Can you be so weak as to imagine that the two houses of parliament will allow you to set up a claim to uncontrollable authority in your several provinces? Perhaps you do not comprehend how this will in time reduce them, and consequently you to mere cyphers? I will inform you. The power of the crown is, of late, greatly encreased, by the vast number of places, which the last war, and the enormous growth of the national debt have left at its disposal. Give it also but the management of the colonies, exclusive of the parliament, and there needs no more, in a few years, to render it despotick. Undoubtedly, the weight of this consideration was what moved the British, to assume a superiority over the Irish parliament; and Ireland, considerable a country as it is, submits to their controul; how can you have the front to ask greater privileges? Indeed, till you are placed on a quite different footing, you cannot expect even this indulgence: such a number of scattered jarring governments would create so much embarrassment and perplexity, as to be quite unmanageable. Some of you complain that the privileges granted by your charters are invaded. But by whom, pray, were these privileges granted? By a king, who had no power, I mean legal power, to grant you any privileges, which rendered you independent of parliament, no more than he can make a corporation in England independent of it. Talk not then, of such privileges; the spirit of the British constitution could allow you none, by which you did not remain subordinate to every branch of the legislature, and consequently subordinate to parliament. The king makes but one member of the legislature, and it is self-evident he cannot give away the rights and privileges of the rest. He can grant any body of men a charter, by which they are empowered to make bye-laws for their own government, but farther his prerogative does not extend. He cannot free them from obedience to acts of parliaments. Another, and a general complaint is, that you are taxed by a body of men unacquainted with your circumstances. But who can be so well acquainted with the circumstances of the colonies in general, as the British parliament? It is composed of men very well versed in mercantile affairs, and much accustomed to the discussion of intricate questions; many of them are merchants, and merchants that trade to America and the West Indies. They are always ready to receive information from any hand, and never proceed to business of importance, till they have made the requisite inquiries. Nothing can be a better proof of this, than their conduct with regard to the stamp act. A year before it was passed, the ministers desired you to send agents over to London, in order to propose your objections to the whole, or any part of it; but you neglected this reasonable request; therefore, if the duty on some articles should be too high, you have none but yourselves to blame.