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Show 62 ,- Acrs'RELATING Part1; Seé‘tJlI. TO THE COLONIES. 63 houfe, he rejeéts the general reafon aflign-d the citations produced, though all occur- ed for it, "that the fupplies are raifed " upon the body of the people, and there- ring within the compafs of a very few pages, are net ealily reconcileable to each " fore it is proper that they alone {hould other. " have the right of taxing themfelves,"-- and afligns another, " that they are a term " porary elafli've body, freely nominated by " the people, and therefore lefs liable to be " influenced by the crown; and when " once influenced, to continue [0, than the ‘_‘ lords, who are a permanent and here‘ " ditary body, created at pleafure by the In the firft it fhould feem that the privilege of granting aids is appropriated to the commons, on account of their repreJ'Z'ntaz‘z‘va capacity; in thelafi itis no long- er on that account, but becaufe they are a temporary and elective body. In the firf't it {hould fecm that t/zez'r confent to a tax makes {uch a tax COnflitu- " king *." tional; becaufe t/zez'r confent is the ex- ,The attentive reader will obferve, that , 4* See his Commentaries, vol. i. p. 169. preflion of the confent of their carflz‘z‘umfi. In the fecond it appears, that the conflznt The circumflance of their being a temporary and elefli‘ui of the confiituents is a matter of perfeét body, is no doubt one good reafon Why the com- indifference. mons {hould be entrufied with the power of a tax- ation ; as the circumflance of the lords being apers manmt and hereditary body, is a very good reafon‘ why they {hould not be entruf'ted with' it. The' danger however Would, I apprehend, arife, not from the influence of the trawn, but from partial Thcfe contradictions I found, I did not make them. , . " No fubjeé‘t can be confirained to pay " any tax but by his own confent freely " given, either in perfon, or by his own attachment to their own interefts. The diflinc- tion of terres, 210515;, &c. would {con ari'f'e, if the power of taxing were intrui-ted' with the peers. the " reprefentative." This is the fence Wthh our lawyers tell us the confiitution has placed |