many of whom must be innocent, and all of whom are unheard, by an arbitrary sentence, deprived of the advantage of that port, upon which all means of acquiring their livelihood did immediately depend. This proscription is not made determinable on the payment of a fine for an offence, or a compensation for an injury; but is to continue until the Ministers of the Crown shall think fit to advise the King in Council to revoke it. The legal condition of the subject (standing unattainted by conviction for treason or felony) ought never to depend upon the arbitrary will of any person whatsoever. This Act, unexampled on the records of Parliament, has been entered on the journals of this House, as voted nemine dissentiente, and has been stated, in the debate of this day, to have been sent to the Colonies, as passed without a division in either House, and therefore as conveying the uncontroverted universal sense of the nation. The despair of making effectual opposition to an unjust measure, has been construed into an approbation of it; an unfair advantage has been taken on the final question for passing that penal Bill, of the absence of those Lords who had debated it for several hours, and strongly dissented from it on the second reading, that period on which it is most usual to debate the principle of a Bill. If this proceeding were to pass, without animadversion, Lords might think themselves obliged to reiterate their debates at every stage of every Bill which they oppose, and to make a formal division whenever they debate.

7thly. Because this Bill, and the other proceedings that accompany it, are intended for the support of that unadvised scheme of taxing the Colonies in a manner new and unsuitable to their situation and constitutional circumstances. Parliament has asserted the authority of the Legislature of this Kingdom, supreme and unlimited over all the members of the British Empire. But the legal extent of this authority furnishes no argument in favour of an unwarrantable use of it. The sense of the nation on the repeal of the Stamp Act was, that, in equity and sound policy, the taxation of the Colonies for the ordinary purposes of supply, ought to be forborn; and that this Kingdom ought to satisfy itself with the advantages to be derived from a flourishing and increasing trade, and with the free grants of the American Assemblies, as being far more beneficial, far more easily obtained, less oppressive, and more likely to be lasting, than any revenue to be acquired by Parliamentary taxes, accompanied by a total alienation of the affections of those who were to pay them. This principle of repeal was nothing more than a return to the ancient standing policy of this Empire. The unhappy departure from it has led to that course of shifting and contradictory measures, which has since given rise to such continued distractions; by which unadvised plan, new duties have been imposed in the very year after the former had been repealed. These new duties afterwards in part repealed, and in part continued, in contradiction to the principles upon which those repealed were given up; all which, with many weak, injudicious, and precipitate steps, taken to enforce a compliance, have kept up that jealousy, which on the repeal of the Stamp Act was subsiding; revived dangerous questions, and gradually estranged the affections of the Colonies from the mother country, without any object of advantage to either. If the force proposed should have its full effect, that effect we greatly apprehend may not continue longer than whilst the sword is held up. To render the Colonies permanently advantageous, they must be satisfied with their condition. That satisfaction we see no chance of restoring whatever measures may be pursued, except by recurring, in the whole, to the wise and salutary principles on which the Stamp Act was repealed.

MONDAY, May 16, 1774.

A Message was brought from the House of Commons, by Mr. Cooper and others:

To return the Bill, and to acquaint this House, that they have agreed to their Lordships amendments made thereto.

THURSDAY, May 19, 1774.

The following Petition from, Natives of America, then in London, against the passage of the Bill, was presented to the King:

To the King's Most Excellent Majesty,

The Petition of several Natives of America, most humbly showeth:

That your Petitioners, being your Majesty's most faithful subjects, are obliged to implore your gracious interposition, to protect them in the enjoyment of those privileges, which are the right of all your People.

Your Majesty's Petitioners have already seen with unspeakable grief, their earnest prayers rejected, and heavy penalties inflicted, even on the innocent among their countrymen, to the subversion of every principle of justice, without their being heard. By this alarming procedure, all property was rendered insecure; and they now see in two Bills, (for altering the Government of Massachusetts Bay, and the impartial administration of justice there,) the intended subversion of the two grand objects of civil society, and constitutional protection, to wit, Liberties and Life.

Your Petitioners most humbly represent to your Majesty, that to destroy or assume their chartered rights, without a full and fair hearing, with legal proof of forfeiture; and the abrogating of their most valuable laws, which had duly received the solemn confirmation of your Majesty's Royal predecessors, and were thence deemed unchangeable without the consent of the People; is such a proceeding, as renders the enjoyment of every privilege they possess, uncertain and precarious. That an exemption of the soldiery from being tried in the Massachusetts Bay for murder, or other felony, committed upon your Majesty's subjects there, is such an encouragement for licentiousness, and incentive to outrage, as must subject your Majesty's liege People to continued danger.

Your Petitioners and their countrymen, have been ever most zealously attached to your Majesty's person and family. It is therefore, with inexpressible affliction that they see an attempt, in these proceedings against them, to change the principle of obedience to the Government, from the love of the subject towards their Sovereign, founded on the opinion of his wisdom, justice, and benevolence, into the dread of absolute power and laws of extreme rigour, insupportable to a free People.

Should the Bills above mentioned, receive your royal sanction, your Majesty's faithful subjects will he overwhelmed with grief and despair.

It is therefore our earnest prayer, that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to suspend your royal assent, to the said Bills.

FRIDAY, May 20, 1774.

His Majesty being seated in the Throne, and the Commons attending with their Speaker, the royal assent to the Bill was pronounced by the Clerk's Assistant.