OCR Text |
Show 72 ACTS RELATING Part I. therwife have, enjoyed out of the common Seét. III. To THE Commas. 73 ther was my own content ever afked, nor, That diEerence will be found in the nature of the body, to whom our confiitu- tion has f0 wifely entrufied the power of taxation ; the power of apportioning and difi‘ributing the Whole flock of the community. It is the circumftances, it is the par- of fix hundred men only excepted, that ticular relation, that body [hands in, to of any other man in the kingdom. The confent of the red is no more aiked, or the whole community, which makes this given, than our confent was alked or given by our godfathers and godmothers, to the baptifmal vow they made for us at the fpotic government, to be fo very innocent in theirs : and which therefore conflitutes in this refpeé‘t the elTential difTerence be- font. tween a ful>je€t of Great Britain, and the flock. I cannot believe that my con/£772: is needfary to render this diminution a legal, confiitutional aét; becaufe I know that nei- power, f0 dangerous in the hands of a de- notwithflanding, a command of the legif- {object of a defpotic government. In defpotic governments the power of lature. We taxation, the power of apportioning and may, we can be, we are confirained to obey difiributing the whole flock of the community is veiled in a fingle man, or in a fixed anti permanent body of men ; they may have, they almott always think they What the commons agree to, becomes, \Ve are bound to obey it. it. Neither in this is there any diEerence between an Englifhman and a Turk. The refemblance however does not fiartle me : though there be fome features alike, there is difference enough to dif'tinguifh us. That have, a feparate and diflinét inter-ell from the ref): of the community. In England, this power is veflcd in a temporary and elective body. They cannot have, they cannot |