America, we perfectly agreed in wishing they may be brought to a speedy and happy conclusion. How this is to be done is not so easily ascertained.

Two objects, I humbly apprehend, his Majesty's servants have now in contemplation. 1st. To relieve the colonies from the taxes complained of, which they certainly had no hand in imposing. 2dly. To preserve the honor, the dignity, and the supremacy of the British legislature over all his Majesty's dominions.

As I know your singular knowledge of the subject in question, and am as fully convinced of your cordial attachment to his Majesty, and your sincere desire to promote the happiness equally of all his subjects, I beg you would in your own clear, brief, and explicit manner, send me an answer to the following questions: I make this request now, because this matter is of the utmost importance, and must very quickly be agitated. And I do it with the more freedom, as you know me and my motives too well, to entertain the most remote suspicion that I will make an improper use any information you shall hereby convey to me. 1st. Will not a repeal of all the duties (that on tea excepted, which was before paid here on exportation, and of course no new imposition) fully satisfy the colonists? If you answer in the negative,

of

' In the year 1767, for the express purpose of raising a re

2dly. Your reasons for that opinion?

3dly. Do you think the only effectual way of composing the present differences, is to put the Americans precisely in the situation they were in before the passing of the late Stamp Act?—If that is your opinion,

4thly. Your reasons for that opinion?

5thly. If this last method is deemed by the legislature and his Majesty's ministers to be repugnant to their duty as guardians of the just rights of the crown and of their fellow-subjects, can you suggest any other way of terminating these disputes consistent with the ideas of justice and propriety conceived by the King's subjects on both sides of the Atlantic?

venue in America; glass, red lead, white lead, painters' colors, paper, and tea, (which last article was subject to various home impositions) became charged by act of parliament, with new permanent duties payable in the American ports. Soon after, in the same sessions, (the East India Company promising indemnification for the experiment,) a temporary alteration was made with respect to the home customs or excise upon certain teas; in the hope that a deduction in the nominal imposition, by producing a more extended consumption, would give an increased sum to the exchequer. Mr. Strahan, comparing only the amounts of the imposed American duty, and the deducted home duty, determines that the Americans had suffered no new imposition. The Americans, it seems, thought otherwise. Had we established this precedent for a revenue, we thought we had every thing to hope; yet we affect surprise, when the colonies avoided an acquiescence, which by parity of reasoning gave them every thing to fear. B. V.

6thly. And if this method was actually followed, do you not think it would actually encourage the violent and factious part of the colonists to aim at still farther concessions from the mother-country?

7thly. If they are relieved in part only, what do you, as a reasonable and dispassionate man, and an equal friend to both sides, imagine will be the probable consequences?

The answers to these questions, I humbly conceive, will include all the information I want, and I beg you will favor me with them as soon as may be. Every well-wisher to the peace and prosperity of the British empire, and every friend to our truly happy constitution, must be desirous of seeing even the most trivial causes of dissension among our fellow-subjects removed. Our domestic squabbles, in my mind, are nothing to what I am speaking of. This you know much better than I do, and therefore I need add nothing farther to recommend this subject to your serious consideration. I am, with the most cordial esteem and attachment, dear Sir, your faithful and affectionate humble servant, W. STRAHAN.

THE ANSWER.

DEAR SIR,

Craven Street, Nov. 29, 1769.

BEING just returned to town from a little excursion, I find yours of the 21st, containing a number of queries that would require a pamphlet

to answer them fully. You, however, desire only brief answers, which I shall endeavor to give.

Previous to your queries, you tell me that you apprehend his Majesty's servants have now "in contemplation, 1st. to relieve the colonists from the taxes complained of; 2dly. to preserve the honor, the dignity, and the supremacy of the British legislature over all his Majesty's dominions.” I hope your information is good, and that what you suppose to be in contemplation, will be carried into execution, by repealing all the laws that have been made for raising a revenue in America, by authority of parliament, without the consent of the people there. The honor and dignity of the British legislature will not be hurt by such an act of justice and wisdom. The wisest councils are liable to be misled, especially in matters remote from their inspection. It is the persisting in an error, not the correcting it, that lessens the honor of any man or body of men. The supremacy of that legislature, I believe, will be best preserved by making a very sparing use of it; never but for the evident good of the colonies themselves, or of the whole British empire; never for the partial advantage of Britain, to their prejudice. By such prudent conduct, I imagine that supremacy may be gradually strengthened, and in time fully established; but otherwise, I apprehend it will be disputed, and lost in the dispute. At present the colonies consent and submit to it for the regula

ments.

tions of general commerce; but a submission to acts of parliament was no part of their original constitution. Our former kings governed their colonies as they had governed their dominions in France, without the participation of British parliaThe parliament of England never presumed to interfere in that prerogative till the time of the great rebellion, when they usurped the government of all the King's other dominions, Ireland, Scotland, &c. The colonies that held for the King, they conquered by force of arms, and governed afterwards as conquered countries: but New England having not opposed the parliament, was considered and treated as a sister-kingdom in amity with England (as appears by the Journals, March 10, 1642).

1st. "Will not a repeal of all the duties (that on tea excepted, which was before paid here on exportation, and of course no new imposition) fully satisfy the colonists ?"

Answer. I think not.

2dly. "Your reasons for that opinion?"

A. Because it is not the sum paid in that duty on tea that is complained of as a burden, but the principle of the act expressed in the preamble; viz. that those duties were laid for the better support of government, and the administration of justice in the colonies.' This the colonists think

"Men may lose little property by an act which takes away