Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 287

relieving Our Country men in America from any Grievance or
Hardship but w^th proper care to enforce their Submission &
Obedience to the Law so amended, & to the whole Legislative
Authority of Great Britain without any Reserve or Distinction
whatsoever.
4^thly Because it appears to us, That a most essential
Branch of that Authority, The Power of Taxation, cannot be
properly equitably or impartially Exercised, if it does not
extend itself to all the members of the State in Proportion to
their respective Abilities, but Suffers a part to be Exempt
from a due Share of those Burthens w^ch the Public Exigencies
require to be Imposed on the Whole : A Partiality w^ch is
directly & Manifestly repugnant to the Trust reposed by the
People in every Legislature & Destructive of that Confidence
on w^ch all Government is founded.
5^thly Because the Ability of Our North American Colonies
to bear without Inconvenience the Proportion laid on them by
the Stamp Act of last year, appears to us most unquestionable
for the following reasons, First, That the Estimated Produce
of this Tax amounting to £60.000 p annum if divided amongst
Twelve hundred thousand People (being little more than one
half of the Subjects of the Crown in North America) would be
only one shilling per head, w^ch is but a third of the Wages
usually paid to every Labourer or Manufacturer there for one
Days Labour, Secondly, that it Appears by the Acco^ts w^ch have
been laid before this House from the Commissioners of Trade
& Plantations that of the Debt contracted by these Colonies
in the last war, above 1.750.000£ has been already discharged
during the course of 3 years only, by the funds provided for
that purpose in the several Provinces, & the much greater part
of the remaining Incumbrance w^ch in the whole is about
£760.000 will be paid in 2 years more. We must likewise
observe, That the Bounties & Advantages given to them by
Parliam^t in 1764 & 1765 & the Duties thereby lost to Great
Britain for their sake, & in Order to enable them the more
easily to Pay this Tax, must necessarily amount in a few years
to a far greater Sum than the produce thereof; It also evident
that such Produce being wholly appropriated to the Paym^t of
the Army maintained by this Kingdom in our Colonies, at the
Vast Expence of almost a shilling in the Pound Land Tax
annually remitted to us for their Special Defence & Protection,
not only no Moneys have been actually drawn by it out of
that country, but the ease given by it to the People of Great
Britain, who are labouring under a Debt of Seventy millions
contracted by them to Support a very dangerous war entred
into for the Interest and Security of those Colonies themselves,
in their own immediate Safety, & by contributing to deliver