Upon the principles which the British Legislature have adopted, in their late extraordinary proceedings, I see not how we can be certain of any one privilege, nor what hinders our being really in a state of slavery to an aggregate of masters, whose tyranny may be worse than that of a single despot; nor that a man can with propriety say his soul is his own, and not the spring to move his bodily machine in the performance of whatever drudgery his lords may appoint; nor that the public have a permanent and valuable constitution. If the British Legislature is the constitution, or superior to the constitution, Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, and the Protestant Succession, these boasts of Britons are toys to please the vulgar, and not solid securities.

The operation of the late unconstitutional acts of the British Parliament would not only deprive the colony of invaluable privileges, but introduce a train of evils little expected by the generality, and give the British ministry such an ascendency in all public affairs as would be to the last dangerous."

a In support of this paragraph I shall quote the following passages from the protest of the Lords against the regulating act, viz.:

"The new constitution of judicature provided by this bill is improper and incongruous with the plan of the administration of justice in Great Britain.

"The Governor and Council, thus instituted with powers with which the British constitution has not trusted his Majesty and his privy-council, have the means of returning such a jury in each particular cause as may best suit with the gratification of their passions and interests. The lives, liberties, and properties of the subject are put into their hands without control, and the invaluable right of trial by jury is turned into a snare for the people, who have hitherto looked upon it as their main security against the licentiousness of power.

"We see in this bill the same scheme of strengthening the authority of the officers and ministers of state, at the expense of the rights and liberties of the subject, which was indicated by the inauspicious act for shutting up the harbor of Boston.

"By that act, which is immediately connected with this bill, the example was set of a large, important city (containing vast multitudes of people, many of whom must be innocent, and all of whom are unheard), by an arbitrary sentence, deprived of the advantage of that port upon which all their means of livelihood did immediately depend.

"This proscription is not made determinable on the payment of a fine for an

The spirited behavior of the country, under these innovations, has charmed and affrighted numbers, and, should

offence, or a compensation for an injury, but is to continue until the ministers of the crown shall think fit to advise the king in council to revoke it.

"The legal condition of the subject (standing unattainted by conviction for treason or felony) ought never to depend upon the arbitrary will of any person whatsoever."

I would add, also, the clause in the regulating act respecting town meetings 1 leaves it in the power of a governor to prevent them all at pleasure, those only excepted for the choice of town officers in March, and for the choice of representatives. Neither the most trifling nor the most important business can be legally transacted, so as to be binding upon the inhabitants, even in the most distant towns of the government, without leave first had and obtained of the governor, in writing, expressing such special business, though it should happen that if not done within less time than necessary for the obtaining of that leave it cannot be done at all. The townsmen can neither lay out a new road nor raise moneys for mending an old one, nor can they settle a minister, without obtaining the express written leave of the governor. Yea, they are forbid so much as to talk; for they are not to treat of any other matter at their March meeting except the election of their officers, nor at any other meeting except the business expressed in the leave given by the governor, or, in his absence, by the lieutenant-governor. If this is not to establish slavery by legislative authority, I beg to know what is. The arbitrary mandates of the grand monarch, enjoining his slaves silence when state affairs are disagreeable to the public, will scarce be thought by many so great an attack upon the rights of mankind, as an attempt to perpetuate something of the like nature by a permanent law. Should the favorite of a governor have embezzled the town's money, how shall a meeting be obtained to vote and order a prosecution against him? Should a candidate be reported as a warm friend to the liberties of the people, how shall leave be had for his being settled, though unanimously approved of and admired? Should an oppressed town be desirous of stating its grievances and praying a redress, how shall the inhabitants do it in a corporate capacity, should the commander-in-chief be prejudiced against them? Should the electors be inclined to instruct their representatives upon matters of the highest concern to them, how shall they do it without violating the law, when the ruler's interest prevents his giving them leave? A thousand other events are made to depend upon the arbitrary will of a governor by the clause before us. And why are all the towns of the colony to be reduced to such a slavish dependence? Because, as the British legislative asserts, "a great abuse has been made of calling town meetings, and the inhabitants have, contrary to the design of their institution, been misled to treat upon matters of the most general concern, and to pass many dangerous and unwarrantable resolves." Oh, abominable! that a people should be deprived of their precious and long-enjoyed liberties, not for any wilfully perverse known crime, but because of their being foolishly misled. Why did not the wise ministry ease themselves of the opposition given them by the city of London, by

1 The towns were so many commonwealths, petty democracies, and the British ministers could not have adopted any device which would more keenly touch the people than this interference with their wonted assemblies. - ED.

it be continued with prudence, unremitted zeal, and true fortitude, will produce monuments of praise, more lasting than brass, even though it should not prove successful, which is scarce supposable.

The distresses that the late acts have already occasioned are many and great, and too well known to require an enumeration; and yet, could we be secure of a speedy relief in the permanent redress of our grievances, we should soon forget them. But we have our fears lest they should be only the beginning of sorrows, and are in doubt whether we may not be called to experience the horrors of a civil war, unless we will disgrace our descent, meanly submit to the loss of our privileges, and leave to posterity the many millions that shall people this continent in less than a century - bonds and fetters.

The important day is now arrived that must determine whether we shall remain free, or, alas! be brought into bondage, after having long enjoyed the sweets of liberty. The event will probably be such as is our own conduct. Will we conform to the once exploded but again courtly doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance, rather than hazard life and property we may have the honor of burning under the heats of summer and freezing under the colds of winter in providing for the luxurious entertainment of lazy, proud, worthless pensioners and placemen."

a like regulation of their charter, upon the ground of the citizens having been misled? Why do they not, upon the same ground, prevent all corporation and county meetings in Great Britain, that so they may not be pestered with any future petitions or remonstrances? But, should the operation of the regulating act be secured, who can tell how long it will be ere the British legislative will assign the solid reason of having been misled to treat upon matters of the most general concern, and to pass many dangerous and unwarrantable resolves for suspending all the American assemblies, or, at least, for reducing the members of each to the more convenient number of the Yorkers?

I decline, as wholly unnecessary, all remarks upon the miscalled act for the impartial administration of justice, etc.

a There are some honorable exceptions to this general intimation, but they are

Will we make our appeal to Heaven against the intended oppression — venture all upon the noble principles that brought the House of Hanover into the possession of the British diadem, and not fear to bleed freely in the cause, not of a particular people, but of mankind in general — we shall be likely to transmit to future generations, though the country should be wasted by the sword, the most essential part of the fair patrimony received from our brave and hardy progenitors — the right of possessing and of disposing of, at our own option, the honest fruits of our industry. However, it is alarming to think that, through the mistaken policy of Great Britain, and the absurd notion of persisting in wrong measures for the honor of government, we may be obliged to pass through those difficulties, and to behold those scenes, and engage in those services that are shocking to humanity, and would be intolerable but for the hope of preserving and perpetuating our liberties. Our trade ruined, our plantations

so few that they can save themselves only, and not the list, from deserved reproach.

In the year 1697 the pensions amounted only to seven thousand and seventyseven pounds sterling, but in the year 1705 they amounted to eighteen thousand one hundred and eleven pounds. Since then they have increased to a most enormous sum. A late publication informs us that about ten years back there was a million of debt contracted on the sixpence per pound tax laid on pensions. The interest of a million at four per cent. being forty thousand pounds per annum, the pensions, to have answered for it, must have amounted to one million six hundred thousand pounds per annum; if at three per cent., to one million two hundred thousand. There might, possibly, have been a deficiency in this fund; but it cannot be thought that the financier would have proposed it had it been very considerably deficient.

I heartily wish that some who have leisure, and can procure the necessary materials, would inform the public, as near as possible, what sums are exhausted by places and pensions. As to the numerous expenditures in the secret services of rewards, bribery and corruption, jobs and contracts, they must remain among the arcana imperii. But, were a virtuous, patriotic administration to close all those unnecessary drains whereby the wealth of Great Britain is carried off, they would, in a few years of peace, greatly reduce the national debt, and have no temptation to gull the people under a pretence of easing them by American taxes, when they design only to provide for their numerous dependents, and to increase the power of the crown, alias the ministry.

trodden down, our cattle slain or taken away, our property plundered, our dwellings in flames, our families insulted and abused, our friends and relatives wallowing and our own garments rolled in blood, are calamities that we are not accustomed to, and that we cannot realize but with the utmost pain; and yet we must expect more or less of these should we be compelled to betake ourselves to the sword in behalf of our rights. It is not a little grievous to be alarmed with the apprehension of such severe trials, unless we will in our conduct resemble those simple ones that, for the sake of indulging themselves in present ease and plenty, barter away their whole interest in future happiness."

But, though the situation of our public affairs is both distressing and alarming, it is by far better than we have deserved from the Sovereign of the universe; it would have been much worse had we been dealt with according to our demerits. "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed; because his compassions fail not." Some may, at first hearing, object against this, as being too strong an expression, and may think, considering the morals of the people when compared with the inhabitants of other places, that it is misapplied. I am ready to allow that the morals of this people, taken collectively, are superior to those of

other places, -Connecticut excepted, where, I suppose,

they are nearly the same, whether in the New or the Old World, all things considered; and I cannot but view

a It may be objected that the points in dispute are too trifling to justify the hazard of such severe trials. It will be answered that it is the principles the continent is opposing in its attempts to prevent the establishment of precedents. The real dispute is, whether the long-enjoyed constitution of these American colonies, when they are not consenting to it, shall be liable to every alteration that a legislative three thousand miles off shall think convenient and profitable to themselves, and whether a House of Commons at that distance, to which they neither do nor can send a single representative, shall dispose of their property at pleasure. Obsta principiis.