as essential to the preservation of the liberty, property and safety of the subject. It was insisted that the colonists were as much British subjects as those who had been born and lived in Great Britain, and had a right to the same essential privileges: That these had been stipulated and confirmed by royal charters, acknowledged by the people of Great Britain, and enjoyed by the colonies for more than a century: That the colonists could not be represented in Parliament, nor give their consent, directly or indirectly, to laws made, or taxes imposed, by its authority; and therefore that charging stamp duties, or other internal taxes, on the American colonies, would be inconsistent with the British constitution, and an infringement on their natural and essential rights. It was urged, that if the taxations in contemplation should take place, and the principles on which they were founded be adopted and acted upon, the colonies would enjoy no more than the show of legislation, and the king's subjects, in them, the shadow of English liberty only: That the same principles, which would warrant a tax of this kind on one article, would upon every article, and a tax of a pound, as well as of a penny, or of a thousand pounds, and so on, without limitation, as Parliament might judge convenient. It was affirmed, that the law was no less the rule and measure of the king's government and power, than of the allegiance of his subjects; and that while it asserted and maintained the royal powers and prerogatives, it equally asserted and maintained their rights and liberties.

Further, it was pleaded, that the taxes were impolitic, as well as an infringement of the rights of the subject: That the colonies were a great interest, and of high importance to Great Britain: That the increase of their numbers, commerce and riches, was in reality the increase of her strength, commerce and opulence: That the profits of their industry, spirit of enterprise, and circuitous trade all centre in Great Britain, and that the revenue of the crown, no less than the wealth of the nation, was greatly increased, at the expense of the colonies: That the measures in contemplation, by depriving them of their powers and privileges, and rendering both liberty and property insecure, would cause the colonies to languish, and be an essential injury to the mother country: and that by continuing their governments, and treating their privileges as too sacred to be violated, the people would be invigorated, their spirit of industry and enterprise would be kept up, and they would become more able and zealous to advance the national interest.

The manner in which most of the colonies were settled, and the special services which they had performed, were also pleaded as objections against all internal taxations. It was affirmed that the colonists had purchased the right of pre-emption of their lands of the king, or his patentees, and that they had been obliged to purchase a great part of them again of the native proprietors* of the country: That

* Man," says Chalmers, "having a right to the world from the gift of the beneficent Creator, must possess and use the general estate according to the grant, which com

they had settled and defended themselves at their own expense: That they had cheerfully assisted the mother country in all her wars ; and, that they had not only done their proportion in them, but more than their proportion: and that with respect to the French war, then just concluded, this had been allowed, both by his British Majesty and the parliament, and some compensation had been granted for their extraordinary services.

It was further objected that the principal charges, denominated American expenses, arose merely from the protection and defence of the new governments and acquisitions, the outposts and fur-trade, and that the old colonies had no interests in these new and large acquisitions, that they would finally be disposed of and settled for the benefit of the crown and nation in general, and not for any particular emolument of the colonies. It was therefore pleaded, that it would be altogether unreasonable and unjust to tax the old colonies, which had settled and defended themselves at their own expense, and by braving dangers and hardships scarcely paralleled in the history of man, had immensely increased the power, wealth and glory of the nation. This is a summary of the objections against the stamp-act, and all internal taxation of the colonies.

While the colonies made these objections to parliamentary taxation, they insisted that they were willing, and should always judge it their duty, to grant all such aids to the crown, as might be compatible with their circumstances, whenever they should be called upon in the usual constitutional manner. At the same time, they determined to be judges of the expediency of the grants to be made, of the sums to be granted, and to have the honour of giving their money to his majesty, equally with their fellow subjects of Great Britain. It was a fixed opinion with the Americans, that it was an essential idea of property to be so entirely the possessor's, that no man, whether prince

manded him to multiply and to subsist by labour and little would the earth have been peopled or cultivated, had men continued to live by hunting or fishing, or the mere productions of nature. The roving of the erratic tribes over wide extended deserts, does not form a possession which excludes the subsequent occupancy of emigrants from countries overstocked with inhabitants. The paucity of their numbers, and their mode of life, render them unable to fulfil the great purposes of the grant. Consistent, therefore, with the great charter to mankind, they may be confined within certain limits. Their rights to the privileges of men, nevertheless, continue the same. And the colonists, who conciliated the affections of the aborigines, and gave a consideration for their territory, have acquired the praise due to humanity and justice."

"As for the usurpation of territory from the natives, by the American states, he must be," says the Quarterly Review, "a feeble moralist, who regards that as an evil: the same principle upon which that usurpation is condemned, would lead to the nonsensical opinion of the Bramins, that agriculture is an unrighteous employment, because worms must sometimes be cut by the ploughshare and the spade. It is the order of nature, that beasts should give place to man, and among men the savage to the civilized; and no where has this order been carried into effect with so little violence as in North America."

Reasons why the British colonies in America, should not be charged with internal taxes, offered in behalf of Connecticut, 1764, written by Governor Fitch.

or subject, could take it from him without his consent. The love which they had to their property corroborated this idea, the manner of their education, the extent of their country, and their distance from the parent state, united their influence to enforce it, and to engage them in vindicating a privilege which, in their view, was so essential to the preservation both of liberty and property.

They therefore offered no other tax, in compliance with the proposal of the minister, which might be equivalent, in its produce, to the stamp duties in contemplation. While the parliament passed the acts which gave such general alarm and uneasiness to the colonies, it ought to be observed, that others were passed for the encouragement of their trade, which, it was pretended, were at least a balance for those of a contrary tendency. An act was passed, granting leave for a limited time for the carrying of rice from the provinces of South Carolina and Georgia to other parts of America, on the payment of British duties; an act granting a bounty upon the importation of hemp and flax from the colonies into Great Britain; and another act for the encouragement of the whale fishery in the American seas. But whatever the design of these acts might have been, the colonies paid no grateful attention to them. They rather viewed them as insidious, designed as a sugar-plumb to sweeten a potion, which they determined never to receive,

That the general sense of the colonies might be known, and the opposition to the designs of the ministry might be general and harmonious, measures, at an early period, were adopted for these purposes. The general court of the Massachusetts appointed a committee to communicate to the other governments the sentiments which it had conceived relative to the several acts which had been passed, and to others which were in contemplation, and to acquaint them with the instructions which the house had voted to transmit to their agent. This committee was instructed, in behalf of the general court, to desire that the several assemblies on the continent would unite with them in adopting the same measures. Committees were also appointed by other colonies, to correspond with these several assemblies or with their committees. Thus a new kind of correspondence commenced between the colonies, bringing them into a more intimate acquaintance with each others sentiments and circumstances, strengthening and harmonizing their opposition to the encroachments of the ministry. Beside the proceedings of the colonial assemblies, the inhabitants assembled in many places, and numerous associations were formed, unanimously resolving to encourage their own manufactures, and to purchase as few Bitish as possible.

Meanwhile the ministry were no less active and harmoniously fixed in the prosecution of their designs than the colonies were in their opposition to them. Having obtained the necessary intelligence respecting writings and instruments of all kinds used by the

colonists in their civil transactions, the stamp-act was drawn up early in the winter and lay for objection and adjustment.

The agents of the colonies had free access to the ministry, and, as opportunity presented made a full representation of the sentiments and state of the colonies. On their representation some small alterations were made respecting notes of hand, licenses for marriage, registers for vessels, and the salaries of judges in the several courts. These were taken out of the bill; but its general principles, the right, justice, policy, and even the necessity of taxing the colonies, were formally avowed. Not only the ministry and parliament, but the people of Great Britain, revolted against the claims of the colonies. Educated as they had been in the habits of submission to parliamentary taxation, they imagined it unpardonable obstinacy in the colonies to refuse obedience to a power which they had ever been taught to revere. They believed that their representatives in parliament had the same right to tax the colonists, which they had to tax the people of Great Britain, though they stood in no such relation to them, and though no such common interest existed between them. The haughtiness of an opulent and victorious nation naturally corroborated their mode of reasoning. After they had so lately humbled France and Spain, to be resisted and dictated by their own colonies was deemed an insult not to be endured.

However, the agents of the colonies in England, as the last expedient_before the bill was brought into parliament, made choice of Mr. Jackson, who had been appointed agent for the Massachusetts, of Mr. Garth of Virginia, of Mr. Ingersoll of Connecticut, and of Mr. Franklin of Philadelphia, to wait on Mr. Greenville, who was at the head of the treasury, to remonstrate against the stamp bill, and in case that a tax must be laid upon the Americans, to propose that the several colonies might be permitted to tax themselves. The two former of the gentlemen were not only agents, but members of parliament; the two latter had just arrived from America, and were fully acquainted with the views and spirit of the people in the colonies.

On the 2nd of February 1765, they waited on Mr. Greenville, and were admitted to a full hearing. They pressed the objections against the bill, and represented the spirit and jealousies of the colonies. Mr. Jackson in particular, went so far as plainly to tell the minister, That he foresaw by the measure now pursuing, by enabling the crown to keep up an armed force of its own in America, and to pay the governors in the king's governments, and all with the American's own money, the assemblies in the colonies would be subverted; -That the governors would have no occasion, as for any ends of their own, or of the crown, to call them, and that they never would be called together in the king's governments."

Mr. Greenville utterly disavowed the design of depriving the colonies of their assemblies, and assured them that he took no pleasare in giving the Americans so much uneasiness as he found he did:

That it was the duty of his office to manage the revenue: That he was really made to believe, that, considering the whole circumstances of the mother country and of the colonies, the latter could and ought to pay something, and that he knew of no better way to lay a tax for that purpose than that in prosecution; but that he was willing to adopt a better whenever it should be proposed.

The agents then urged, that the colonies might be allowed to lay the tax: That this, at least, would seem to be their own act, and might prevent that universal jealousy and uneasiness which they found it would otherwise occasion.

Mr. Greenville objected, that there would be no certainty that every colony would raise the sum enjoined; and that to be at the expense of making stamps to oblige one or two provinces to do their duty would be very inconvenient; and that the colonies, by their constant increase, would be continually varying their numbers, ability and proportion, and that a stamp-bill would keep pace with this increase. Upon the whole, he said, that he had pledged his word for offering the stamp-bill to the house: That the parliament would hear all objections, and act as it judged best.*

Great men are often obstinately tenacious of their own plans. Favourite ideas which they have long cherished cannot easily be given up.

Mr. Greenville therefore, a few days after, brought his long expected bill into the house of commons for laying a stamp duty on the Americans. He opened the nature, and pressed the necessity of the tax, and attempted to obviate all objections. He expressed his wishes, that the house would give the bill a most serious and cool consideration, and not suffer itself to be influenced by any resentments which might have been kindled from without doors. He observed that the subject before them was a matter of revenue, which of all others was most interesting to the subject. He appeared to treat the affair with ability and candour.

Alderman Beckford, Mr. Jackson, Colonel Barre, Sir William Meridith and others took up the argument against the bill. Alderman Beckford not only argued against it in point of policy and justice, but boldly denied the right and authority of parliament to tax America. The other gentlemen insisted principally on arguments respecting the inexpediency, impolicy and injustice of taxing the colonists. It was urged by them, that the provinces in America were extremely poor, that they owed a debt of more than four millions to the merchants of Great Britain, that as they were creditors of the Americans to such an amount, they were in fact the proprietors of a great portion of what they seemed to possess; that the suppression of manufactures in the colonies, and the obliging of them to take every kind necessary for their own use from Great Britain, com

* Mr. Ingersoll's Letters; letter iii. to Governor Fitch.