profit from the Crown or the Governor, while they are members of the House, shall be vacated agreeably to an act of the British Parliament, till their constituents shall have the opportunity of re-electing them, if they please, or of returning others in their room.

Being members of the legislative body, you will have a special regard to the morals of this people, which are the basis of public happiness, and endeavor to have such laws made, if any are still wanting, as shall be best adapted to secure them; and we particularly desire you carefully to look into the laws of excise, that if the virtue of the people is endangered by the multiplicity of oaths therein enjoined, or their trade and business is unreasonably impeded or embarrassed thereby, the grievance may be redressed.

As the preservation of morals, as well as of property and right, so much depends upon the impartial distribution of justice, agreeable to good and wholesome law; and as the judges of the land do depend upon the free grants of the General Assembly for support, it is incumbent upon you at all times to give your voice for their honorable maintenance, so long as they, having in their minds an indifference to all other affairs, shall devote themselves wholly to the duties of their own department and the farther study of the law, by which their customs, precedents, proceedings and determinations are adjusted and limited.

You will remember that this province hath been at a very great expense in carrying on the war, and that it still lies under a very grievous burden of debt; you will therefore use your utmost endeavor to promote public frugality as one means to lessen the public debt.

You will join in any proposals which may be made for the better cultivating the lands, and improving the husbandry of the province; and as you represent a town which lives by its trade, we expect in a very particular manner, though you make it the object of your attention to support our commerce in all its just rights, to vindicate it from all unreasonable impositions and promote its prosperity. Our trade has for a long time labored under great discouragements, and it is with the deepest concern that we see such farther difficulties coming upon it as will reduce it to the lowest ebb, if not totally obstruct and ruin it. We cannot help expressing our surprise that when so early notice was given by the agent of the intentions of the Ministry to burden us with new taxes, so little regard was had to this most interesting matter, that the Court was not even called together to consult about it till the latter end of the year; the consequence of which was, that instructions could not be sent to the agent, though solicited by him, till the evil had gone beyond an easy remedy.

There is now no room for farther delay; we therefore expect that you will use your earliest endeavors in the General Assembly that such methods may be taken as will effectually prevent these proceedings against us. By a proper representation we apprehend it may

easily be made to appear that such severities will prove detrimental to Great Britain itself; upon which account we have reason to hope that an application, even for a repeal of the act, should it be already passed, will be successful. It is the trade of the colonies that renders them beneficial to the mother country; our trade as it is now, and always has been conducted, centres in Great Britain, and, in return for her manufactures, affords her more ready cash beyond any comparison than can possibly be expected by the most sanguinary promotor of these extraordinary methods. We are, in short, ultimately yielding large supplies to the revenues of the mother country, while we are laboring for a very moderate subsistence for ourselves. But if our trade is to be curtailed in its most profitable branches, and burdens beyond all possible bearing laid upon that which is suffered to remain, we shall be so far from being able to take off the manufactures of Great Britain, though it will be scarce possible for us to earn our bread.

But what still heightens our apprehensions is, that these unexpected proceedings may be preparatory to new taxations upon us; for if our trade may be taxed, why not our lands? Why not the produce of our lands and everything we possess or make use of? This we apprehend annihilates our charter right to govern and tax ourselves. It strikes at our British privileges, which, as we have never forfeited them, we hold in common with our fellow subjects who are natives of Britain. If taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves?

We therefore earnestly recommend it to you to use your utmost endeavors to obtain in the General Assembly all necessary instruction and advice to our agent at this most critical juncture; that while he is setting forth the unshaken loyalty of this province and this town -its unrivaled exertion in supporting his Majesty's government and rights in this part of his dominions—its acknowledged dependence upon and subordination to Great Britain, and the ready submission of its merchants to all just and necessary regulations of trade, he may be able in the most humble and pressing manner to remonstrate for us all those rights and privileges which justly belong to us either by charter or birth.

As his Majesty's other Northern American colonies are embarked with us in this most important bottom, we farther desire you to use your endeavors that their weight may be added to that of this province, that by the united application of all who are aggrieved, all may happily obtain redress,

THE GRIEVANCES OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES.

STEPHEN HOPKINS.

Providence, July 30, 1764.

Liberty is the greatest blessing that men enjoy, and slavery the greatest curse that human nature is capable of. Hence it is a matter

of the utmost importance to men which of the two shall be their portion. Absolute liberty, is, perhaps, incompatible with any kind of government. The safety resulting from society, and the advantages of just and equal laws, hath caused men to forego some part of their natural liberty, and submit to government. This appears to be the most rational account of its beginning, although, it must be confessed, mankind have by no means been agreed about it; some have found its origin in the divine appointment; others have thought it took its rise from power; enthusiasts have dreamed that dominion was founded in grace. Leaving these points to be settled by the descendants of Filmer, Cromwell, and Venner, we shall consider the British Constitution, as it at present stands, on revolution principles; and from thence endeavor to find the measure of the magistrates' power and the people's obedience.

This glorious Constitution, the best that ever existed among men, will be confessed by all to be founded on compact, and established by consent of the people. By this most beneficent compact, British subjects are to be governed only agreeably to laws to which themselves have in some way consented, and are not to be compelled to part with their property but as it is called for by the authority of such laws. The former is truly liberty; the latter is to be really possessed of property, and to have something that may be called one's own. On the contrary, those who are governed at the will of another, or others, and whose property may be taken from them by taxes, or otherwise, without their own consent, or against their will, are in a miserable condition of slavery; "for (says Algernon Sidney, in his discourse on government), liberty solely consists in the independency upon the will of another; and by name of slave we understand a man who can neither dispose of his person or goods, and enjoys all at the will of his master. These things premised, whether the British American colonies on the continent are justly entitled to like privileges and freedoms as their fellow-subjects in Great Britain are, is a point worthy mature examination. In discussing this question we shall make the colonies of New England, with whose rights we are best acquainted, the rule of our reasoning; not in the least doubting all the others are justly entitled to like rights with them.

New England was first planted by adventurers, who left England, their native country, by permission of King Charles the First, and at their own expense transported themselves to America, and, with great risk and difficulty, settled among the savages, and, in a very surprising manner, formed new colonies in the wilderness. Before their departure the terms of their freedom, and the relation they should stand in to the mother country, were fully settled. They were to remain subject to the King, and dependant on the kingdom of Great Britain. In return they were to receive protection, and enjoy all the rights and privileges of free-born Englishmen. This is abundantly proved by the charter given to the Massachusetts colony, while they were still in England, and which they received and brought over with them, as an authentic evidence of the condition they removed upon. The colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island, also, afterwards obtained charters from the Crown granting like ample privileges. By all these charters it is in the most express and solemn manner granted that these adventurers, and their children after them forever, should have and enjoy all the freedom and liberty that the subjects in England enjoy. That they might make laws for their government, suitable to their circumstances, not repugnant to, but as near as might be agreeable to, the laws of England; that they might purchase lands, acquire goods, and use trade for their advantage, and have an absolute property in whatever they justly acquired. This, with many other gracious privileges, were granted them by several kings; and they were to pay, as an acknowledgment to the Crown, only one-fifth of the ore of gold and silver that should at any time be found in the State colonies; in lieu of a full satisfaction for all dues and demands of the Crown and kingdom of England upon them.

There is not anything new or extraordinary in these rights granted to the British colonles. The colonies from all countries at all times have enjoyed equal freedom with the mother state. Indeed, there would be found very few people in the world willing to leave their native country, and go through the fatigue and hardship of planting in a new, uncultivated one, for the sake of losing their freedom. They who settle new countries must be poor, and in course, ought to be free. Advantages, pecuniary and agreeable, are not on the side of the emigrants; and surely they must have something in their stead.

To illustrate this, permit us to examine what hath generally been the condition of the colonies with respect to their freedom. We will begin with those who went out from the ancient Commonwealth of Greece, which are the first, perhaps, we have any good account of. Thucydides, that grave and judicious historian, says of them “ they were not sent out to be slaves, but to be the equals of those who remained behind ;" and again, the Corinthians gave public notice "that the new colony was going to Epidamus, into which all that should

enter should have equal and like privileges with those who stayed at home.

This was uniformly the condition of the Grecian colonies; they went out and settled new countries; they took such forms of government as themselves chose, though it generally nearly resembled that of the mother state, whether democratical or orligarchical. 'Tis true they were fond to acknowledge their original, and always confessed themselves under obligation to pay a kind of honorary respect to, and shyw a filial dependance on the commonwealth from whence it sprung. Thucidides again tells us that the Corinthians complained of the Corcyrans "from whom, though a colony of their own, they had received some contemptuous treatment; for they neither paid them the usual honor on their public solemnities, nor began with the Corinthians in the distribution of the sacrifice which is always done by other colonies." From hence it is plain what kind of dependance the Greek colonies were in, and what sort of acknowledgment they owed to the mother state.

If we pass from the Grecian to the Roman colonies we shall find them not less free; but this difference may be observed between them, that the Roman colonies did not, like the Grecian, become separate states, governed by different laws, but always remained a part of the mother state; all that were free of the colonies were always free of Rome. And Grotius gives us an opinion of the Roman King concerning the freedom of the colonies. King Tullus says, "for our part, we look upon it to be neither truth nor justice that the mother cities ought of necessity to rule over their colonies."

When we come down to the latter ages of the world, and consider the colonies planted in the three last centuries in America from several kingdoms in Europe, we shall find them, says Puffendorf, very different from the ancient colonies, and he gives us an instance in those of the Spaniards. Although it be confessed they fall greatly short of enjoying equal freedom with the ancient Greek and Roman ones, yet it will be truly said they enjoy equal freedom with their countrymen in Spain; but as they are all in the government of an absolute monarch they have no reason to complain that one enjoys the liberty the other is deprived of. The French colonies will be found nearly in the same condition, and for the same reason, because their fellowsubjects of France have always lost their liberty. And the question is whether all colonies, as compared with one another, enjoy equal liberty, or whether all enjoy as much freedom as the inhabitants of the mother state; and this will hardly be denied in the case of the Spanish, French, and other modern foreign colonies.

By this it fully appears that colonies in general, both ancient and modern, have always enjoyed as much freedom as the mother state from which they went out; and will any one suppose the British colonies of America are an exception to this general rule? Colonies