public Welfare) and violent commotions among the People? It will be in vain for any to expect that the people of this Country will now be contented with a partial and temporary relief, or that they will be amused by Court promises while they see not the least relaxation of Grievances. By the vigilance and activity of Committees of Correspondence among the several towns in the Province they have been wonderfully enlightened and animated. They are united in sentiment and their opposition to unconstitutional Measures of Government in become systematical, Colony communicates freely with Colony. There is a common Affection * * * * * * * * * * * * * whole continent is now become united in sentiment and opposition to tyranny. Their old good will and affection for the Parent Country is not however lost, if she returns to her former moderation and good humor their affection will revive. They wish for nothing more than permanent union with her upon the condition of equal liberty. This is all they have been contending for and nothing short of this will or ought to satisfy them. When formerly the Kings of England have encroached upon the Liberties of their Subjects, the subjects have thought it their Duty to themselves and their Posterity to contend with them until they were restored to the footing of the Constitution. The events of such struggles have sometimes proved fatal to Crowned Heads--perhaps they have never issued but Establishments of the People's Liberties. In those times it was not thought reasonable to say, that since the King had claimed such or such a Power the People MUST yield it to him because it would not be for the Honor of his Majesty to recede from his Claim. If the People of Britain must needs flatter themselves that they collectively are the Sovereign of America, America will never consent that they should govern them arbitrarily, or without known and stipulated Rules. But the matter is not so considered here: Britain and the Colonies are considered as distinct Governments under the King. Britain has a Constitution the envy of all Foreigners, to which it has ever been the safety as well of Kings as of subjects steadfastly to adhere. Each Colony has also a Constitution in its Charter or other Institution of Government; all of which agree in this that the fundamental Laws of the British Constitution shall be the Basis. That Constitution by no means admits of Legislation without representation. Why then should the Parliament of Britain which notwithstanding all its Ideas of transcendant Power must forever be circumscribed within the limits of that Constitution, insist upon the right of legislation for the people of America without their having Representation there? It cannot be justified by their own Constituion. The Laws of Nature and Reason abhor it; yet because she has claimed such a Power, her Honor truly is concerned still to assert and excise it, and she may not recede. Will such kind of reasoning bear the test of Examination! Or