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Show [33] the fame. I know no other unity of this empire, than I can draw from its example during thefe periods, when it {eemed to my poor underfland~ ing mere united than it is now, or than it is likely to be by the prefent methods. But fince I {peak of thefe methods, I recr>lle€t, Mr. Speaker, almofi too late, that I promifed, beforel finifhcd, to lay iomething of the pro~ pofition of the '" Noble Lord on the floor, which has been {0 lately received, and frauds on your Journals. I muf't be deeply concerned, whenever It is my misfortune to continue a difference with the majority of this Houfe. But as the reafons ‘ for that ditlTerence are my apology for thus troubling you, {offer me to {late them in a very few words. I {hall comprefs them into as linall a body as I poliibly can, having already debated that matter at large, when the quefiion was before the Committee. ' Firfi, then, I cannot admit that propofiti on of a ranfom by aué'tion;--becaufe it is a mee t projeét. It is a thing new; unheard of; {upported by no experience; jufiified by no analogy; without example of our ancefiors, or root in the conltitution. It is neither regular parliamentary taxation, nor Colony grant. Expe -a rmzmtum m corpora «vi/1', is a good rule, which will ever make me adverfe to any trial of expe riments * Lord North.. [ 39 l on what is certainly the molt valuable of all {ubjeéts; the peace of this Empire. Secondly, it is an experiment which'muft be" fatal in the end to our confiitution. For what is it but a feheme for taxing the Colonies in the antichamber of the Noble Lord and his fucceftors? To {ettle the quotas and proportions in this Houfe, is clearly impoflible. You, Sir, may flat- ter yourl‘elr‘, you {hall fit a flare auctioneer with your hammer in your hand, and knock down to each Colony as it bids. But to fettle (on the plan laid down by the Noble Lord) the true proportional payment for four or five and twenty governments, according to the abfolute and the relative wealth of each, and according to the Britifh proportion of wealth and burthen, is a wild and chimerical notion. This new taxation mutt therefore come in by the back-door of the conf'ritution. Each quota mufl: be brought to this Houfe ready formed; you can neither add nor alter. You mull regifier it. You can do nothing further. For on what grounds can you deliberate either before or after the propofition? You cannot hear the counfel for all thefe Pro- vinces, quarrelling each on its own quantity of payment, and its proportion to others. If you flaould attempt it, the Committee of Provincial Ways and Means, or by whatever other name it will delight to be called, mutt {wallow up all the time of Parliament. on, Thirdly, |