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Show 16 THE RIGHTS OF BRITAIN CAND CLAIMS OF AMERICAS prefented. Out ofmore than {even millions, fewet' than three hundred thouland have an exclufive right to chute Members of Parliament; and, therefore, more than three times the number of the Americans hive an equal right with them to dif- pute the authority of the Legillature to {ubjeé't them to taxes. The truth is, Reprefentation never accompanied Taxation in any State. The Romans were a free nation ; yet the Senate, that is, the great body ofthe nobility, pofl‘ fled the {ole right of taxing the people. In this kingdom, the Houfe of Commons have an exclufive right of ‘ modifying and regulating the quantity of public i fupplies‘, and the manner of laying taxes: but the Commons, by their own authority, cannoten~ i7 fupplies are railed upon the body of‘the people, the people only ought to have the righ' of taxing themtelves. This argument would have been conclufive, ifthe Commons taxed none but thofc by whole fufiCrages they obtained their feats in Parliament. But it has appeared, that morethan {even millions of' people, befides the Peers, who are in podeflion of'fo large a {hate of property in the kingdom, have no voice in the electiOn of the members who fit in the lower houfe. The Cem- mons, therefore, and their conflituents not be- ing the 072417 perfons taxed, the former cannot pof- fibly have the only right of railing and modelling the (apply, from the mere Circumflan‘ce of repre- tentation. But if they have it not from repre- force the raifing the [applies they vote. That prim {entation, they mutt in fact deriveit from the tin-7 vilege is inherent in the {upteme and unac- preme and difcretionary power, which is repofed in them, in conjunction with the two other bran- countable power velled in the three branches of the Legiflature united; who are in fact the State, as the virtual Reprefentatives of the whole Empire, and not the delegates of individuals. Why it has been ['0 generally received as a maxim, in this country, That Taxation and Reprekntation are infeparahle, requires to be explained. Men, little acquainted with the Confli‘ tution, derived the opinion from their finding, ‘ that it is the indifputable right of the Com» mons, that all grants of {ublidies and parlia» mentary aids lhould originate in their Houfe. But though they firi‘t bellow thofe fubfidies and aids, their grants, as has been already ohlerved, have no effect without the aflEnt of the other two branches of the Legiflature. The common reafon given for this exclufive privilege is, That as the fu‘ppllfs ches of the Legillature, It appears, upon the whole, that Taxation is the reliult of that dill cretionary authority placed in the hands of the Legiflature‘, and exerted by them for the motility fupport of the (late, To this authority the whole Empire mull lubimit, and conl‘ec‘iuently no one of its {ubjeé'rs can claim any exemption; . , The Counties Palatine ofChetter, Durham, and Lancafler, were anciently in the fame predicament with the Americans, on the article of Taxation. The Earl of Chellcr and the Billiop of Durham became, bv prefcription and immemorial cullom, pofl'eiired of a kind of regal jurifdicticn, within their ret‘pec'tive territories. A timilar form of Governmenr was el'tablithed by King Edward III. in the County of Lancaiier; ' B VThi-eh |
