghast with terror.
BUT where does the author of
this exquisite scheme propose to send his army? Boston, perhaps, you may lay in ashes, or it may be made a strong
garrison; but the PROVINCE will be lost to you. You will hold Boston as you hold Gibraltar, in the midst of a
country which will not be yours; the WHOLE AMERICAN CONTINENT will remain in
the POWER of your ENEMIES.
The ancient story of the
philosopher Calanus and the Indian hide will be verified; where you tread, it
will be kept down; but it will rise the more in other PARTS.
[Is not this TRUE of IRAQ
and AFGHANISTAN in 2006]
Where your fleets and armies
are stationed, the possession will be secured while they continue; but all the
REST will be LOST. In a great scale of
EMPIRE, you will decline, I fear, from the decision of this day; [Only a later change of
Foreign Policy prevented this from happening] and the Americans will rise to INDEPENDENCE,
to POWER, to all the GREATNESS of the most RENOWNED STATES,- for they build on
the solid basis of general PUBLIC LIBERTY.
I dread the effects of the
present resolution; I shudder at our injustice and cruelty; I tremble for the
consequences of our imprudence. You will urge the Americans to desperation.
[Apart from the Honourable
conduct of the late Robin Cook and Tony Benn and a few other members of the
House of Commons prior to the 2003 IRAQ WAR - where was JOHN WILKS of that time in our history then
to prevent the illegal invasion of a country offering no threat to us or America.]
*
To continue:
[The Americans]
They will certainly defend their PROPERTY and LIBERTIES,
with the spirit of FREEMEN, with the SPIRIT our ANCESTORS did, and I hope we should
exert on a like occasion.
They will sooner declare
themselves INDEPENDENT, and risk every consequence of such a contest, than
submit to the galling yoke which administration is preparing for them.
[As do all FREE minded
people in England in 2006 when we see the flood of sticky and revolting
legislation from Brussels]
Recollect Philip II., King of Spain; remember the Seven
Provinces, and the Duke of Alva. It was
deliberately in the Council of the Monarch what measures should be adopted
respecting the Low Countries; some were disposed for clemency, others advised
rigour; the second prevailed.
The Duke of Alva was
victorious, it is true, wherever he appeared; but his cruelties sowed the teeth
of the serpent. The beggars of the Briel, as they were called by the Spaniards,
who despised them as you now despise the AMERICANS, were those however, who
first shook the power of Spain to the centre.
And, comparing the
probabilities of success in the contest of that day, with the chances in that
of the present, are they so favourable to ENGLAND as they were then to SPAIN?
THIS NONE WILL PRETEND.
You all know, however, the
issue of that sanguinary conflict -how that powerful EMPIRE was rent asunder,
and severed forever into many parts.
Profit, then , by the
experience of the PAST, if you would avoid a similar fate.
But you would declare the AMERICANS
rebels; and to your INJUSTICE and OPPRESSION you add the most opprobrious language
and the most insulting scoffs.
If you persist in your
RESOLUTION all HOPE of a RECONCILIATION is EXTINCT.
The AMERICANS will TRIUMPH -the
whole Continent of NORTH AMERICA will be dismembered from GREAT BRITAIN, and
the wide arch of the raised EMPIRE fall.
But I hope that just vengeance
of the peoples will overtake the authors of these pernicious counsels, and the
lose of the first PROVINCE of EMPIRE will be speedily followed by the loss of
the HEADS of those MINISTERS who first invented them.
[As today in 2006 we look
forward to the day when those Ministers and others responsible for their
actions in the involvement of the illegal invasion of IRAQ will be brought to
JUSTICE.]
* * *
[Font altered-bolding &
underlining used -comments in brackets]
APRIL/06
*
*
www.noliberties.com
[Latest Addition - June07]
*
www.eutruth.org.uk
*
www.thewestminsternews.co.uk
*
www.speakout.co.uk
*
Daniel Hannan - Forming an OPPOSITION
to the EU
www.telegraph.co.uk.blogs
*
VOTE
MAY -2007
TO
LEAVE
THE
EUROPEAN
UNION
WITH THE ONLY PARTY WITH A MANDATE
TO SET YOU
FREE
THE
UK
INDEPENDENCE PARTY
www.ukip.org
TO RECLAIM YOUR DEMOCRACY DON'T VOTE
FOR THE TRIPARTITE PARTIES IN WESTMINSTER
BUT
SMALL PARTIES THAT SPEAK THEIR MINDS
WITHOUT SPIN AND LIES.
*
ONLY
PRO-PORTIONAL
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WILL
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DEMOCRACY
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ENGLISH
PEOPLE
*
Home
Rule for
Scotland
WHY NOT
HOME
RULE
for
ENGLAND
*
MAY/07
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