as plain as words can do.” This is considering the clause in connexion with other parts. There is no end in contradicting the mere assertions of one who lets his pen run so freely. Read the Charter, and see if any part indicates the contrary, unless profound silence upon the subject is taken for such an indication.

“What is still worse, this clause becomes felo de se, and destroys itself; for if we are not annexed to the Realm we are aliens, and no Charter, grant, or other act of the Crown can naturalize us, or entitle us to the liberties and immunities of Englishmen.” This is begging the question; it goes upon the old Jacobitish supposition deteriorated. It supposes that within the Realm the subject holds all his rights and liberties of the King, as the original possessor; and that persons out of the Realm, in a state of nature, possess no rights and liberties as men. In short, it supposes Great Britain to be the grand and only store house of freedom, the dispenser of civil blessings, and that no part of the wide world can be entitled to any liberties or immunities, but what she, of her special grace and mere bounty, is pleased to grant them; whereas the truth is, we were entitled to all the rights of Englishmen, independent of any Charters or Realms under Heaven; and surely we are not the less so for having them confirmed by compact.

We shall waive what might be offered respecting aliens’ allegiance to the King, and the relation that Wales, Jersey, Guernsey, and Ireland, stand in to the Realm of England, as they do not affect the solution of our present question.

More distortions, windings, and twistings, were never crowded into so small a compass as in the paragraph we are now considering. The following is diverting enough: “If a person born in England removes to Ireland, Jersey, or Guernsey, and settles there, he is then no longer represented in the British Parliament, but he and his posterity are, and will ever be, subject to its authority. So that the inhabitants of the American Colonies do, in fact, enjoy all the liberties and immunities of natural born subjects, We are entitled to no greater privileges than those who are born within the Realm; and they can enjoy no other than we do when they reside out of it. Thus it is evident that this clause amounts to no more than the Royal assurance that we are a part of the British Empire, and natural born subjects, and as such bound to obey the supreme power of the State.” Such a concatenation of ideas were never jumbled up together before. The clause grants to all persons who were born within the Realm, and should come and inhabit in this Province from time to time, as well as to all their children born on the seas, or in this Colony, all the liberties and immunities of free natural born subjects within any of the King’s Dominions, to all intents and purposes whatsoever, as if they were born within the Realm of England, The language of this clause, then, according to our mysterious interpreter, to all those who come from England here, would be this, viz: You who are born within the ‘Realm of England, and shall go and inhabit in the Massachusetts Colony, shall have and enjoy all the liberties and immunities that those have and enjoy who are born within the Realm of England, and shall go and inhabit in America. As great a solecism as ever entered the head of man. If the accidental liberties that those persons enjoy who are only born within the Realm, and remove to foreign parts, are to measure and point but ours, how shall we ever know them? Is Ireland, Guernsey, the East and West-Indies, or Turkey, to decide the question and define the rights of all America? for those born in England have gone to, and enjoy different liberties in all these places; and, according to our logician, if the Americans enjoy as much liberty as those who were born in England enjoy in any of those Dominions, even if it be in Turkey, we are entitled to no more.

This clause is so far from being the Royal assurance that we are a part of the British Empire, and as such subject to its supreme authority, that it is directly the contrary. Its meaning undeniably is, notwithstanding the violence offered it by the Tories, who are pierced, to their very vitals by its force, that we should enjoy all the privileges and immunities that the inhabitants of Great Britain are entitled to. What some of these were, we saw in our last number. It can have no other meaning but this, which will support that stupendous fabrick of American independence which we have possessed and practised upon for a century and a half, and which our patriots are struggling to preserve against the storms, the sackings and sappings of the Tories.

Whoever reads the Charter, continues he, will meet with irresistible evidence that our being within the jurisdiction of Parliament were the very tenures by which they held their estates. It is astonishing that any man will give himself such liberties. Whoever reads the Charter with an expectation of finding evidence of this, or any thing of the kind, will most certainly find himself egregiously disappointed. There is nothing from beginning to end that looks any more like it than what may be found in the Assembly’s Catechism, or the Pilgrim’s Progress.

FROM THE COUNTY OF HAMPSHIRE.

ALEXANDER ELMSLY, AGENT OF THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY OF NORTH-CAROLINA, TO SAMUEL JOHNSTON.

London, April 7, 1775.

DEAR SIR: Yours by Captain Scott came to hand in due season, as did the money for Mr. Barker, which is at his credit. Your bill £100, order Mr. Ferrear, was this day paid.

Your politics are past my expectations, and out of my reach. I thought incorporating you would not only have remedied the disorder, but have given additional vigour to the Constitution; but, excepting our friend Mr. Barker, nobody either here or there is of the same opinion; therefore, I shall suppose, for the present, that he and I are mistaken, and wait with resignation the event of the measures adopted on both sides of the water.

On our side they are as follows: —

1^mo. The House of Commons have voted by resolve, that if you will tax yourselves for the purpose of supporting your own establishments, and also contribute a certain sum for the general safety, the amount of which to be satisfactory to the King and Parliament, and to be at their disposal, then the Parliament will desist from laying any further taxes for the present. This, they say, is holding out to you the olive branch; I say it is a dirty, disgracing, degrading expedient, compared to mine; but it is so much akin to a similar one proposed in the House of Lords by Lord Chatham and approved of by Franklin and the other Americans here, that I must suppose myself again mistaken.

2^do. A bill has received the Royal assent for preventing the four New-England Colonies from fishing, after the 25th of June next; and another has been read three times in the House of Commons, for restraining the trade of all the associated Colonies to Great Britain and the British West-Indies; out of this restraint, however, New-York and North-Carolina are excepted; the former because their Assembly did not recognise the new laws, the latter for reasons not generally known; they are, however, one or all of the following: 1st. Mr. Barker and myself, instead of the Petition you sent us, (which contained, besides strange inaccuracies, indirect reflections on the Parliament, or the Ministry at least,) drew up a Memorial in more decent terms, which we left a rough draught of with Mr. Pounall, the Secretary, for his inspection, previous to its being presented to the Board. This was about the 10th of February; in two or three days, we called to know his sentiments on it; he told us he had perused it, approved of it, and pressed us much and repeatedly to have it lodged as soon as possible, which was done the next day. Two or three days after, Lord North moved for the Restraining Bill in the House of Commons, and North-Carolina was and still is left out. The next reason is, we have as yet received no account of your Assembly, or rather the Members of it, having ratified the new laws, nor have you been charged with any excesses in the execution of them. The last, and perhaps the best reason is, Governour Tryon (who returns to New-York immediately) is much your friend, and I doubt not has exerted himself in your behalf accordingly. Whether you will thank us for this distinction, or not; whether it will not be considered as opprobrious instead of honourable; whether Mr. Barker and myself will be censured or not, as having been, in all probability, instrumental in bringing it about, I do not pretend to say. But in our defence, or rather in mine, for it was with much reluctance he consented to suppress the Petition, you will take notice,