[1763.] Mr. _Israel Mauduit_, the Massachusetts agent, gave early notice of the ministerial intentions to tax the colonies; but the general court not being called together till the latter end of the year, instructions to the agent, though solicited by him, could not be sent in season. [1764.] The house of representatives came to the following resolutions—“That the sole right of giving and granting the money of the people of that province, was vested in them as their legal representatives; and that the imposition of duties and taxes by the parliament of Great-Britain, upon a people who are not represented in the house of commons, is absolutely irreconcileable with their rights.” “That no man can justly take the property of another without his consent; upon which original principle, the right of representation in the same body which exercises the power of making laws for levying taxes, one of the main pillars of the _British constitution_, is evidently founded.” These resolutions were occasioned by intelligence of what had been done in the British house of commons. It had been there debated in March, whether they had a _right_ to tax the _Americans_, they not being represented, and determined unanimously in the affirmative. Not a single person present ventured to controvert the _right_. Soon after, the sugar or molasses act was passed; [April 5.] and “it is certainly true, that till then, no act avowedly for the purpose of revenue, and with the ordinary title and recital taken together, is found in the statute book. All before stood on _commercial_ regulations and restraints.”[71] It is stiled “an act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America, for continuing, amending, and making perpetual, an act passed in the sixth year of George the second (entitled an act for the better securing and encouraging the trade of his majesty’s colonies in America) for applying the produce of such duties, &c.” From its perpetuating the sugar act of George II. it is called the sugar or molasses act. It runs thus, “Whereas it is expedient that new provisions and regulations should be established in improving the revenue of this kingdom, and for extending and securing the navigation and commerce between Great-Britain and your majesty’s dominions in America—And whereas it is just and necessary, that a _revenue_ be raised in _America_ for defraying the expences of defending, protecting, and securing the same—We, the commons, &c. toward raising the same, give and grant unto your majesty, after the 29th of September, 1764, upon clayed sugar, indigo and coffee of foreign produce—upon all wines, except French—upon all wrought silks, Bengals and stuffs mixed with silk of Persia, China, or East-India manufacture—and all calicoes painted, printed or stained there (certain specified duties)—upon every gallon of molasses and syrups, being the produce of a colony not under the