OCR Text |
Show ACTS RELATING Part. III. Sect. VII. TO Tran COLONIES. 405 cd for that purpofe, or really had not S E C T. VII. powers fuflicient to maintain " the inter‘i‘ nal welfare, peace, and good govern- The £25? for t/re [letter regulating t/w g0- wmzmmz‘ aquflch/sz/Et's Ba]. " ment" of the province, or what parliament at leaf‘t chofe to call " the jufi fiib- HAT, at the time of pafling this aft, " ordination to, and conformity with the " laws of Great Britain." This impo- the property, or the perfons of individuals were fafe in the province of potence of thofe who were to execute the Mall‘achufet's Bay, will, I think, hardly laws, was a thing neither new nor mo- be pretended: that no fubordination to [/18 mentary, it had been daily increafrng for laws of England could be maintained, no years. compliance with them enforced; that the the caufe of this weaknefs, not f0 much penalties by which they were guarded might be fafely defied, and therefore the execution of the commands contained in them openly obfirué'ted, was the éarfl of every New Englander who aimed at po~ pularity. It muft then have happened that thofe whofe duty it was to preferve good order in the provinces, and to fee a due obedience paid to the laws of parlia- ment, either did not make a proper ufe of the powers with which they were entruft- ed in the good or ill conduét of this or that It was therefore natural to 1001: for governor, as in the original conl'l'itution and frame of the government itfclf. That there were many and leading defects in it had been confefTed, and complained of by thofe, whofe ftation enabled, and whofe duty obliged them to examine it molt attentively *. Here then it was that parliament fought the caufe of the prefent 3" Mr. Pownal, Sir Francis Bernard, Mel'frs. Hutchinfon and Oliver, D d 3 (lifaffeétion |