consideration. These things result from the nature of a free society, and particularly from the Constitution of Great Britain, where the people choose one part of the Legislature, and where every man is supposed to have ultimately a share in the government of his country.

One point in dispute between us and the Americans is, the right of taxing them here at home. This may be said to concern the power of our Parliament; but so does every general proposition of right and wrong. When any thing is affirmed to be unjust, does not it include and is not it almost synonymous to the saying, that a law made to enforce it would be so too, and beyond the proper power of a Legislature? Vengeance and punishment do, in the course of things, assuredly pursue States and Nations for their oppression and injustice; against the commission of which it is beyond question the right of every member of the community to warn the rest.

I say it with submission, but the power of the Parliament is the right of the publick. The particular Members of that most respectable body are, in the statutes enacted by them, no more personally interested than the rest of their countrymen. These pass through their hands, but being so passed, they are themselves bound to obey them in common with others. They are, indeed, our trustees and guardians in that high office, but they will on that account be the more inclined, that every step taken or to be taken by them should be fully and carefully examined, like all other honest men earnest for the interest of those whose concerns are committed to their care.

A consideration of the measures now proposed may likewise possibly lead towards some nice and delicate conjunctures or circumstances, whether of the present time or of that to come. But it need not be said that the writer only finds the one and guesses at the other; they depend on an author much higher than Princes or their Ministers, but who is pleased to suffer the actions of these to have most essential effects in the producing them. What can then be a more fit means to induce a due reflection on our proceedings, and to insure from them a desirable success, than to lay before the publick or the Governours of it some possible consequences of their conduct?

We have not far to seek for the cause of the present situation of things between the mother country and our Colonies of North America; of the opposition and disturbances on the one hand, and of the violent laws, motions, and preparations on the other. These all undoubtedly proceed from our having taxed those Colonies without their consent. A perfect affection and union obtained between us until this was done; that attempt immediately stirred up animosity and opposition. However, these subsided, and peace and satisfaction were again restored on our staying our hands. We are now once more come back to the charge, and the spirit of discord seems likewise returned seven time stronger than it was before. Other broils, and contests may, and many no doubt will arise from this cause, should it proceed; but this is the origin, the spring, and the source.

The right itself of this measure is in question, as well as the expediency of it; I will therefore presume to say something to that proposition. The inhabitants of our Colonies in North America are supposed to consist of about two millions of persons. They occupy and possess a very extensive territory, much larger than Great Britain; they are not themselves the original people of the country, but they now stand in their place; they have, in general, been born and bred there, however they receive likewise yearly from other places many who mix themselves with them; they have divided themselves into several different Governments; they have, according to certain rules or laws, agreed upon among them, allotted every man his own; they have felled the forests; they have cleared and tilled the land—they have planted it—they have sown it—they have stocked it with cattle; they have built themselves houses; they have entered into exchange and commerce; they have spared and saved for a future day or for their families; they have by many and various means acquired many and various sorts of property; they are by nature entitled to welfare and happiness, and to seek and pursue those blessings by all the methods not attended with fraud or violence towards others, which they shall believe the most probable to procure or ensure them; they have, for that end, a right to freedom in their Governments, and to security in their persons and properties. None ate warranted to deprive or dispossess them of these things. Should, on the contrary, one man or a body of men, advance any claim which tended to enslave all the persons, or to unsettle all the property of this great community, to divest them of every thing which they possess, and to leave them nothing which they could call their own, of all that they have thus inherited, earned, or acquired; the very enormity, the evil and unnatural consequences of such a proposition would, of themselves, sufficiently shew its absurdity, weakness, and unreasonableness.

These are all either primary, essential inherent rights of human nature, or such as do with respect to persons in the situation before described, necessarily flow and follow from them. Those were conferred upon them by the great Author of their being, when he was pleased to endow them with the faculties of men; with the perception of good and evil; with the means of self-preservation and self-defence; with the organs of reason and of speech, and with a capacity to associate themselves for their mutual protection and support. They are common to all mankind; they subsist at all times, in all regions, and all climates: in Turkey, in Spain, in France, in Old England and in New, in Europe, and in America; whenever and wherever a number of men are found to be the objects of them. I don't mean that they are in all these places always, or at this time, possessed and enjoyed as they ought to be; but they are to answer for that who do so commonly employ to the enslaving and oppressing of mankind, the powers which these entrust only for their protection and defence. However, this is only abuse, violence, and injustice; the right nevertheless subsists and remains.

It is not on this subject necessary to enter into any minute detail of reasoning, or long and learned discourse on the law of nature. These principles are with us common and publick; they are founded on the good, the welfare, and the happiness of mankind. They were the principles of our ancestors, of our grandfathers, and of our fathers. They may not, perhaps, be at present in their full vigour, however, I trust, that they are not yet so worn out or lost from among us, but that they still remain the principles of the Nation. They are, to describe them by a word well known in our language, the principles of Whigs; whereby I don't, however, mean of certain modern Whigs, who seem more fond of the word than of any thing belonging to the character; who have, perhaps, at one time or other of their lives, counteracted all the measures and contradicted all the principles that ever did honour to the name—but I mean of Whigs before, the Revolution and at the time of it; I mean the principles which such men as Mr. Locke, Lord Molesiforth, and Mr. Trenchard, maintained with their pens; Mr. Hampden and Lord John Russell with their blood, and Mr. Algernon Sydney with both; names which must surely, by all Englishmen, be ever revered, as those of some of the first among men. But let me add, that they are not only the principles of speculative students in their closets, or of great but unfortunate men whom their zeal and virtue have lead to martyrdom for the liberties of their country and the welfare of mankind; but that they are likewise the real principles of our present actual Government, the principles of the Revolution, and those on which are established the throne of the King, and the settlement of the illustrious family now reigning over us.

On the same principles rest both in general many rights of the Americans, and in particular the right now before us. These are hereby involved and interwoven with our highest and most sacred concerns. We cannot lift up our hands to take them away without forfeiting our national character; without renouncing the tenets and maxim whereon we have, on our most important and critical occasions ever acted as a People; without declaring that we claim a right to resist and oppose all those who oppress us ourselves, and at the same time to trample upon and tyrannize over all others, where we hope that we have the power to do it with impunity.

But it may be said that these are, indeed, in themselves, very true and commendable opinions; but that they are here introduced on subjects not worthy of them, a duty of a few Shillings upon some sorts of Paper or Parchment, and of a few Pence upon a pound of Tea. Let us, there-