Note 45 — MR. BURKE. ON MOVING RESOLUTIONS FOR CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. HOUSE OF COMMONS, MARCH 22, 1775.
Reading edition
Note 45, p. 196.—The computation carefully made by Mr. Bancroft (“Hist.,” 8vo ed., vol. iv., p. 128) more than justifies Burke’s figures. Bancroft gives the following:
White.Black.Total.
1750 1,040,000 220,000 1,260,000
1754 1,165,000 260,000 1,425,000
1760 1,385,000 310,000 1,695,000
1770 1,850,000 462,000 2,312,000
1780 2,383,000 562,000 2,945,000
1790 3,177,257 752,069 3,927,326
See Johnson’s “Taxation no Tyranny” (Works, x., 96) in which he savagely speaks of “3,000,000 Whigs, fierce for liberty, which multiply with the fecundity of their own rattlesnakes.” He thought the eggs should be destroyed.