His lordship has mentioned some quotations from lord chief justice Hale, whether this was wrote when his lordship was a student, barrister, or judge, does not appear, but at best, it is but a quere of that learned judge on the power of England to lay taxes on Ireland. Molyneux, in his book, burnt by the hands of the common hangman, questioning the power of parliament, makes a distinction between Ireland and the colonies in this respect. The Resolutions were then agreed to. Speech of Lord Camden on the American Declaratory Bill.*] When the Declaratory Bill, declaring the right of Great Britain to make laws, binding the British colonies in North America in all cases whatsoever, was brought to the Lords, Lord Camden made the following speech against it: particulars of a Bill, the very existence of which is illegal, absolutely illegal, contrary to the fundamental laws of nature, contrary to the fundamental laws of this constitution? A constitution grounded on the eternal and immutable laws of nature; a constitution whose foundation and centre is liberty, which sends liberty to every subject, that is or may happen to be within any part of its ample circumference. Nor, my lords, is the doctrine new, it is as old as the constitution; it grew up with it; indeed it is its support; taxation and representation are inseparably united; God hath joined them, no British parliament can separate them; to endeavour to do it, is to stab our very vitals. Nor is this the first time this doctrine has been mentioned; 70 years ago, my lords, a pamphlet was published, recommending the colonies; this pamphlet was answered the levying a parliamentary tax on one of by two others, then much read; these totally deny the power of taxing the colonies; and why? Because the colonies had no representatives in parliament to give consent; no answer, public or private, was given to these pamphlets, no censure passed upon them; men were not startled at the doctrine as either new or illegal, or derogatory to the rights of parliament. I do not mention these pamphlets by way of authority, but to vindicate myself from the imputation of having first broached this doctrine. My lords; when I spoke last on this subject, I thought I had delivered my sentiments so fully, and supported them with such reasons, and such authorities, that I apprehended I should be under no necessity of troubling your lordships again. But I am now compelled to rise up, and to beg your farther indulgence: I find that I have been very injuriously treated; have been considered as the broacher of new-fangled doctrines, contrary to the laws of this kingdom, and subversive of the rights of parliament. My lords, this My position is this-I repeat it--I will is a heavy charge, but more so when made maintain it to my last hour,-taxation and against one stationed as I am in both ca- representation are inseparable;-this posipacities, as peer and judge, the defender tion is founded on the laws of nature; it is of the law and the constitution. When I more, it is itself an eternal law of nature; spoke last, I was indeed replied to, but for whatever is a man's own, is absolutely not answered. In the intermediate time, his own; no man hath a right to take it many things have been said. As I was from him without his consent, either exnot present, I must now beg leave to an-pressed by himself or representative; whoswer such as have come to my knowledge. As the affair is of the utmost importance, and in its consequences may involve the fate of kingdoms, I took the strictest review of my arguments; I re-examined all my authorities; fully determined, if I found myself mistaken, publicly to own my mistake, and give up my opinion: but my searches have more and more convinced me, that the British parliament have no right to tax the Americans. I shall not therefore consider the Declaratory Bill now lying on your table; for to what purpose, but loss of time, to consider the From the Political Register, vol. 1, p. 282. [VOL. XVI.] ever attempts to do it, attempts an injury; whoever does it, commits a robbery ;* he throws down and destroys the distinction between liberty and slavery. Taxation and representation are coeval with and essential to this constitution.I wish the maxim of Machiavel was followed, that of examining a constitution, at certain pe "These words offended Mr. Grenville exceedingly: he mentioned lord Camden's Speech in the House of Commons, and declared with an emphasis, that these particular words were the Speech ought to be punished. But no noa libel upou parliament; and that the printer of tice was taken of the complaint." Almon's Biographical Anecdotes, vol. 1, p. 377. [N] that they would tax themselves; they did riods, according to its first principles; this would correct abuses and supply defects. I wish the times would bear it, and that men's minds were cool enough to enter upon such a task, and that the representative authority of this kingdom was more equally settled. I am sure some histories, of late published, have done great mischief; to endeavour to fix the æra when the House of Commons began in this kingdom, is a most pernicious and destructive attempt; to fix it in an Edward's or Henry's reign, is owing to the idle dreams of some whimsical, ill-judging antiquarians: but, my lords, this is a point too important to be left to such wrong-headed people. When did the House of Commons first begin? when, my lords? it began with the constitution, it grew up with the constitution; there is not a blade of grass growing In the most obscure corner of this kingdom, which is not, which was not ever, represented since the constitution began; there is not a blade of grass, which when taxed, was not taxed by the consent of the proprietor. There is a history written by one Carte, a history that most people now see through, and there is another favourite history, much read and admired. I will not name the author, your lordships must know whom I mean, and you must "The supreme power cannot take from know from whence he pilfered his notions, any man, any part of his property, withconcerning the first beginning of the out his own consent;" and B. 2. p. 136 House of Commons. My lords, I chal--139, particularly 140. Such are the lenge any one to point out the time when any tax was laid upon any person by parliament, that person being unrepresented in parliament. My lords, the parliament laid a tax upon the palatinate of Chester, and ordered commissioners to collect it there as commissioners were ordered to collect it in other counties; but the palatinate refused to comply; they addressed the king by petition, setting forth, that the English parliament had no right to tax them, that they had a parliament of their own, that they had always taxed themselves, and therefore desired the king to order his commissioners not to proceed. My lords, the king received the petition; he did not declare them either seditious or rebellious, but allowed their plea, and they taxed themselves. Your lordships may see both the petition and the king's answer in the records in the Tower. The clergy taxed themselves; when the parliament attempted to tax them, they stoutly refused; said they were not represented there; that they had a parliament of their own, which represented the clergy; words of this great man, and which are well worth your serious attention. His principles are drawn from the heart of our constitution, which he thoroughly understood, and will last as long as that shall last; and, to his immortal honour, I know not to what, under providence, the Revolution and all its happy effects, are more owing, than to the principles of government laid down by Mr. Locke. For these reasons, my lords, I can never give my assent to any bill for taxing the American colonies, while they remain unrepresented; for as to the distinction of a virtual representation, it is so absurd as not to deserve an answer; I therefore pass it over with contempt. The forefathers of the Americans did not leave their native country, and subject themselves to every danger and distress, to be reduced to a state of slavery: they did not give up their rights; they looked for protection, and not for chains, from their mother country; by her they expected to be defended in the possession of their property, and not to be deprived of it: for, should the present power continue, there is nothing which they can call their own; or, to use the words of Mr. Locke, "What property have they in that, which another may, by right, take, when he pleases, to himself?" Protest against Committing the Bill to repeal the American Stamp Act.] March 11. The order of the day being read for the second reading of the Bill, intitled, "An Act to repeal an act made in the last session of parliament, intitled, An Act for granting and applying certain Stamp Duties, and other duties in the British colonies and plantations in America, towards farther defraying the expences of defending, protecting, and securing the same, and for amending such parts of the several acts of parliament relating to the trade and revenues of the said colonies and plantations, as direct the manner of determining and recovering the penalties and forfeitures therein mentioned:" Then the said Bill was read a second time, and it being proposed to commit the Bill, the same was objected to. Content 73; Proxies 32; Total 105; Not Contents 61; Proxies 10; Total 71; Majority 34. After a long debate* thereupon, the question was put, Whether the said Bill shall be committed? It was resolved in the affirmative. statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever.' Secondly, That tumults and insurrections of the most dangerous nature have been raised and carried on in several of the North American colonies, in open defiance of the power and dignity of his Majesty's government, and in manifest violation of the laws and legislative authority of this kingdom.' Thirdly, That the said tumults and insurrections have been encouraged and inflamed, by sundry votes and resolutions passed in several of the assemblies of the said provinces, derogatory to the honour of his Majesty's government, and destructive of the legal and constitutional dependency of the said colonies, on the imperial crown and parliament of Great Britain.' Which resolutions were founded on a full examination of the papers on our table manifesting a denial of the legislative authority of the crown and parliament of Great BriNorth American colonies; and a criminal tain, to impose duties and taxes on our resistance there made to the execution of the commercial and other regulations of the Stamp Act, and of other acts of parliament: we are of opinion, that the total repealing of that law, especially while such resistance continues, would (as Governor Barnarde says is their intention) make the authority of Great Britain contemptible hereafter;' and that such a submission of King, Lords, and Commons, under such circumstances, in so strange and unheard-of a contest, would, in effect, surrender their ancient, unalienable rights of supreme jurisdiction, and give them exclusively to the subordinate provincial legislatures established by prerogative; which was never intended or thought of, and is not in the power of prerogative to bestow; as they are inseparable from the three estates of the realm assembled in parliament. 2. "Because the law, which this Bill now proposes to repeal, was passed in the other House with very little opposition, and in this without one dissentient voice, during the last session of parliament, which we presume, if it had been wholly and fundamentally wrong, could not possibly have happened; as the matter of it is so impor tant, and as the intention of bringing it in had been communicated to the Commons by the first commissioner of the treasury the year before; and a resolution, relating and preparatory to it, was then agreed to in that House without any division. 3. "Because, if any particular parts of that law, the principle of which has been experienced and submitted to in this country, without repining, for near a century past, had been found liable to just and reasonable objections, they might have been altered by a Bill to explain and amend it, without repealing the whole: and if any such Bill had been sent to us by the Commons, we should have thought it our duty to have given it a most serious consideration, with a warm desire of relieving our countrymen in America from any grievance or hardship; but with proper care to enforce their submission and obedience to the law so amended, and to the whole legislative authority of Great Britain, without any reserve or distinction whatsoever. 4. "Because it appears to us, that a most essential branch of that authority, the power of taxation, cannot be properly, equitably, or impartially exercised, if it does not extend itself to all the members of the state, in proportion to their respective abilities, but suffers a part to be exempt from a due share of those burdens which the public exigencies require to be imposed upon the whole: a partiality which is directly and manifestly repugnant to the trust reposed by the people in every legislature, and destructive of that confidence on which all government is founded. 5. "Because the ability of our NorthAmerican colonies to bear, without inconveniency, the proportion laid on them by the Stamp Act of last year, appears to us most unquestionable, for the following reasons: First, that the estimated produce of this tax, amounting to 60,000l. per annum, if divided amongst 1,200,000 people, (being little more than one half of the subjects of the crown in North America), would be only one shilling per head a year; which is but a third of the wages usually paid to every labourer or manufacturer there for one day's labour: secondly, that it appears, by the accounts that have been laid before this House from the commissioners of trade and plantations, that of the debt contracted by those colonies in the last war, above 1,755,000. has already been discharged, during the course of three years only, by the funds provided for that purpose in the several provinces; and the much greater part of the remaining incumbrance, which in the whole is about 760,000l., will be paid in two years more. We must likewise observe, that the bounties and advantages given to them by par liament in 1764 and 1765, and the duties thereby lost to Great Britain for their service, and, in order to enable them the more easily to pay this tax, must necessarily amount, in a few years, to a far greater sum than the produce thereof. It is also evident, that such produce being wholly appropriated to the payment of the army maintained by this kingdom in our colonies, at the vast expence of almost a shilling in the pound land tax, annually remitted by us for their special defence and protection; not only no money would have been actually drawn by it out of that country, but the ease given by it to the people of Great Britain, who are labouring under a debt of seventy millions, contracted by them to support a very dangerous war, entered into for the interest and security of those colonies, would have redounded to the benefit of the colonies themselves in their own immediate safety, by contributing to deliver them from the necessary expence which many of them have hitherto always borne, in guarding their frontiers against the savage Indians. 6. "Because not only the right, but the expediency and necessity of the supreme legislature's exerting its authority to lay a general tax on our American colonies, whenever the wants of the public make it fitting and reasonable that all the provinces should contribute, in a proper proportion, to the defence of the whole, appear to us undeniable, from these considerations: First, that every province being separate and independant on the others, and having no common council impowered by the constitution of the colonies to act for all, or bind all, such a tax cannot regularly, or without infinite difficulty, be imposed upon them, at any time, even for their immediate defence or protection, by their own provincial assemblies; but requires the intervention and superintending power of the parliament of Great Britain: Secondly, that in looking forwards to the possible contingency of a new war, a contingency, perhaps, not far remote, the prospect of the burdens, which the gentry and people of this kingdom must then sustain, in addition to those which now lie so heavy upon them, is so melancholy and dreadful, that we cannot but feel it a most indispensable duty to ease them as much as is possible, by a due and moderate exertion of that great right which the constitution of this realm has vested in the parliament, to provide for the safety of all, by a proportionable charge upon all, equally and indiffe carry with it, has a manifest tendency to draw on further insults, and, by lessening the respect of all his Majesty's subjects to the dignity of his crown, and authority of his laws, throw the whole British empire into a miserable state of confusion and anarchy, with which it seems, by many symptoms, to be dangerously threatened. And this is the more to be feared, as the plea of our North American colonies, that, not being represented in the parliament of Great Britain, they ought not to pay taxes imposed or levied upon them by the authority thereof, may, by the same reasoning, be extended to all persons in this island, who do not actually vote for members of parliament; nor can we help apprehending, that the opinion of some countenance being given to such notions by the legislature itself, in consenting to this Bill for the repeal of the Stamp Act, may greatly promote the contagion of a most dangerous doctrine, destructive to all government, which has spread itself over all our North American colonies, that the obedience of the subject is not due to the laws and legislature of the realm, farther than he, in his private judgment, shall think it conformable to the ideas he has formed of a free constitution. rently laid. We likewise apprehend, that | a partial exemption of our colonies from any exercise of this right, by the British legislature, would be thought so invidious, and so unjust to the other subjects of the crown of Great Britain, as to alienate the hearts of these from their countrymen residing in America, to the great detriment of the latter, who have on many occasions received, and may again want, assistance, from the generous warmth of their affection. 7. "Because the reasons assigned in the public resolutions of the provincial assemblies, in the North American colonies, for their disobeying the Stamp Act, viz. "That they are not represented in the parliament of Great Britain," extends to all other laws of what nature soever, which that parliament has enacted, or shall enact, to bind them in times to come, and must (if admitted) set them absolutely free from any obedience to the power of the British legislature. We likewise observe, that in a letter to Mr. Secretary Conway, dated the 12th of October, 1765, the commander in chief of his Majesty's forces in North America has declared his opinion, That the question is not of the inexpediency of the Stamp Act, or of the inability of the colonies to pay the tax, but that it is unconstitutional, and contrary to their rights, supporting the independency of the provinces, and not subject to the legislative power of Great Britain.' It is, moreover, affirmed, in a letter to Mr. Conway, dated the 7th of November, That the people in general are averse to taxes of any kind; and that the merchants of. that place think they have a right to every freedom of trade which the subjects of Great Britain now enjoy.' This opinion of theirs strikes directly at the Act of Navigation, and other subsequent laws, which from time to time have been made on the wise policy of that Act; and should they ever be encouraged to procure for themselves that absolute freedom of trade which they appear to desire, our plantations would become not only of no benefit, but in the highest degree prejudicial to the commerce and welfare of their mother country: nor is it easy to conceive a greater encouragement than the repealing of a law, opposed by them on such principles, and with so much contempt of the sovereignty of the British legislative. 8. "Because the appearance of weakness and timidity in the government and parliament of this kingdom, which a concession of this nature may too probably 9. "Because we think it no effectual guard, or security, against this danger, that the parliament has declared, in the resolutions of both Houses passed during this session, and now reduced into a Bill, that such notions are ill founded; as men will always look more to deeds than words, and may therefore incline to believe that the insurrections in our colonies, excited by those notions, having so far proved successful as to attain the very point at which they aimed, the immediate repeal of the Stamp Act, without any previous submission on the part of the colonies; the legislature has, in fact, submitted to them, and has only more grievously injured its own dignity and authority by verbally asserting that right which it substantially yields up to their opposition. The reasons assigned for this concession render it still more alarming, as they arise from an illegal and hostile combination of the people of America to distress and starve our manufacturers, and to with-hold from our merchants the payment of their just debts; the former of which measures has only been practised in open war between two states, and the latter, we believe, not even in that situation, either by the public, or by individuals, among the civilized nations |