Declaration of the people's natural right to a share in the legislature, which is the fundamental principle of the British Constitution of State

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[ I42 ] [ I43 ] ‘ the Engll/la Legzjlatzzre, (lays he,) in ‘ the year 1650, to the late claim of thence with refpeét to the prefent quef- ‘ Independency in the Colonies, .will ‘ appear by the preamble to an Ordi‘ nance of the 3d Oét. of that year :' --- " Whereas in Virginia, and the iflands " of St. Chrifiopher's, Nevis, Montferrat, " and divers other iflands and places in " America, which were planted at the " colt, and fettled by the people and g' gI tion, (viz. the pretenfion to bind Ireland without Repnfem‘az‘z'on or Aflént‘fl becaufe it afi'ords as good an argument, as the o- thers above-mentioned, for binding even England itfelf, wit/Jon! any Reprejéntalien or flflent at all, fince the/212d LegMature (as it is called) was totally defec- tive in every point that is eflentially ne- ceflary to conflitute an Englifb Legi/latune; for (befides the total fuppreflion of o' vymnmguummmr _‘. g. .1 " authority, of this nation, which are " and ought to be fubordinate to, and " dependent upon, England, and hath " ever fince the planting thereof, and " ought to be fubjeét to fuch Laws, Orl " ders, and Regulations, as fin/l le " made 5}! the Parliament qf Englandg" p. 146. the legal Rights of the Crown to a Share in the Legiflature) even the neceflary flflnt of the whole body of the People was alfo excluded, finee it is evident that neither the Lords nor the Commons of England were reprefented in that packed junto of Hypocrites which was t/Jen called the " Engli/b Legi/latm‘e !" for, after the violent feizure of 41 Members of the But, though this was indeed the epinion of what Mr. Barrington calls " [be " Eng/[7b Legi/lature in the year 1650," Houfe of Commons (38) by the Army, yet no juf'c argument can be drawn from p. 1355, we read the names of the Members imprifoned thence on (38) In Rufhworth‘s Colleé‘tion, 4th part, vol. 2,