OCR Text |
Show 496 PLANOF‘ latures there; the fums to be by the fame legiflatures appropriated to the rclpective fervices of American government. Out of thefe films, and fuch Maw as the provincial legiflatnres {hould impofe, an adequate provilion {hould have been RECONCILIATION. 497 up for the general defence, bythe general fund of warlike flores, and, above all, by the navy. If they receiv e their {hare of the benefit ariling from thefe ef'tablifhments, it is butjull the y fhould pay their flrare of the expences tha t are to fupport made for the adminil'tration ofjufiice, and them. the {upport of civil government. Adequate and permanent falaries {hould have been fixed on the governors and judges, and fuch other officers appointed by the crown as have permanent lalaries in England. The quantum of the lirlaries to have borne a certain proportion to the {aw laries paid to fimilar officers in England. Neither thcfc, nor any other offices, to be: given to non-relidents. Thefe expences regard only their own internal. government; but the colonies are right of demanding tha t the Americans to be confidered yet in another light; as members of the empire. Confidering them in this light, they are benefited by the million, and reception of foreign minil'tcrs; by the troops kept 7 up Parliament therefore has the fame ihould contribute their proportion, as that r "we lhould contribute our s. The only difficulty her e would have been, to prevent the par liament from extrmr'z'fig that proportion. And furely this difficulty is not of. forth a nat ure but that it might have been fur-mo unted. Any given tax or firm to be rai fed in England might have been taken as the fiandard. The land-tax would have been the properelt flandard, becauf e that is a tax, in which of all others it is the molt difficult for a minifler to firetch be yond a certain pomt. A certain proportion fllOUld have been fixed, {0 that when Great Britain raifed K k any |