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must accrue to themselves and their Constituents by the
operation of the several Acts of Parliament imposing Duties
and Taxes on the American Colonies.
As it is a Subject in which every Colony is deeply inter-
ested, they have no Reason to doubt but your Assembly is
duly impressed with its Importance, and that such constitu-
tional Measures will be taken by them as are proper. It
seems to be necessary that all possible Care should be taken
the Representations of the several Assemblies upon so deli-
cate a Point should harmonize with each other. The House
therefore hope that this Letter will be candidly considered in
no other Light than as expressing a Disposition freely to
communicate their mind to a Sister Colony upon a common
Concern in the same manner as they would be glad to receive
the Sentiments of your or any other House of Assembly on
the Continent.
The House have humbly represented to the Ministry their
own Sentiments: That His Maty's high Court of Parliament
is the supreme legislative Power over the whole Empire ;
That in all free States the Constitution is fixed ; And as the
supreme Legislature derives its Power and Authority from
the Constitution, it cannot overleap the Bounds of it without
destroying its own Foundation; That the Constitution ascer-
tains and limits both Sovereignty and Allegiance, and there-
fore His Maty's American Subjects who acknowledge them-
selves bound by the Ties of Allegiance have an equitable
claim to the full Enjoyment of the fundamental Rules of the
British Constitution; That it is an essential unalterable Right
in Nature, ingrafted into the British Constitution as a funda-
mental Law, and ever held Sacred and irrevocable by the Sub-
jects within the Realm, that what a man has honestly acquired
is absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but cannot be
taken from him without his Consent; That the American Sub-
jects may therefore, exclusive of any Consideration of Charter
Rights, with a decent Firmness adapted to the character of
free Men and Subjects, assert this natural constitutional Right.
It is, moreover, their humble Opinion, which they express
with the greatest Deference to the Wisdom of Parliament, that
the Acts made there imposing Duties on the People of this
Province, with the sole and express Purpose of raising a
Revenue, are Infringements of their natural constitutional
Rights, because as they are not represented in the British Par-
liament, His Maty's Commons in Britain by those Acts grant
their Property without their Consent.
This House further are of Opinion that their Constituents
considering their local Circumstances cannot by any Possibility
be represented in the Parliament, and that it will forever be
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