pass away, and have an end. But why should we be over-curious about objects perhaps very far remote, and disturb ourselves about a futurity which does not affect us, and the distance of which we don't know nor can divine. Why should we shake the fruit unripe from the tree, because it will of course drop off when it shall in due season have become fit and ripe for that purpose? Every time has its own circumstances, according to which the events of it must be provided for when they happen. That cannot now be done. New and unreasonable demands, injustice, oppression, violence on our parts, will forward and hasten these events even before their time. Let us withhold our hands from these things. We have never yet, on this subject, had reason to boast ourselves of such expedients; nor, let me add, ever to repent us of the contrary conduct. There are, no doubt, in all Governments, many most important points unsettled and undetermined; such in particular as relate to the limits between the power of the Sovereign and the obedience of the Subject. This must always be the case between Kings and their People, principal States and their dependencies, mother countries and their Colonies. It is very much the part of every prudent Ruler, whether the first Minister of a Prince or any other, to avoid with the utmost care and solicitude all measures which may possibly bring any such critical circumstances into publick debate and dispute. It is always a bad sign when such contests arise; they cannot do so without the disorder of the whole, but they are to the Sovereign, in particular ever dangerous, and often fatal. They may, perhaps, be compared to Gunpowder, than whose grain nothing is move harmless while it is at rest, but let it by the application of fire be put into action, and it will make the wildest ravages all around or overthrow the strongest bulwarks and fortifications. To how many of these questions did our Charles the First give in his time rise or occasion, and how dearly did he abide it! How many points of this sort are undetermined between Great Britain and Ireland, which are now to our mutual comfort entirely dormant, but which started and pursued with obstinacy and eagerness, might make one or both of the Islands to run with blood. They need, perhaps, be no further looked for than certain doctrines formerly advanced by Mr. Molyncux on the one hand, and. the Law of Poinings on the other. But it has pleased Providence to shelter us hitherto from this mischief. Many months are not perhaps passed, since we did not want an opportunity to have engaged in one such. The alterations of a late Bill from that country were only accidental. However, does any one doubt, whether some forward man might not have been found who would have furnished reasons better or worse to maintain the claim of making them, if such an one had been sought for. But how much more prudent was our conduct on the occasion? If peace and harmony are then so beneficial and. desirable between Great Britain and Ireland, and the measures producing or insuring them good, upright, and wise, why do these things alter their nature when they are applied to America? The present accursed question between us and our Colonies, how long was it unknown or unthought of? Who heard of it, from the first rise of those settlements until a very few years ago, that a fatal attempt forced it into notice and importance? But it is now already setting at work fleets and armies; it threatens the confusion and perhaps the destruction of both countries, and but too probably of one of them, although God only knows whether the calamity will fall on that of the two, which many men may now imagine and believe to be the most in danger. This point is not alone; there are other questions of the same sort, concerning which no man now disturbs himself, but which stirred and started by new demands, or any other means, might in like manner, band against one another, Great Britain and its Colonies. Princes and States never do better than when their claims are not fathomed, nor, if I may use the expression, the bottom of them over-curiously sounded and examined. The terms of Municipal Laws usually favour the Sovereign; they are often framed or drawn by his creatures and dependants. The law of nature is more commonly in support of the people and the publick; it is the production of Him who sees with an equal eye Prince and Subject, high and low, European and American. God forbid that two such parts of the British Empire as the mother country and her Colonies should, in our times, divide and contend against one another on the sanction of these two different Laws, which ought, in every state, to be constantly blended and united, and which can never, without the utter disorder and confusion thereof, be made to strike and to clash against each other. Whenever that shall happen, let us be assured that we are turning towards our ruin and destruction those very means which ought most to serve us for our peace, safety, and protection.

I have hitherto, on the law of nature and the common rights of humanity, considered the claim of the Americans not to be taxed by us here in England. It rests firmly on that foundation; but I don't mean to say that it rests on that only. Could this be removed, there would yet remain another on which it would nevertheless stand sure and unshaken: I mean that of the Special Constitution of Great Britain, which does herein most justly and wisely coincide with the general constitution of humanity, and require that the property of no man living under its protection should, without his consent, by himself or representative, be taken from him, or, according to the language of the times, that representation should go along with taxation.

But this argument has particularly been in the hands of the first men of our times; they have set it in its full light, and their authority has recommended it to the attention of their country. It is well known, and well understood, and I am persuaded that it is unanswerable; but I bear more respect both to those persons and to the publick, than to go over it again so much to its disadvantage. I will therefore beg leave only to assume this reason, and to join it to my former; when the right of the Americans will stand on this double foundation of the general law of nature, and of the particular Constitution of Great Britain.

However, it has been said that the Americans are in our Parliament virtually represented. How that should be, when they are not really so, I shall leave to be explained by those who advance it. But God forbid that the condition of British subjects should ever be such, as for a whole people of them to be in danger of being stripped of all their properties only by the logick of such an unmeaning word or distinction as that is.

But what are then the precise bounds and limits of real representation? I will excuse myself from entering into that question. But will an American scruple to say, that if in any future time things should here at home be from their present state so far changed, and the Constitution of Great Britain, so lost, that a great majority of its Representatives shall be named only by a handful of needy men; that they shall most evidently and most notoriously be both chosen by a corrupt and undue influence, and be afterwards guided and governed by the same, will he not say that it may, at that distant day, better become such a mock Representative to prove their right of taxing Britain, than to pretend to tax America? I will withal add, as an Englishman, that arguments tending to demonstrate that the House of Commons does not, in its present state, represent us inhabiting here, must he most strange ones to produce for the proving, that it does represent our Colonies lying beyond the Atlantic Ocean; that, such points seem much more proper to raise scruples among ourselves at home, than to satisfy and appease those of people abroad.—(See Tucker's Four Tracts, page 103.) I could, on this subject, speak more plainly and explicitly, if I would, but I avoid it.

So much for consent and representation. But there is another ground whereon the Americans likewise rely, which is that of their own Provincial Charters. I shall leave the particulars of this subject to themselves, who are best acquainted with them. However, I will in general say, that these Charters are no doubt in aid and assistance of the two sanctions before mentioned, very properly brought for the shortening and silencing of disputes and debates, by the producing the special authority of Government. But they must be interpreted by those before mentioned, and consistently with them. They cannot be construed so as to overturn the others. It would be the most downright absurdity, and the most direct contradiction in itself, to talk of a Grant or Patent or Charter of Rights given to any one to take away all the rights he had in the world, to confer on him the privilege of having nothing of