AS Statesman and Diplomatist 85 



disastrous measure, but not too late to secure its imme- 

 diate repeal. The two most remarkable events which 

 mark this, his last visit to England, occurred, one at its 

 beginning in 1765, and the other at its close in 1774, his 

 examination before the House of Commons and his hear- 

 ing before the Privy Council in the Cockpit where he 

 stood as a mute witness, yes, a martyr, to the wrongs of 

 his countrymen, and vials of wrath were poured upon 

 his devoted head. 



Each of these notable occasions exhibits him to the 

 best advantage as a statesman, and displays most sig- 

 nally the courage, the manliness and the simplicity of 

 his character. 



On his examination before the House of Commons, 

 with absolute calmness and serenity, with a mastery of 

 his subject more complete than any other man on either 

 side of the water could have had, with a simplicity of 

 speech and honesty of conviction all his own, he dem- 

 onstrated to his reluctant audience the bitter injustice 

 and inexpediency of the fatal enactment. I know of no 

 other piece of testimony in the English language so 

 remarkable, and some of his answers can never be for- 

 gotten. So convincing and irresistible was his evidence 

 that the repeal of the Stamp Act followed immediately. 

 His testimony before the Committee was closed on the 

 thirteenth day of February. On the twenty-first Gen- 

 eral Conway moved for leave to introduce in the House 



