This same King, in a Commission to the Right Reverend Father in God, the Archbishop of Canterbury, with a number of others, forming them into a Committee for Regulating of Plantations, after premising that divers of his subjects, with their exceeding industry and charge, had deduced great numbers of English subjects into several Colonies, in several places of the world, either altogether desert and unpeopled, or enjoyed by savage and barbarous Nations, gives of his mere grace to the said Commissioned, the following powers of protection and Government, over all English Colonies already planted, or that may in future be planted, viz: Power to make Laws, Ordinances, and Constitutions, concerning the publick state of the said Colonies or individuals.—Power for ordering and directing them in their demeanour towards foreign Princes and their subjects, towards ourselves and our subjects, within any foreign parts, beyond seas, during their voyages upon the seas, or to and from the same.—Power to Inflict punishment on all offenders, violators of Constitutions and Ordinances, by imprisonment, restraint, or by loss of life or member.—To remove all Governours and Presidents from their places, and to appoint others in their stead; to punish them by a deprivation of their Provinces, or pecuniary mulcts.—Power to ordain and constitute Judges, Magistrates, Tribunals, Courts of justice, forms of judicature, and manner of process, in all cases, civil or criminal.—Power to alter, revoke, and repeal, all the laws and ordinances, although they may have had our Royal assent; to make new ones, and to new and growing evils and perils, to apply new remedies, in such manner and so often as unto you shall appear necessary and expedient.—And power to hear and determine all complaints against the whole bodies of the Colonies themselves, or any Governour, and to demand delinquent Governours to England, or into any other part, according to your discretion, and also to revoke Charters, if not duly obtained, or if hurtful to our Crown and Royal prerogatives; and to do all other things which shall be necessary for the wholesome government and protection of the said Colonies, and our people therein abiding,” &c. &c. &c.

This was the very Prince who granted our Charter. If the British Parliament had been a Court, in the apprehension of this King, which had cognizance of those matters, would he have erected another, with all the powers that Parliament possess over any part of the British Empire for these regulations? Or, if in apprehension of the British Parliament themselves, would they have acquiesced in, and submitted to the exercise of such powers? Could the most absolute King that ever swayed the British Sceptre, have exercised such powers over any part of the Empire that was within the jurisdiction of Parliament? Has the Grand Monarch more authority? Does not this prove beyond a contradiction, that Charles the First viewed the Colonies as independent of the Empire, and exempt from the authority of Parliament, even in the matter of regulating Trade? Lay your hand upon your breast, and let conscience answer.

In the reign of Charles the Second, several Acts passed abridging Trade with foreign Countries, and imposing duties upon several branches of Commerce between the Colonies, for the express purpose of regulating Trade, as the preamble of the Acts themselves demonstrate, and not to raise a Revenue to the Crown by the authority of Parliament. Virginia considered even these as grievances, and sent Agents to England to remonstrate against taxes and impositions being laid upon the Colony by the authority of Parliament.

This produced a declaration from the King, under the Privy Seal, asserting that “Taxes ought not to be laid upon the inhabitants and proprietors of the Colony but by the common consent of the General Assembly of the Colony.” Accordingly, this Monarch, when a permanent Revenue for the support of Civil Government in Virginia was deemed necessary, did not attempt it by Parliamentary authority, but applied to their General Assembly; and an Act passed under the Great Seal, in which it was enacted, “by the King’s most Excellent Majesty,” by and with the consent of the Colony of Virginia, &c. This Act granted a duty on Tobacco, for the support of Civil Government, which is still paid by virtue of it. Had this Colony been a part of the British Empire, in the apprehension of the King, he could not have become a part of their Legislative authority, in making a law to tax the people there. This would involve the political solecism, with a witness, of imperium in imperio; the King, Lords, and Commons forming the only Legislative power over the British Empire. The Parliament passing this affair over sub silentio, shows sufficiently their apprehension of the matter. In these instances, the sense of Charles the First, of his immediate predecessor, and successor; three successive Kings, privy in the order of events to our emigration, incorporation, and legislation under that incorporation, is as clear, and as full as words or actions could make them.

It is obvious to observe here, that a compact, or an agreement between parties, is only the mutual assent or consent of their minds, touching something which is the subject matter of their contract. The writing upon parchment or paper, is only the evidence of this assent. The agreement is, in the language of the learned, aggregatio mentium in realiqua facta vel facienda.

Make, my friends, a recollective pause. Permit me to ask you the following simple questions: Does not the King of England hold his Crown by compact? Is not the relation that is subsisting between him and his subjects in Great Britain, founded upon compact? Is not the relation that is subsisting between us and Great Britain, founded upon compact? Was not our Charter the evidence of this compact? Was it not the sense of King Charles the First, and of our ancestors, the parties to this Charter, that this Colony was not a part of the Empire, and should not be subject to the authority of Parliament? Is not this sense of the parties, the very essence and vitals of the compact? Were we not, then, upon the reception of our Charter, independent of the Supreme power of the Parent State? And are we not so now, of course, unless some subsequent transaction has united us? If you cannot answer all these questions clearly in the affirmative, I have only this favour to ask, which you cannot reasonably deny me, that you carefully review our past reasonings upon those subjects, with minds open to conviction; reconsider adduced facts fairly in their nature, tendency, and circumstances; and deliberately revolving the whole process in your own breast, judging for yourselves, yield your assent wherever the evidence preponderates.

You will excuse me, my fellow-countrymen, for having carried you into this dry detail of historical matters—matters that are well known—that have been often repeated. My design was to stir up your pure minds, by way of remembrance, when you are told, with an air of seriousness bordering upon devotion, that the Colonies have always been considered by the British Nation, and by the Colonists themselves, until within these few years, as within the jurisdiction of Parliament; a representation as remote from truth, as was ever propagated by the tongue of man, or the pen of prostitution; at a time when Royal Charters, National Faith, and the eternal principle of justice, on which they are founded, are puffed away by a British Senate, as motes and straws floating in the air; and the civil and natural rights of as loyal a people as ever breathed God’s air, or trod his earth, all prostrate at the feet of a Minister of State, are by his * * * * * * * * * * * * *, wantonly trampled under foot.

It is unnecessary to say any thing to rouse the Americans. That man must be dead—past reanimating, who is not wide awake. He would discharge a kinder office, was there not danger of our dozing too long, who would administer political opiates, to render us, if possible, insensible of the cruel, barbarous, distressing, horrid oppressions we suffer, and unfeeling to the studied indignities that are offered us; that would enable us to suppress the emotions and ebullitions of an English heart; and by our spirit and firmness, moderation and forbearance, form a paradox which none but Americans can solve; keeping our swords in their scabbards, unless urgent necessity, or self-preservation should call them forth, and sheath them elsewhere.

FROM THE COUNTY OF HAMPSHIRE.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER TO A GENTLEMAN IN NEW-YORK, DATED LONDON, MARCH 2, 1775.

The friends of America, on the arrival of the Packet, were much alarmed at a report, that New-York was disaffected to the common cause, and determined to break the Resolves of the Congress, especially that of non-importation;