268 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe.

upon the Doctrine Laid down in that able, performance you
transmitted w^ch has since found its way to the Press with the
name of M^r Dulany Prefixed.
His Lordship Argued That it appeared from the Funda-
mentals of the Constitution that the People had always kept
the Purse, that the Commons in the language of every Bill of
Supply Emphatically Gave & Granted & tho' the King willed
it to be a Law yet he always returned thanks: That antiently
before the County of Chester was represented in Parliament
Writs had Issued to the Earls of Chester for the People to
Tax themselves, that Calais formerly Sent Members to Par-
Ham^t & therefore they were taxed, that neither Guernsey or
Jersey had never been represented & consequently they were
never taxed, that Wales was never Taxed till after their Conquest
& a Representation had taken place, & the case was the same
with the Clergy who remained unassessed by Parliament till
they had obtained a Seat there, that it was said the Manches-
ter People were not represented, a question w^ch would be best
resolved by the Members of the County; That the Sovereignty
of the Legislature could do everything not contrary to the
Law of God or of Nature was a Proposition long assented to,
but till they had exercised the right of Taxation over the
Colonies he should doubt of their Power: the Colonys when
they Migrated carried their Birth right with them: the Same
Spirit of Liberty Still pervaded the whole of the New Empire;
he relyed much upon a Manuscript of Lord Chief Justice
Hales " de Praerogativa Regis " in w^ch he seemed to doubt of
the Power of this Country to raise Subsidies in Ireland: And
he Enforced his Arguments in favor of a Representation for
the Colonies by Supposing a case to exist where their Interest
& that of the Mother Country might happen to Clash in w^ch
event he Declared he should as an Englishman Incline ag^st
them & he thought every honest man here would do the same.
That If the Court of Vienna had been less Inflexible they
might still have remained masters.
Lord Mansfield took the other side of the Question. He
said That Lock, Harrington, & other writers on the Law of

Nations had been Improperly brought in as they were not

then Settling a new Constitution but finding out and Declar-
ing the old one. That the original Constitution of Parlia-
ments lay hid in great obscurity, & who they were Composed
of remained very uncertain, that the Language of the Old
Acts was p^r Commune Concilium regis and the People
seemed to have been called Originally to assist in Parliam^t
from their Tenures. That the Doctrine of Representation
seemed ill founded: there were Twelve Millions of People
in England & Ireland who were not represented, & he par-