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Show 268 Acrs RELATING Part II. called directly in quellion the power-of parliament to impofe taxes on the colo- nies. Nothing is more common than to rejeéi: motions * for receiving petitions againfi; bills; more particularly when the prin* I oprned the Journals, and in a fingle feflion in the reign of William Ill. I find no lefs than fcven motions for receiving petitions reject ed :- pctitions too from bodies, many of them, without Seé‘rJX. To THE Commas. 269 eiple of the bills has been already difcufll ed: fiill more when the objections againlt them are drawn from topics which the houfe will not allow to be brought in quefiion. It could hardly be expected, I fuppofe, that the houfe would allow the fupreme authority of parliament, or the extent of their power, to be canvaffed by counfel at their bar.---Yet what cannot a great genius effect? By force ofthe fingle difparagement to the colonies, as refpeétahle as the colonies of Rhode liland, Connefticut, Virginia, and Carolina One from mercnanrs trading to New England, New York, and Penfy lvania, touching the duties on whale-fins from the {aid colonies. Com. Journ. vol. xii, p. 336. One from the town of Altcar in Lancafliire , ii). p. 146. One relating to a bill for granting certai n duties on coal and culm, ib. 240. Another on the fame Luhjeé‘t, ib. p. 246. Another on the fame fubjeé'r, by people who let forth that they had advanced 564,700}. on the credit ofa Forme r a6}, ib. p. 248. One from the county of Northumberland, relating to copper money, ib. p. 2,54. Another from merchants trading to Scotland, relating to duties laid on Scotch linen, ii). p. 336. There is fcaree a tedious of parliament where motions for receiving petitions do nOt pafs in the negative. ciple word "flarnfull ," . this rejection of peti- tions has been branded as inequitable and unparliamentary 955. This act, it is true, Was followed by great difiurbanees in America; diliurbances which by the accounts we have of them feem to have been of a nature amply to juf'tify the phrafes made ufe of in the refolution of the houfe on the 17th of December 1765, which fiigmatifed them by the title of " outrageous tnmults and f‘ infurreCtionsf 7 as " a refifiance given 9? Burke's Speech, [2. 5-5, $5 by. |