286 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe.

Secondly, "That Tumults & Insurrections of the most
dangerous Nature have been raised & Carried on in Several
of the North American Colonies in open defiance of the Power
& Dignity of His Majestys Governm^t & in Manifest Violation
of the Laws & Legislative Authority of this Kingdom."
Thirdly, "That the s^d Tumults & Insurrections have been
encouraged & inflam'd by Sundry Votes & Resolutions pass'd
in several of the Assemblies of the said Province Derogatory
to the Honor of His Majestys Governm^ts and Destructive of
the legal & fundamental Dependancy of the s^d Colonies on
the Imperial Crown and Parliam^t of Great Britain." Which
Resolutions were founded on a full Examination of the
Papers on our Table, manifesting a Denyal of the Legislative
Authority of the Crown & Parliam^t of Great Britain, to impose
Duties & Taxes on our North American Colonies & a Criminal
Resistance thereof made to the Execution of the Commercial
& other Regulations of the Stamp Act, & of other Acts of
Parliam^t We are of opinion that the Total Repealing of that
Law, especially whilst such Resistance continues would (as
Gov^r Bernard says is their Intention) make the Authority of
Great Britain, contemptible hereafter: And that such a Sub-
mission of King, Lords & Commons under such circumstances
in so Strange & unheard of a Contest, would in Effect Sur-
render their antient unalienable Rights of Supreme Jurisdic-
tion, & give them exclusively to the Subordinate Provincial
Legislatures established by Prerogative: w^ch was never
intended or thought of, & is not in the Power of Prerogative
to bestow, as they are inseparable from the 3 Estates of the
Realm Assembled in Parliament.
2^dly Because the Law, w^ch this Bill now proposes to Repeal,
was pass'd in the other House, w^th very little opposition and
in this without one Dissentient Voice during the last Session
of Parliam^t which we presume, if it had been wholly & funda-
mentally Wrong, could, not Possibly have happen'd as the
matter of it is so Important, & as the Intention of bringing it
in had been communicated to the Commons by the first Corn-
missr of his Majestys Treasury, the year before, & a Resolu-
tion relating & preparatory to it was then Agreed to in that
House without any Division.
3^dly Because If any particular parts of that Law, the
Principle of which has been experienced & Submitted to in
this Country without repining, for near a Century past had
been found liable to Just & reasonable Objections, they might
have been Alter'd by a Bill to explain & amend it, without
repealing the whole: and if any such Bill had been sent to us
by the Commons, We sho^d have thought it our Duty to have
given it a most serious Consideration, w^th a warm Desire of