Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 279

the Act for Securing the Dependancy of the Colonies, or, as a
late Secretary of State would have Amended it, the Independ-
ency of the Colonies, w^ch was passed at the same time.
I have already acquainted your Excellency w^th the Progress
of these Two Acts thro' the Commons, & sent you Copys of
them as first Introduced. Before they left that House they
received some Amendments in the Preambles, as you will see
by comparing the different Copys together, but, after consider-
able Struggles, they made their way to the Lords, by a
Majority of near 150; the Dependency Bill, or Bill of Rights,
as it has been likewise called, taking the Lead from first to
last. When they came to the Lords, & this Latter Bill was
brought first upon the Carpet, It was Moved, tho' no
Division ensued, to Postpone it to the Repeal Bill, for if the
latter should miscarry, the former would be unnecessary, & if
the former passed, the Latter would be meer Brutum Fulmen,
asserting in words & giving up in Deeds, a Ridiculous Farce
after a Deep Tragedy. Lord Mansfield treated it as an
humiliation of the British Legislature to Pass an Act merely to
annull the Resolutions of a Lower House of Assembly in
Virginia, & added that Bills of right were only proper between
Contending Bodys, Who were Contesting each others
authority, but mutually allowed the authority of the Sovereign
Power, as when the Commons encroached upon the Lords, or
the Lords upon them, or too great an Extension of the Pre-
rogative was aimed at, or in the Contests between the House
of Lords in Ireland, & that in England about Jurisdiction, in
all which cases the Legislature, to w^ch the contending Parties
alike submitted, Interposed very properly. But here the very
question arose upon the Authority of the whole British Legis-
lature, & the Denyal of it by the Americans. It was only
assertion against assertion, & whether it rested in meer Decla-
ration, or was thrown into the form of a law, It was still a
Claim by one Party only w^ch the other Dissented from, &,
having first denyed the Claim, would very consistently Pay as
little regard to an Act of the same authority, cutting, instead
of untying, the Knot. In speaking of the Stamp Law he
treated it as a Proposition, Whether the Parliament of Great
Britain had not a right to Tax the Subjects of Great Britain, in
all the Dominions of Great Britain in America. He was
answered by Lord Camden, who adhered to his former Senti-
ments against the Authority of the British Legislature, in
which he was Joyned by as few Lords as before, but most of
them seemed to Incline against the Propriety & utility of the
Law, & Lord Chesterfield is said to have Considered it out of
doors (for his health would not permit him to attend) tho' a
great Friend to the Repeal, that it was Insuring £1 p^r Cent,