Address and Petition of the Assembly of New Jersey to the King, praying relief from Acts of Parlia ment imposing a duty on them for the purpose of raising a revenue.

[From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 173 (191).]

MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,

We your Majesty's loyal Subjects, the Representatives of your Colony of New Jersey, confiding in your Majesty's paternal Affection for your People, humbly implore Permission to approach the Throne, and to present our Supplications in Behalf of ourselves and our Constituents, your Majesty's faithful and afflicted Subjects.

Before that happy Period, in which the Empire of the British Dominions was by the favour of Divine Providence, for the Felicity of those Dominions, and of Europe in general, established in your illustrious House, our Ancestors with the Consent of the Crown removed from their native Land, then abounding in all Blessings, but that perfect Security of Liberty, and that merciful Spirit of Administration, which renders your royal Family so justly dear to your remotest Subjects ventured with their helpless Relatives through a vast Ocean, and trusted themselves with their tender Companions to the inhospitable and unknown Wilderness of this new World, the Horrors of which no Consideration could render tolerable, but the Prospect of enjoying here that complete Freedom, which Britons never thought could be purchased at too great a Price.

The Subjects thus emigrating, brought with them as inherent in their Persons all the Rights and Liberties of Natural born Subjects within the Parent State,

In Consequence of these a Government was formed, Under which they have been as constantly exercised and enjoyed by the Inhabitants, and repeatedly and solemnly recognized and confirmed, by your royal Predecessors and the Legislature of Great Britain.

One of these Rights and Liberties, vested in the People of this Colony, is the Priviledge of being exempt from any Taxation, but such as is imposed on them by themselves or by their Representatives, and this they esteem so invaluable, that they are fully persuaded, no other can exist without it.

Your Majesty's signal Distinction is, that you reign over freemen; and your peculiar Glory, that you reign in such a Manner, that your Subjects, the disposers of their own property, are ready and willing whenever your Service calls upon them, with their Lives and Fortunes to assert your Cause.

Your People of this Colony, who share in the Blessings flowing from your Wisdom and Virtue, most gratefully sensible of their Obligations to so excellent a Prince, humbly hope, they never have been deficient in duely acknowledging them. Whenever it has been necessary that Supplies should be levied within this Colony, Requisitions by your Majesty or by your royal Predecessors conformable to the Rights and Liberties of this your People have been made, and by them loyally and liberally complied with.

We beseech your Majesty to do them the Justice to believe, that they can never fail on any future Occasion to demonstrate their Devotion to your Majesty, nor that they can resign without unutterable shame and Grief, the Honour and Satisfaction of voluntarily and cheerfully expressing, in the strongest Manner their Circumstances will admit, their unfeigned affection to your Majesty's Person, their distinguished Duty to your Government, and their inflexible Resolution to maintain your Authority, and defend your Dominions.

'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 Situ ation 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