Four tracts, on political and commercial subjects

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142 SUBJECTS. POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL World, that all Delays on our Side will only firengthen the Oppofition on yours, and be interpreted by you as a Mark of Fear, and not as an Inl'tance of Lenity. You fwell with too much vain Importance, and Self-fulficiency a]. ready -, and therefore, {hould we betray any Token of Submifiion; or fhould we yield to thefe your illhumoured and petulant Defires; this would only ferve to confirm you in your prefent Notiomwiz. that you have nothing more to do, than to demand with the Tone of Autho- rity, and to inlil't with Threatenings and De- ,4}. that every Indulgence of this Nature will onl furnilh another Pretence to you for the fufpending of the Payment of theirjzrfl Demands. In lhort, you declare, that the Parliament hath no right to tax you; and therefore you demand a Renunciation of the Right, by repealing the A82. This being the Cafe, nothing lefs than a Renunciation can be fatisfaélory; becaufc no- thing elfe can amount to a Confefl‘ion, that the Parliament has afied illegally and ufurpingly in this Afi'air. A bare Sufpenlion, or even a mere Repeal, is no Acknowledgement of Guilt; nay, tion, which you {hall be pleafed to lay upon us. it fuppofes quite the contrary; and only pofltpones the Exercife of this ufurped Power to a more convenient Seafon. Confequently if you So that at lafi, when the Time lhall come of think you couldjul'tify the Non-payment of your appealing to the Sword, and of deciding our Differences by Dint of Arms, the Confequence Debts, 'till a Repeal took Place, you certainly can jul'tify the Sufpenfion of the Payment 'till we have acknowledged our Guilt. So that'after all, the Queflion may come to this at lafit, viz. Shall we renounce any Legiflative Authority over you, and yet maintain you as we have hitherto done? Or {hall we give you entirely up, nnlefs you will fubmit to be governed by the fame Laws as we are, and pay fomething towards maintaining yourfelves 3 fiance, in order to bring us upon our Knees, and to comply with every unrealbnable Injunc- of this Procrallination will be, that the Struggle will become f0 much the more obflinate, and the Determination the more bloody. Nay, the Merchants themfelves, whole Cafe is truly pitiable for having confided lo much to your H0nour, and for having trui'ted you with lo many hundred thouland Pounds, or perhaps with fome Millions of Property, and for whole Benefit alone fuch a Sufpenfion of the Stamp Aft could THE firPt it is certain we cannot do; and be propofed; they" will find to their Coils, therefore the next Point to be confidered is (which is alfo the third Propofal) Whether we * The Event has feverely proved this Conjeflure to bc but too Jullly founded. that are to give you entirely mph-(7171a, after having obliged 'm H n r"!""