before. These resolutions have been since carried into execution by an act of parliament which the colonies do conceive is a violation of their long-enjoyed rights. For it must be confessed by all men that they who are taxed at pleasure by others cannot possibly have any property, can have nothing to be called their own; they who have no property can have no freedom, but are indeed reduced to the most abject slavery; are in a state far worse than countries conquered and made tributary, for these have only a fixed sum to pay, which they are left to raise among themselves in the way that they may think most equal and easy, and having paid the stipulated sum the debt is discharged and what is left is their own. This is more tolerable than to be taxed at the will of others, without any bounds, without any stipulations or agreements, contrary to their consent and against their wills. If we are told that those who lay taxes upon the colonies are men of the highest character for wisdom, justice, and integrity, and therefore cannot be supposed to deal hardly, unjustly, or unequally by any; admitting and really believing that all this is true, it will make no alteration in the case; for one who is bound to obey the will of another is as really a slave, though he may have a good master, as if he had a bad one; and this is stronger in politic bodies than in natural ones, as the former have a perpetual succession, and remain the same; and although they may have a good master at one time, they may have a very bad one at another. And indeed, if the people in America are to be taxed by the representatives of the people in Britain, their malady is an increasing evil that must always grow greater by time. Whatever burdens are laid upon the Americans will be that much taken off the Britons; and the doing this will soon be extremely popular, and those who are put up to be members of the House of Commons must obtain the votes of the people by promising to take taxes off them by making new levies on the Americans. This must most assuredly be the case, and it will not be in the power even of the Parliament to prevent it; the people's private interest will be concerned, and will govern them; they will have such and only such representatives as will act agreeably to their interest; and these taxes laid on Americans will be always a part of the supply bill in which the other branches of the legislature can make no alteration; and in truth, the subjects in the colonies will be taxed at the will and pleasure of their fellow-subjects in Britain. How equitable and how just this may be, must be left to every impartial man to determine.

But it will be said, that the moneys drawn from the colonies by duties and by taxes will be laid up and set apart to be used for their future defence. This will not at all alleviate the hardships, but serve only the more strongly to mark the servile state of the people. Free people have ever thought, and will think, that the money necessary for their defence lies safest in their own hands until it be wanted im、 mediately for that purpose. To take the money of the Americans,

which they want continually to use in their trade, and lay it up for their defence at a thousand leagues' distance from them, when the enemies they have to fear are in their own neighborhood, hath not the greatest probability of friendship or of prudence.

It is not the judgment of free people only that money for defence is safest in their keeping, but it is also the opinion of the best and wisest kings and governors of mankind in every age of the world that the wealth of a state was most securely as well as most profitably deposited in the hands of their faithful subjects. Constantius, emperor of the Romans, though an absolute prince, both practised and praised this method.

"Diocletian sent persons on purpose to reproach him with his neglect of the public, and the poverty to which he was reduced by his own fault. Constantius heard these reproaches with patience; and having persuaded those who made them in Diocletian's name to stay a few days with him, he sent word to the most wealthy persons in the province, that he wanted money, and that they had now an opportunity of showing whether or not they really loved their prince. Upon this notice, every one strove who should be foremost in carrying to the exchequer all their gold, silver and valuable effects, so that in a short time Constantius from being the poorest became by far the most wealthy of all the four princes. He then invited the deputies of Diocletian to visit his treasury, desiring them to make a faithful report to their master of the state in which they should find it. They obeyed, and while they stood gazing upon the mighty heaps of gold and silver, Constantius told them that the wealth which they beheld with astonishment had long since belonged to him but that he had left it by way of deposition, in the hands of his people, adding that the richest and surest treasure of the prince was the love of his subjects. The deputies were no sooner gone than the generous prince sent for those who had assisted him in his exigency, commended their zeal and rereturned to every one what they had so readily brought into his treasury."

We are not insensible that when liberty is in danger the liberty of complaining is dangerous; yet a man on a wreck was never denied the liberty of roaring as loud as he could, says Dean Swift. And we believe no good reason can be given why the colonies should not modestly and soberly inquire, what right the Parliament of Great Britain have to tax them. We know that such inquiries have by one letterwriter been branded with the little epithet of "Mushroom Policy," and he intimates that if the colonies pretend to claim any privileges, they will draw down the resentment of the Parliament on them. Is then the defence of liberty so contemptible, and pleading for just rights so dangerous? Can the guardians of liberty be thus ludicrous? Can the patrons of freedom be so jealous and so severe ?

Should it be urged that the money expended by the mother country

for the defence and protection of America, and especially during the late war, must justly entitle her to some retaliation from the colonies and that the stamp duties and taxes intended to be raised in them are only designed for that equitable purpose; if we are permitted to examine how far this may rightfully vest the Parliament with the power of taxing the colonies, we shall find this claim to have no foundation. In many of the colonies, especially those in New England, which were planted, as is before observed, not at the charge of the Crown or kingdom of England, but at the expense of the planters themselves, and were not only planted, but also defended against the savages and other enemies in long and cruel wars which continued for an hundred years, almost without intermission, solely at their own charge; and in the year 1746, when the Duke d'Anville came out from France with the most formidable fleet that ever was in the American seas, enraged at these colonies for the loss of Louisburg the year before, and with orders to make an attack on them; even in this greatest exigence these colonies were left to the protection of heaven and their own efforts. These colonies having thus' planted themselves and removed all enemies from their borders, were in hopes to enjoy peace and recruit their state, much exhausted by these long struggles; but they were soon called upon to raise men and send them out to the defence of other colonies, and to make conquests for the Crown; they dutifully obeyed the requisition, and with ardor entered into these services and continued in them until all encroachments were removed, and all Canada, and even the Havana conquered. They most cheerfully complied with every call of the Crown; they rejoiced, yea even exulted, in the prosperity of the British empire. But these colonies whose bounds we fixed, and whose borders were before cleared of enemies by their own fortitude, and at their own expense, reaped no sort of advantage by these conquests; they are not enlarged, have not gained a single acre, have no part in the Indian or interior trade; the immense tracts of land subdued, and no less immense and profitable commerce acquired, all belong to Great Britain, and not the least share or portion to these colonies, though thousands of their numbers have lost their lives, and millions of their money have been expended in the purchase of them-for great part of which we are yet in debt-and from which we shall not in many years be able to extricate ourselves. Hard will be the fate, cruel the destiny of these unhappy colonies, if the reward they are to receive for all this is the loss of their freedom; better for them Canada still remained French, yea, far more eligible that it should remain so, than that the price of its reduction should be their slavery.

If the colonies are not taxed by Parlament are they therefore exempt from bearing their proper shares in the necessary burdens of government? This by no means follows. Do they not support a regular internal government in each colony as expensive to the peo

ple here, as the internal government of Britain is to the people there? Have not the colonies here at all times, when called upon by the Crown to raise money for the public service, done it as cheerfully as the Parliament have done on the like occasions? Is not this the most easy way of raising money in the colonies? What occasion then to distrust the colonies, what necessity to fall on the present mode to compel them to do what they have ever done freely? Are not the people in the colonies as loyal and dutiful subjects as any age or nation ever produced, and are they not as useful to the kingdom in this remote quarter of the world as their fellow-subjects are in Britain? The Parliament, it is confessed, have power to regulate the trade of the whole empire: and hath it not full power by this means to draw all the money and wealth of the colonies into the mother country at pleasure? What motive, after all this, can remain to induce the Parliament to abridge the privileges and lessen the rights of the most loyal and dutiful subjects; subjects justly entitled to ample freedom, who have long enjoyed and not abused or forfeited their liberties, who have used them to their own advantage, in dutiful subserviency to the orders and the interests of Great Britain? Why should the gentle current of tranquillity, that has so long run with peace through all the British States, and flowed with joy and happiness in all her countries, be at last obstructed and turned out of its true course into unusual and winding channels, by which many of these colonies must be ruined; but none of them can possibly be made more rich or more happy.

Before we conclude, it may be necessary to take notice of the vast difference there is between the raising money in a country by duties, taxes, or otherwise, and employing and laying out the money again in the same country; and raising the like sums of money by the like means and sending it away quite out of the country where it is raised. Where the former of these is the case, although the sums raised may be very great, yet that country may support itself under them; for as fast as the money is collected together it is scattered abroad, to be used in commerce and every kind of business; and money is not made scarcer by this means, but rather the contrary, as this continual circulation must have a tendency in some degree to prevent its being hoarded. But where the latter method is pursued the effect will be extremely different; for here, as fast as the money can be collected it is immediately sent out of the country, never to return but by a tedious round of commerce, which at best must take up some time; here all trade and every kind of business depending upon it will grow dull and must languish more and more, until it comes to a final stop at last. If the money raised in Great Britain in the three last years of the war, and which exceeded forty millions sterling, had been sent out of the kingdom, would not this have nearly ruined the trade of the nation in three years only? Think then what must be the condition of these miserable colonies when all the money proposed to be raised in them

by high duties on the importation of divers kinds of goods by the postoffice, by stamp duties, and other taxes, is sent way quite as fast as it can be collected; and this is to be repeated continually! Is it possible for the colonies under these circumstances to support themselves, to have any money, any trade, or other business carried on in them? Certainly not; nor is there at present, or ever was, any country under heaven that did or possibly could support itself under such burdens. We finally beg leave to assert that the first planters of these colonies were pious Christians, were faithful subjects; who, with a fortitude and perseverance little known and less considered, settled these wild countries, by God's goodness and their own amazing labors, thereby adding a most valuable dependance to the Crown of Great Britain; were ever dutifully subservient to her interests, they so taught their children that not one has been disaffected to this day, and all have honestly obeyed every royal command and cheerfully submitted to every constitutional law. They have as little inclination as they have ability to throw off their dependency; they have most carefully avoided every measure that might be offensive, and all such manufactures as were interdicted. Besides all this, they have risked their lives when they have been ordered, and furnished money whenever it has been called for; have never been either troublesome or expensive to the mother country; have kept all due order, and have supported a regular government; they have maintained peace, and practised Christianity. And in all conditions, upon all occasions, they have always demeaned themselves as loyal, as dutiful subjects ought to do; and no kingdom or state or empire hath, or ever had, colonies more obedient, more serviceable, more profitable than these have ever been. May the same Divine Goodness that guided the first planters, that protected the settlements, and inspired kings to be gracious, parliaments to be tender, ever preserve, ever protect, and support our present most gracious King; give great wisdom to his ministers and much understanding to his parliament; perpetuate the sovereignty of the British Constitution, and the filial dependancy of all the colonies.

CAUSES OF AMERICAN DISCONTENT.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

Philadelphia, January 7, 1768.

SIR: As the cause of the present ill-humor in America, and of the resolutions taken there to purchase less of our manufactures, does not seem to be generally understood, it may afford some satisfaction to