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Show , P ' mericmz C‘Z'VIJW [be A iirfipoif crown, or raifed troops forits fervice, 1n fwar la the all g tion to their abilities; and durin ipns e crab conhd that to beyond their abilities; [A1 D.T.] Dfialzmztr before 1768. 233 232 were returned them yearly. by parliament, as t icy _ . ortion. their 1)ro 'ed happy , jeffiis hagf mpethod of requifitronlbeip s continued, (a method that left the King s fu nee mg in thofe remote countries the pleafure of {how {1:}? their zeal andloyalty, and of imagining that t. C by eign lover their to s ilclve recommended tlieii liberality of their voluntary grants) their; 153:0 doubt, but all the money‘ that could rca 01nd.) rni; be expeéted to be railed from them in anypp ea 1 ie utlt' wrtho ned,‘ obtai been net; might have 0113; 1.11111 the of n breac or ce, offen ing, -burn heart of affeetions and interef'rs that to long fubfif'te between the two countries. . Ithas been thought wifdom in a government exercifing fovereignty over dlfierent kmds of people} to have fame regard to preterm/mg and Lflaé/zflae opinion; among the people to be governed ; wheieé:C ever fuch opinions might in their effec‘ts, obfiru If they tend :10 or promote public meafures. to be‘ change , are they e, obl'trué‘t public fervie agalnf't them; act pt to attem e we befor le, pollib if and they can only be changed by reafon and perfuafion. But if public bufinefs can. be carried on without thwarting thofe oplnlons ; if they can be, on the contrary, made fubferwent to it; they. {1116 not unnecelfarily to be thwar‘ted,‘how abfurd lue 1 popular opinions may be in their nature. This This had been the wifdom of our government with refpec‘t to railing money in the colonies. It was well known, that the coloriifts univerfally were of opinion, that no money could be levied from Englifh fubjeéts, but by their own confent, given by themfelves or their chofen reprefentatives; that therefore whatever money was to be railed from the people in the colonies, muf'c firit be granted by their afl'emblies, as the money raifed in Britain is firf'c to be granted by the houfe of commons; that this right of granting their own money, was elTential to Englifh liberty; and that if any man, or body of men in which they had no reprelentative oftheir choofing, could tax them at pleafure, they could not be [aid to have any property, any thing they could call their own. But as thefe opinions did not hinder their grant- ing money voluntarily and amply, whenever the crown by its fervants came into their affemblies (as it does into its parliaments of Britain orIre/and) and demanded aids ; therefore that method was chofen ; rather than the hateful one of arbitrary taxes. I do not undertake here to fupport thefe opinions of the Americans; they have been refuted by a late act of parliament, declaring its own power ,---- which very parliament, however, fhewed wifely f0 much tender regard to thofe inveterate prejudices, as to repeal a tax that had militated againflt them. And thofe prejudices are f'till to fixed and rooted in the Americans, that, it has been fuppofed, not a tingle man among them has been H h convinced |
