Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 295

our Interposition, for many Obvious reasons would be peculi-
arly proper, We in Effect Annihilate this Branch of the Legis-
lature, and Vote ourselves Useless : Or If by Passing this
Bill We mean to Justify those Who in America, & even in
Great Britain, have treated a Series of British Acts of Parlia-
ment as so many Acts of Tyranny and Oppression, which it is
scarcely Criminal to resist, or those Officers of the Crown,
who, under the Eye and with the knowledge of Government,
have taken upon themselves whilst the Parliament was sitting
without its Consent, to Suspend the Execution of the Stamp
Act, by Admitting [vessels] from the Colonies, with
Unstamp'd Clearances, to an Entry, in direct Violation of it,
[as] from the Papers upon our Table, Appears to have been
done, We shall then give Our Approbation to an Open
Breach of the first Article of that great Palladium of our Lib-
erties, the Bill of Rights: by which it is declared, That the
pretended power of suspending of Laws, by Regal Authority
without Consent of Parliam^l is Illegal."
Lastly. If we ground our Proceedings upon the Opinion
of those who have Contended in this House, That from the
Constitution of our Colonies, they ought never to be Taxed
even for their own immediate Defence, We fear that such a
Declaration, by which near a 5^th part of the Subjects of Great
Britain, who by the Acts of Parliam^t to restrain the Pressing
of Seamen in America are already exempted from furnishing
men to our Navy, are to be for ever exempted from Contri-
buting their Share towards their own Support in Money like-
wise, Will from the Flagrant Partiality and Injustice of it
either depopulate this Kingdom, or shake the Basis of Equal-
ity, and of that Original Compact, upon which every Society
is founded and as we believe that there is no Instance of such
a Permanent Exemption of so large a Body of the Subjects of
any State in any History Antient or Modern, We are
extremely Apprehensive of the fatal Consequences of this
Unhappy Measure to which for these Reasons, in Addition to
those Contained in the Protest of the 11^th of this Month, Our
Duty to the King, and Justice to Our Country, Oblige us to
enter this our Solemn Dissent

Temple

Hyde

Buckingham

Tho^s Bristol

Suffolk & Berkshire

Essex

Abercorn

Marlborough

Bridgewater

W: Gloucester

Powis

Ferrers

Scarsdale

Sandwich

Gower

J. Bangor

Ker

Aylesford

R. Duresme

Cha^s Carlisle

Weymouth

Dudley & Ward

Lyttelton

Vere

Trevor

Leigh

Grosvenor

Eglinton