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Show 498 PLAN OF RECONCILIATION. 499 any given fum by a land-tax, the colonies fhould raife each a proportionate fum : the. mode of levying this tax to be left entirely to the provincial legiflatures; the appro- priation of it to be left to parliament. have been a conf'titutional footing to have fixed it on-the recognition of the fupreme authority of parliament in all other points, would have met with little difficulty. The necelTary alterations in their in- By this mode the fame relation would have been created between the houfe of ternal confiitution, and in their commer- commons, and the colonies, as between the houfc of commons and the inhabitants of Great Britain. The houfe of commons could not tax t/zem any more than they can us, without at the fame time taxing themfelves. The houfe of commons might with the fame propriety have given and granted their money as they now do ours. Every man of landed efiates in England would have been as firenuous a guardian of their properties as of his own. Both mutt have flood, or fallen together. If at the beginning of the lall parliamentthe matter of taxation had been fixed upon this footing-wand furcly this would have cial fyfiem, might then have been fubmitted to with lefs difficulty. At the fame time, to put an end to that patch-work, which {0 difgraces our law in general: a. total repeal of all the laws relating to the colonies might have been effected; and the thirteenth parliament might have had the glory of forming one comprehenfive conneéted code, fuited to the fituation of things fubfil'ting. That we mutt either give up the colo- nies, or firike out forne method of recon- ciling Britifh fuperiority with American " liberty," feems to be allowed on all hands. In the mean time thofc who tell us, that " both may yet be prefervedf' who promife to make this " the great " objefi |