they have no participation, whether it be legal in a single person, or in thousands, the power is despotism, and the subjects of it are slaves.

After the death of King Charles the First, the Commonwealth Parliament, which usurped the rights of the Crown, naturally concluded, that by those rights they had acquired some kind of supremacy over the Colonies of America; the people of New England, had indeed approved their proceedings, and were therefore left without any exercise of such supremacy by the Commonwealth Parliament; but Virginia, and other places, having held out for the King, were reduced by force; and the conditions on which they submitted, clearly discover that the supremacy, claimed by this Parliament, was no more than nominal.

The Articles of the Treaty were as follow:

"1st. The Plantation of Virginia, and all the inhabitants thereof, shall be and remain in due subjection to the Commonwealth of England; not as a conquered country, but as a country submitting by their own voluntary act: and shall enjoy such freedoms and privileges as belong to the free people of England.

"2d. The General Assembly, as formerly, shall convene and transact the affairs of the Colony.

"3d. The people of Virginia shall have a free trade, as the people of England, to all places, and all nations.

"4th. Virginia shall be free from all taxes, customs, and impositions whatsoever, and none shall be imposed on them, without the consent of their General Assembly; and that neither forts nor castles shall be erected, nor garrisons maintained, without their consent."

From hence your Lordship may discover, that the rights of the Colonies, in those early days, were acknowledged; and that even those who had brought a Monarch to the scaffold, had the moderation and justice to respect, and preserve those rights. Nor did the Virginians esteem the privileges granted by this treaty as any valuable acquisition; for (considering themselves as a distinct State) they in January, 1659, invested Sir William Berkley with the Government, and proclaimed Charles the Second King of England, Scotland, France, Ireland, and Virginia, some time before his restoration to England.

After the restoration, the Act of Navigation, and that of fifteenth of Charles Second, were passed; but these I have fully considered in another place; as also that of the twenty-fifth of the same reign, which for the regulation of Commerce (as the preamble expresses) first laid duties on certain articles in the Colonies. This, however, was held to be such an infringement of their rights, that a general revolution ensued in Virginia, and the King's Governour was deposed; and when after Bacon’s death, this insurrection subsided, agents were sent to England, to remonstrate "against taxes and impositions being laid on the Colony by any authority but that of the General Assembly." And this remonstrance produced a declaration from the King, under the privy seal, dated the 19th of April, 1676, declaring "that taxes ought not to be laid upon the proprietors and inhabitants of the Colony, but by the common consent of the General Assembly, except such impositions as the Parliament should lay on the commodities imported into England, from the Colony." And though the duties which had given rise to this remonstrance and declaration were not wholly repealed until some time after, yet when a supply was wanted for the support of Government in Virginia, the King, in 1679, framed (in England) an Act for the purpose, and sent it thither by Lord Colepeper when it was passed into a law, and "enacted, by the King’s most excellent Majesty, by and with the consent of the General Assembly of the Colony of Virginia, &c." Here we see the Sovereign naming himself as a part of the Legislature of that Province, and thereby manifesting that he considered it as a supreme Legislature. For if the Colonies be a part of the Realm it is a violation of the great Charter of King John and the bill and Declaration of Rights, for the King personally, or by his Governours, to join any other Assembly than the Parliament, in any act for raising money from them; it is to subject them to complex taxations, which are repugnant to the British Constitution.

In the year 1663 the Territory of Carolina was erected into a Principality, with the powers of a distinct state; and so jealous were the Lords Proprietaries of these privileges, that they even denied the King's right of appointing a Vice Admiral therein, for trying offences committed without the Principality: and Joseph Morton, the Governour, was dismissed from the Government for having accepted a commission of Vice Admiral from the King.

In 1691, when the new Charter of Massachusetts Bay was granted by King William, the agents thought it not adequate to the deserts and expectations of the Province, and were unwilling to accept it. This, however, the majority of them, after consulting the most able lawyers, resolved to do, and in justification of their conduct subscribed an instrument containing the reasons of it. The last article of which will shew the idea then entertained of the rights of that Province: "The Colony," say these gentlemen, "is now made a Province, and the General Court has, with the King's approbation, as much power in New England, as the King and Parliament have in England. They have all English privileges and liberties, and can be touched by no law and by no tax, but of their own making" Nor had the people of New England any reason to alter this opinion of their rights until since the conclusion of the last war; no imposition upon them having in that long interval been attempted by Parliamentary authority. There are many other facts which might be adduced to the same purport; but these will suffice to shew that the claim of the Colonies to the privileges of distinct Legislation and Government, and to an exemption from Parliamentary taxation, are not new, as some have ignorantly or wickedly pretended. They will also shew, that from the earliest years of their settlement the rights of the Colonies have been known, and with but little variation have been acknowledged, respected, and maintained, even by the Legislature of this country, and the few instances which have happened to the contrary, may be considered as usurpations of the strong against the weak; and "quod ab initio injustum est, nullum potest habcre juris effectum."—Grotius.

There are other grounds, however, on which the adversaries of the Colonies have chosen to manage this contest; and upon these grounds I shall meet them in my next.

I am, my Lord, yours, fee, &c., &c.

E. B.

FROM A MEMBER OF THE VIRGINIA ASSEMBLY TO HIS CORRESPONDENT IN LONDON.

Extract.

Williamsburg, May 20, 1774.

Infinite astonishment, and equal resentment, has seized every one here on account of the war sent to Boston. It is the universal determination to stop the exportation of tobacco, pitch, tar, lumber, &c, and to stop all importation from Britain while this act of hostility continues. We every day expect an express from Boston, and it appears to me incontestably certain, that the above measures will be universally adopted. We see with concern, that this plan will be most extensively hurtful to our fellow-subjects in Britain; nor would we have adopted it, if Heaven had left us any other way to secure our liberty, and prevent the total ruin of ourselves and our posterity to endless ages. A wicked Ministry must answer for all the consequences. I hope the wise and good on your side will pity and forgive us. The House is now pushing on the public business for which we were called here at this time; but before we depart our measures will be settled and agreed on. The plan proposed is extensive; it is wise, and I hope, under God, it will not fail of success. America possesses virtue unknown and unfelt by the abominable sons of corruption who planned this weak and wicked enterprise.

At a Meeting of between two and three hundred of the respectable Inhabitants of the City of Philadelphia, at the City Tavern, on Friday evening, May 20th, 1774, the Letters from the Boston Committee were read: when it was

Agreed, That a Committee be appointed to correspond with our sister Colonies.

That John Dickinson, Esq., William Smith, D. D.,* Edward Pennington,* Joseph Fox, John Nixon,* John M. Nesbit, Samuel Howell,* Thos. Mifflin* Jos. Reade, Thomas Wharton, Jun., Benjamin Marshall, Joseph