1. That the first settlers in Virginia brought with them "all the privileges and immunities that have at any time been held" by "the people of Great Britain." 2. That their descendants held these rights. 3. That by two royal charters the people of Virginia had been declared entitled to all the rights of Englishmen "born within the realm of England." 4. That one of these rights was that of being taxed "by their own Assembly." 5. That they were not bound to obey any law taxing them without consent of their Assembly.[1] [Footnote 1: These resolutions, printed in full from Henry's manuscript copy, are in Channing's _The United States of America, 1765-1865, _pp. 51, 52. They were passed May 29, 1765.] Massachusetts followed with a call for a congress to meet at New York city. %112. Stamp-act Congress.%--To the congress thus called came delegates from all the colonies except New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. The session began at New York, on the 5th of October, 1765; and after sitting in secret for twenty days, the delegates from six of the nine colonies present (Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland) signed a "Declaration of Rights and Grievances." [1] [Footnote 1: This declaration is printed in full in Preston's _Documents Illustrative of American History_, pp. 188-191.] %113. Declaration of Rights.%--The ground taken in the declaration was: 1. That the Americans were subjects of the British crown. 2. That it was the natural right of a British subject to pay no taxes unless he had a voice in laying them. 3. That the Americans were not represented in Parliament. 4. That Parliament, therefore, could not tax them, and that an attempt to do so was an attack on the rights of Englishmen and the liberty of self-government. %114. Grievances.%--The grievances complained of were: 1. Taxation without representation. 2. Trial without jury (in the vice-admiralty courts). 3. The Sugar Act. 4. The Stamp Act. 5. Restrictions on trade. %115. The English View of Representation.%--We, in this country, do not consider a person represented in a legislature unless he can cast a vote for a member of that legislature. In Great Britain, not individuals but classes were represented. Thus, the clergy were represented by the bishops who sat in the House of Lords; the nobility, by the nobles who had seats in the House of Lords; and the mass of the people, the commons, by the members of the House of Commons. At that time, very few Englishmen could vote for a member of the House of Commons. Great cities like Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, did not send even one member. When the colonists held that they were not represented in Parliament because they did not elect any members of that body, Englishmen answered that they were represented, because they were commoners.