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The parliament repealed the act as inexpedient, but in another asserted a right of taxing the colonies, and binding

the Americans, in respect of any one member in the whole house, not a man of them depending on the colonists for his seat in parliament, or for their instructions."

2dly, Another evident reason why the colonies cannot be justly deemed virtually represented, and in consequence thereof, subjected to internal taxation, imposed by parliament, and why they, the colonies, cannot be justly compared with such towns in Great Britain, is because the parliament of Great Britain cannot impose any internal tax on the inhabitants of such towns, but that in so doing they and every member thereof would by the same act tax themselves also in the same proportion, which is a very good security in favor of such towns and other non-electors in Great Britain; but which very good security the colonies in their present state are entirely destitute of, insomuch that if they were now to acknowlege a right in the parliament so to tax them (although in the present case a very small sum) without their previous or concurrent consent, in the present mode of things there is no line drawn that bounds that right, but that the same parliament might (after so dangerous a precedent once adopted) call for any part of their remaining fortunes whenever they pleased so to do, without any other restraint than the mercy and benevolence of (in such case) an arbitrary power over them, and they the colonists might every year after be in danger of hearing of a law (made in Great Britain some months before, and wherein they had no opportunity of pleading for themselves, or of giving their previous or concurrent consent or dissent), which law might, for any other security they could rely on in the present mode of things, take away a quarter, a half, or a larger part of their estates, without a line of any kind of limitation other than the will and power of a parliament, in such case, despotic over their whole fortunes, without their concurrence or co-operation, which it appears would be arbitrary in the strongest point of light.

3dly, It therefore appears a fair and necessary conclusion, that Great Britain must in point of equity and the just rights of the colonists as Englishmen, either for ever exempt them from, or never demand any in. ternal taxes at all, or else a right of representation in parliament must be granted them: which last appears evidently a very salutary measure, as necessary to prevent divisions and misunderstandings, and above all to prevent the danger of our enemies thereby in future, as soon as recruited and able, taking advantage thereof (and perhaps sowing the seeds thereof) in order to disunite and weaken this otherwise potent empire, which being properly united, they our enemies do and will look on with envy, and may they do so, but utterly in vain, and that for evermore is my hearty desire. AMOR PATRIA.

them in all cases whatsoever! In the following year they laid duties on British manufactures exported to America. On the repeal of the stamp act, the Americans had returned to their wonted good humor and commerce with Great Britain; but this new act for laying duties renewed their uneasiness. These and other grievances complained of by the colonies are succinctly enumerated in Dr. Franklin's paper abovementioned; and the progressive history of the causes of the American discontents in general.

The whole continent of America now began to consider the Boston port bill, as striking essentially at the liberty of all the colonies; and these sentiments were strongly urged and propagated in the American newspapers.

Even those colonies which depended most upon the mother country for the consumption of their productions, entered into associations with the others; and nothing was to be heard of but resolutions for the encouragement of their own manufactures, the consumption of home products, the discouragement of foreign articles, and the retrenchment of all superfluities.

Virginia resolved not to raise any more tobacco, unless the grievances of America were redressed. Maryland followed that example: Pennsylvania, and almost all the other colonies, entered into resolutions in the same spirit, with a view to enforce a general redress of grievances.

During these disputes between the two countries, Dr. Franklin invented a little emblematical design, intended to represent the supposed state of Great Britain and her colonies, should the former persist in her oppressive measures, restraining the latter's trade, and taxing their people by laws made by a legislature in which they were not represented. It was engraved on a copper-plate, from which the annexed is a fac simile. Dr. Franklin had many of them struck off on cards, on the back of which he occasionally wrote his notes, It was also printed on a half sheet of paper, with the explanation and moral which follow it.

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GREAT BRITAIN is supposed to have been placed upon the globe; but the COLONIES, (that is, her limbs,) being severed from her, she is seen lifting her eyes and mangled stumps to heaven: her shield, which she is unable to wield, lies useless by her side; her lance has pierced New England: the laurel branch has fallen from the hand of Pennsylvania: the English oak has lost its head, and stands a bare trunk, with a few withered branches; briars and thorns are on the ground beneath it; the British ships have brooms at their topmast heads, denoting their being on sale; and BRITANNIA herself is seen sliding off the world, (no longer able to hold its balance) her fragments overspread with the label, DATE OBOLUM BELLISARIO.

THE MORAL.

History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of their people. The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy; it being a matter of no moment to the state, whether a subject grows rich and flourishing on the Thames or the Ohio, in Edinburgh or Dublin. These measures never fail to create great and violent jealousies and animosities between the people favored and the people oppressed: whence a total separation of affections, interests, political obligations, and all manner of connections, necessarily ensue, by which the whole state is weakened, and perhaps ruined for ever!

These sentiments, applied to the picture which they are annexed to, were well calculated to produce reflection; they form part of the same system of political ethics, with the following fragment of a sentence, which Dr. Franklin inserted in a political publication of one of his friends:-"The attempts to establish arbitrary power over so great a part of the British empire, are to the imminent hazard of our most valuable commerce, and of that national strength, security, and felicity, which depend on union and liberty"-The preservation of which, he used to say, “had been the great object and labor of his life; the WHOLE being such a thing as the world before never saw!”

In June, 1774, a general congress of deputies from all the colonies, began to be universally looked forward to. This had a year before been suggested by Dr. Franklin, in a letter to Thomas Cushing, dated July 7, 1775, in which he says, "But as the strength of an empire depends not only on the union of its parts, but on their readiness for united exertion of their common force; and as the discussion of rights may seem unseasonable in the commencement of actual war, and the delay it might occasion be prejudicial to the common welfare; as, likewise, the refusal of one or a few colonies, would not be so much regarded if the others granted liberally, which perhaps by various artifices and motives they might be prevailed on to do; and as this want of concert would defeat the expectation of general redress, that otherwise might be justly formed; perhaps it would be best and fairest for the colonies, in a GENERAL CONGRESS, now in peace to be assembled, (or by means of the correspondence lately proposed,) after a full and solemn assertion and declaration of their RIGHTS, to engage firmly with each other, that they will never grant aids to the crown in any general war, till those rights are recognised by the king and both houses of parliament; communicating to the crown this their resolution. Such a step, I imagine, will bring the dispute to a crisis; and whether our demands are immediately complied with, or compulsory measures thought

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