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Show PLEAS AND ARGUMENTS. knowledge. For, in Faé‘t, if the heavy Charge of Ufurpation now brought againft the MotherCoantry, is well founded;---King WILL IAM and his Parliament were the prior Ufurp ers, and the greatef't Invaders of the Colony-Right s: So that the worlt, which can be faid agai nfl the prefent Legiflature, with any Colour of Reafo n, or Shew of Truth, is only this :---That in malting the Stamp and other Ads of the prefent Reign, they to implicitly followed the bad- ijampie which had been fet before them. But if he Charge was not brought againil King "Nature and his Parliament for what they did; i: is inav ible that it could be brought, with my C157 ‘ , againil the prefent Covern‘ .4 ravqe UUi‘ a .HJLllL,h mo JL nothing more, than treadin their Steps, and following their Decifions. HOWEVER, we will readil y allow, that had Laws may be made by rig /zlfizl Governors, as wel l as by Ui‘urpers. And therefore another Que-(lion comes here to PLEAS AND ARGUMENTS. as deferved to be branded with the Epithets of cruel, tyrannical, and opprcfim,---had it been made by thofe Legiflators, who had the Right and jufl Power of making Laws for the Colonies? om fixture ?---And particula rly it may be aim a regarding the '* Stamp Act (as beinga Kind ---_\~~_ briefly remark, that this ‘I‘aX‘had every Quality belonging to it, which could have denominated it red/amide and unexceptz'oméle refpeéting either the Sum or @3711th to be railed, --or the .Mode of railing it,~--or the Ufer to which it was to be applied. AND [hit as to the Ezyamum, The Sum intended to be raifed, was only a Part, and afmall Part too, of the very fame Tax, which we had begun to lay on Otirle1ves, and then had greatly augmented for the Benefit and Proteétion of thefe very Colonies-~80 that in this Infiance, at leafl, there could have been no Pretence for was the true one. m y‘ . . .Ipa‘ucula‘w mtftloned the Stamp-Act, as being the flaw?!" venue of all the pit-rem Diilurbances. . no / an {3'65"de Jung tan he in llupid, as to believe, that i: was The real and true Caufe was the driving of the F}'£I2(/J from Canada ; and the other was only the Or(am. Had the Franc/J Government llill fubfiiled in that ountry, there would have been no Congrefl‘es affemb led m our Colonies to difpute the Rights and Author ity of Great ritm‘n. But when the Colonies became in fact indepen dent, thrOUgh our Means, it was idle to expeét, that they would Orig want an Opportunity of declaring their Independence: AH v- ' , Now to anfwer theferiefiions, we will here be dil ctided, viz. "Wee thei'e Colony Laws, lately made by our l-"arliaincnt,---were they, I fay, good or bad in will. * 2g Kind ofTouChllor‘e for all the tell) was it fuch, tho' the Stamp Act had never cxilled, 1: would have een eafy to have found out fome other Pretence, to have an{Wer the fame End. For when People are ripe and pr:M'Q/M; any Thing and every Thing will then {erve for a retext to do that, which 2/ng lmw a Mimi to da- thofe "we" yvvz,i~r':'-§-fl 28 |