Penetrated with these Sentiments, this your People with the Utmost Concern and Anxiety observe, that Duties have been lately imposed on them by Parliament, for the sole and express Purpose of raising a Revenue, This is a Taxation upon them, from which they conceive they ought to be protected by that acknowledged Principle of the Constitution, That Freemen cannot be legally taxed but by themselves or by their Representatives; and that they are represented in Parliament, they not only cannot allow, but are convinced, that from their local Circumstances they never can be.

Very far is it from our Intention to deny our Subordination to that august Body, or our Dependance on the Kingdom of Great Britain. In these Connexions and in the Settlements of our Liberties under the auspicious Influence of your royal House, We know that our Happiness consists, and therefore to confirm those Connexions and to strengthen this Settlement, is at once our Interest, Duty, and Delight. Nor do We apprehend, that it lies within our Power, by any Means more effectually to promote these great Purposes, than by zealously striving to preserve in Perfect Vigor those sacred Rights and Liberties, under the inspiriting Sanction of which, inconceivable Difficulties and Dangers opposing, this Colony has been rescued from the rude state of Nature, converted into a populous flourishing and valuable Territory and has contributed in a very considerable Degree to the Welfare of Great Britain.

MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,

The Incessant Exertion of your truly royal cares, to procure your People a Prosperity equal to your Love of them, encourages Us with all Humility to pray, that your Majesty's Clemency will be graciously pleased, to take into Consideration our unhappy Cir

cumstances, and to afford us such Relief as your Majesty's Wisdom shall judge to be most proper,

By order of the House

CORTLANDT SKINNER Speaker

House of Assembly of New Jersey May 6th 1768.

Letter from the Speaker of the House of Burgesses in Virginia to the Speaker of the House of Representatives in New Jersey, calling upon the House to join the Union in order to take steps to assert their constitutional Liberty.

Sir

[From P. R. O. America & West Indies, Vol. 174 (192).]

VIRGINIA, May 9th, 1768.

The House of Burgesses, of this Colony having very Attentively Considered several late Acts of the British Parliament, and being of Opinion that they Manifestly tend to Deprive the Inhabitants of the Colonys of their essential Rights and privileges, have thought it their Duty as Representatives of a free people to take Every Regular Step to assert that Constitutional Liberty on the Destruction of Which those laws seem to be Erected.

They have therefore thought proper to represent that they are sensible of the Happyness & Securyty they Derive from their Connexions with & Dependance on Great Brittain and are under the Greatest Concern that any unlucky Incident should interrupt that Salutary harmony, which they wish Ever to subsist. They Lament that the remoteness of their Situation often exposes them to such misrepresentations as are apt [to] involve them in Censures of Disloyalty to their Sovereign and the want of a proper respect to

the British parliament. Whereas they have Indulged themselves in the agreeable perswasion that they ought to be considered as inferior to none of their fellow subjects in loyalty & affection.

That they Do not affect an independancy of their parent Kingdom the prosperity of which they are bound to the utmost of their abilities to promote but Cheerfully acquiesce in the Authority of Parliament to make laws for preserving a necessary Dependance & for Regulating the trade of the Colonys Yet they Cannot Conceive and humbly insist it is not essential to support a proper Relation between a mother Country & Colonies transplanted from her, that She Should have a right to Raise Money from them Without their Consent, and presume they Do not aspire to more than the Natural Rights of British Subjects when they assert that no power on Earth has a right to impose taxes on the people or to take the Smallest portion of their propertys without their Consent given by their representatives in Parliament. This has ever been Considered as the Chief Pillar of the Constitution. Without this Support no Man Can be said to have the least Shadow of liberty since they can have no property in that which another can by right take from them when he pleases without their Consent. That their Ancestors brought over with them entire & transmitted to their Descendants the Natural and Constitutional rights they had enjoyed in their native Country, and the first principles of the British Constitution were early engrafted into the Constitution of the Colonies Hence a Legislative authority essential in all free states was Derived and assimilated as nearly as might be to that in England the executive power & the Right of assenting or Dissenting to all laws Reserved to the Crown & the privileges of Choosing their own Representatives Continued to the people & Confirmed to them by repeated and Express Stipula

tions. The Government thus established they Enjoyed the fruit of their own Labour with a serenity which Liberty only can Impart, Upon pressing Occasions they Applyed to his Majesty for relief & Gratefully acknowledge they have frequently received it from their mother Country; whenever their assistance was Necessary Requisitions Have constantly Been made. from the Crown to the Representatives of the people who have Complied with them to the utmost extent of their abilities. The ample Provision made for the support of the civil Government in the reign of King Charles the Second & at his request & the large Supplies voted During the Last War upon requisitions from his Majesty & his royal Grandfather afford Early & late instances of the Disposition of the Assemblies of this Colony & are Sufficient proofs that the parliament of Great Brittain Did not till lately Assume a power of imposing taxes on the people for the purpose of Raising a revinue, To say that the Commons of Great Brittain have a right to Impose Internal Taxes on the Inhabitants of the Continent who are not and Cannot be Represented is in Effect to bid them prepare for a State of Slavery what must be their Situation Should such a right be established?

The Colonies have no Constitutional check on their liberty in Giving away their money Cannot have an oppertunity of Explaining their grievances or pointing out the Easiest method of taxation; for their Doom will Generally be Determined Before they are acquainted that the subject has Been agitated in parliament and the Commons Bear no proportion of the taxes they Lay upon them. The notion of a virtual representation which would render all our Rights merely ideal has been so often & so Clearly refuted that nothing need be said on that head. The oppressive stamp Act Confessedly imposed Internal taxes and the late acts of Parliament giving & granting cer

tain Duties in the british Colonies plainly tend to the same point, Duties have Been imposed to Restrain the Commerce of one part of the Empire that was likely to prove injurious to another & by these means the Wellfare of the whole promoted But Duties Imposed on such of the British exports as are necessarys of Life to be paid by the Colonists on Importation without any View to the Interest of Commerce but merely to raise a revenue or in other words to Compel the Colonists to part with their money against their Inclinations they Concieve to be a tax internal to all Intents & purposes. And can it be thought just or reasonable restricted as they are in their trade Confined as they are in their Exports obliged to purchase these very necessaries at the British Market that they shou'd now be told they shall not have them without paying a Duty for them.

The Act suspending the Legislative power of New York they consider as still more alarming to the Colonies tho' it has that single province in View. If the parliament Can Compel them to furnish a Single Article to the troops sent over they may by the same rule oblige them to furnish Cloaths Arms & Every other necessary even the pay the Officers & Soldiers a Doctrine replete with Every mischief & Utterly Subversive of all thats Dear & Valuable for what advantage can the people of the Colonies Derive from their Right of choosing their own Representatives if those Representatives when Chosen not permitted to Exercise their own Judgments, were under a necessaty (on pain of being Deprived of their Legislative authority) of inforcing the Mandates of a British parliament

* *

This Sir is a sketch of their Sentiments as they are Expressed in a petition to his Majesty, a memorial to the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and temporal in parliament assembled in a Remonstrance to the Knights Citizens & Burgesses of Great Brittain in.