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Show 44, PLEAS AND ARG‘UMENTS. Act of Navigation of CHARLES II. and every other ancient Law for i‘el‘training, and monopoZz'zing the Commerce of the Plantations, never did produce thof‘e defirca‘ole Effects ofHarmony and Unanimity, which are now confidently afcribed to them. On the contrary, the real; Fact was, mad it is mlural it f/zoztld befo, that their: mercies Laws were always regarded, as the never- failing Source of Difcord and DiiIention between the two Countries. Indeed the Truth, the undeniable Truth is, that the Colonies engaged i l l A imam;111mm{'3' m t-m'nuuu‘ um from the very firfi Period of their Exif'tence, its all Sorts of contraband Trades, which they could practife with Impunity, or. which they could carry on with any Profpec‘t of Profit. And it is allonifhing, that any of their Advocates, efpeciallythofe of afaared C/zzzmfler, {hould‘ be [0 far milled themfelves (for we dare not fuppofe, that they would willingly and defignedly miflead others) I fay, it is really altonifhing, that they could be fo ignorant of thefe notoriousFacts, as even to infinuate the contrary. But fince it has f0 happened, we mufi: now obfcrvv e once for all,rthat it appears from the, very Statutes of the Realm, that.- the Colonif'ts never made it a Scruple of Confcience to import from. prohibited Places, and. to export to them any Article of Commerce, which they thought they could either buy, or fell to Advantage. HCHGC therefore mutualComplaints arofe from the very Beginning; PLEAS AND ARGUMENTS. 4; Beginning ; thefe encreafed and multiplied every Day, in Proportion as the Trad e extended. And at lai't the Colonil'ts not only eluded the Vigilance, but frequently outbraved the legal Power of the Morher-Country. This made it necefiary for the Engli/lz Legiflature to enact new Laws from Time to Time in orde r to firengthen and enforce the old ones, and to pre- vent the Increafe of thefe Evils as much as poflible. And it is very obfervable, that there is one general Principle, which runs throughout all thefe Laws, and didtlfes and expands itfelf more and more, according to the Exigencies of the Cafe, viz. 7724; a 7ury of American Smugglers was not to be trufled in the Condemnation of a Brother-Smuggler. Hence therefore every new Law encreafed, and extended the Power of making an Option, granted to the Revenue-Oificers of profecuting the Offenders either in England, or in Ire/and,--or in the Courts of Admiralty in the Plantations,-or indeed by a 72473: in any other Plantation, if fufliciently difiant from the Spot, where the Fact was committed. So that in fhort, the difmal Outcry now raifed by the Congrefs, of having the Rights of Engliflzmen taken from them, viz. the Right of being tried by a Jury of the Via‘mge,---as if it was the modern Invention of a profligate Miniflry, and a corrupt Parliament,»--is a Grievance, if it be a Grievance, |