Petition, Memorial, and Remonstrance from the House of Burgesses(1769)

MS 1996.10
11 pp.

Petition, Memorial, and Remonstrance prepared by the House of Burgesses to protest the Townshend duties. Consists of: “The Petition to His Majesty” (pp. 1–2), “The Memorial to the House of Lords” (pp. 3–7), and “The Remonstrance to the House of Commons” (pp. 7–11). Printed by William Rind in Williamsburg. Includes signature of Washington’s neighbor and friend George William Fairfax of Belvoir Plantation (member of Governor’s Council, cousin of the Northern Neck proprietor, and collector of customs for the South Potomac Naval District) on recto.

This copy was once owned by David Hartley, Member of Parliament (1774–1780, 1782–1784) and the sole British signatory of the 1783 treaty which formally ended the American War for Independence. Hartley had long and vigorously supported freedoms for all Englishmen at home and in the Colonies. He was also Benjamin Franklin’s friend and correspondent (from before 1768 until Franklin died in 1790).

The Petition, Memorial and Remonstrance acknowledges the right of Parliament to regulate American trade but denies Parliament’s right to pass internal legislation for the American colonies. The General Assembly emphasizes its loyalty to the King and Parliament but affirms its role as “the sole constitutional REPRESENTATIVES of his Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal Subjects, the PEOPLE of Virginia.” The Assembly objects to the Townshend Duties and the suspension of the assembly of New York. The Assembly, in the Remonstrance, warns the House of Commons that “British Patriots will never consent to the Exercise of anti-constitutional Powers” and that if they are forced to submit, they “will be compelled to contract themselves within their little Spheres, and obliged to content themselves with their home-spun Manufactures.”

Transcript

Page 1

G.W. Fairfax

( 1 )

The
PETITION
TO HIS
MAJESTY.

To the KING’s MOST EXCELLENT
MAJESTY.

MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,

YOUR Majesty’s most loyal and dutiful Subjects, the COUNCIL, and
the BURGESSES of Virginia, now met in General Assembly, not dis-
couraged by a too well grounded Apprehension that their Conduct
has been unfavourably represented to your Royal Ear, but rely-
ing with the most implicit Confidence on your Majesty’s known Justice,
and most gracious Disposition towards all your loving Subjects, how far
so ever removed, humbly beg leave to approach your Royal Presence with
the warmest Assurances of their most cordial and inviolable Attachment
to your sacred Person and Government.

THEY do, with the highest Sense of Gratitude, acknowledge the many
great and signal Benefits they have reaped from their Parent Kingdom,
under the glorious and auspicious Reigns of your Majesty and your Royal
Ancestors; and, with all Humility, submit to your Princely Considera-
tion the Tenour of their whole Conduct, and that of their Forefathers,
as the most lively Evidence of their Duty and Affection.

THEY humbly embrace this Occasion to reiterate their unfeigned
Thanks to your Majesty, for the gracious and ready Assent to the Re-
peal

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peal of the late oppressive Stamp-Act; but, at the same Time, they can-
not sufficiently lament the Shortness of that Interval of Happiness they
have enjoyed between so agreeable and pleasing an Event, and the enact-
ing several late Acts of the British Parliament, equally burthensome to
your Majesty’s Colonies in general, and, as they most humbly conceive,
equally derogatory to those constitutional Privileges and Immunities,
which they, the Heirs and Descendants of free born Britons, have ever
esteemed their unquestionable and invaluable Birthrights.

THEY, therefore, prostrating themselves at the Foot of your Throne,
most humbly implore your Fatherly Goodness and Protection of this and
all their Sister Colonies, in the Enjoyment of their antient and inestimable
Right of being governed by such Laws only, respecting their internal
Polity and Taxation, as are derived from their own Consent, with the
Approbation of their Sovereign; a Right, which, as Freemen founding
their Claim upon the vital Principles of the British Constitution, they
have exercised without Interruption; and which, as they humbly con-
ceive, has been frequently recognized and confirmed to them. And they
do assure your Majesty with that Truth and Sincerity, which Duty, Gra-
titude and Affection to the best of Kings ought ever to inspire, that they
will, at all Times, exert their best Endeavours, even at the Expence of
their Lives and Fortunes, to promote the Glory of your Majesty’s Reign,
and the Prosperity of Great-Britain; upon which, they are convinced,
their own Security and Happiness does essentially depend.

THAT your Majesty may long and gloriously reign in the Hearts of a
free and happy People, is the most ardent Prayer of your Majesty’s most
faithful and dutiful Subjects,

The COUNCIL, and
The Burgesses and REPRENTATIVES
of the PEOPLE of VIRGINIA.

THE

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THE
MEMORIAL
TO THE
House of LORDS.

TO the Right Honourable the LORDS Spiritual
and Temporal, in Parliament assembled,

The Memorial of his Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal Subjects, the COUNCIL,
and the BURGESSES and REPRESENTATIVES of the PEOPLE of VIR-
GINIA, now met in General Assembly,

HUMBLY REPRESENTS,

THAT your Memorialists are so truly sensible of the Happiness and
Security they derive from their Connexions with and Depend-
ance upon Great-Britain, the Parent Kingdom of this and all his
Majesty’s other Colonies in America, that they cannot but be
impressed with the deepest Concern, that any unlucky Incident should
ever have interrupted that salutary and pleasing Harmony, which they
wish ever to subsist. They acknowledge the Wisdom and Justice of Par-
liament, in repealing the late oppressive Stamp-Act, though they must
consider several recent Acts of the British Legislature as equally subversive
of those constitutional Principles of Liberty and Freedom, which they
and their Ancestors have ever esteemed their indisputable Birthrights, as
of the immediate Heirs and Descendants of free-born Britons.

YOUR Memorialists cannot sufficiently lament, that the Remoteness of
their Situation from the Seat of his Majesty’s Empire too often exposes
them to such Misrepresentations, as are apt to involve them in Censures of
Disloyalty to their Most Gracious Sovereign, and the Want of a proper
Respect and Deference to the British Parliament; whereas they have ever
indulged themselves in the agreeable Persuasion, that they had entitled
themselves to be considered as inferior to none of their Fellow-Subjects,
in any Parts of his Majesty’s Dominions, for Duty or Affection. They
therefore humbly hope, that an Application to your Lordships, the fixed
and

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and hereditary Guardians of British Liberty, upon so important an Oc-
casion, will not be thought improper, but that the Grievances of a whole
People will be regarded as Objects worthy your most serious Attention.

THEY presume not to claim any other than the natural Rights of
British Subjects. The fundamental and vital Principles of their happy
Government, so universally admired, is known to consists in this, that no
Power on Earth has a Right to impose Taxes upon the People, or to take
the smallest Portion of their Property, without their Consent, given
by their Representatives in Parliament; this has ever been esteemed the
chief Pillar of their Constitution, the very Palladium of their Liberties.
If this Principle is suffered to decay, the Constitution must expire with it,
as no Man can enjoy even the Shadow of Freedom, if his Property, ac-
quired by his own Industry and the Sweat of his Brow, may be wrested
from him, at the Will of another, without his own Consent.

THIS Truth is so well established, that it is unnecessary to attempt
a Demonstration of it to Englishmen, who feel the Principle firmly im-
planted in them, diffusing through their whole Frame Complacency and
Chearfulness.

IN this happy Situation lived the Ancestors of your Memorialists, when
they first undertook, with the Approbation of their Sovereigns, but at
the Expence of their Blood and their own Treasure, to explore and settle
these new Regions. The natural and constitutional Rights and Privi-
leges which they had enjoyed in their native Country, your Memorialists
humbly conceive, could not be lost or forfeited by their Migration to
America, but were brought over by them intire, and transmitted to their
Descendants inviolate.

LET not your Memorialists, my LORDS, be misunderstood; they affect
not, they do not wish an Independency of their Parent Kingdom, but
rejoice in their reciprocal Connexions, which they know are essential
to the Happiness of both. They have been cherished, they have been
protected by their Mother Country, and acknowledge themselves bound
by every Tie of Gratitude and Affection to embrace all Opportunities of
promoting the Prosperity of Great-Britain, to the utmost of their Abilit-
ties. They chearfully acquiesce in the Authority of Parliament to make
Laws for preserving this necessary Dependance, yet they cannot conceive,
and humbly insist that it is not essential to this Purpose, or to support a
proper Relation between a Mother Country and Colonies transplanted from
her, that she should have a Right to raise Money upon them without their
Consent.

THE Trade of the Colonies, almost as soon as it became an Object wor-
thy the National Attention, was laid such Restrictions as were
thought necessary to secure their Dependance, and promote the Interest of
the whole extended Empire. The natural Rights and first Principles of
the English Constitution were very early ingrafted into the Constitutions
of the Colonies: Hence a Legislative Authority, ever essential in all free
States,

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States, was derived and assimilated, as nearly as might be, to that in Eng-
land; the Crown reserving to itself the executive Authority of Govern-
ment and the Power of assenting and dissenting to all Laws; but the
Privilege of choosing their own Representatives was continued in the
People, and confirmed to them by repeated and express Stipulations. The
Constitution and Government of this Colony being thus fixed and esta-
blished, your Memorialists and their Ancestors enjoyed the Fruits of their
own Labour, with a Security, which Liberty only can impart. Upon
pressing and emergent Occasions, not with their own Powers and Redress,
they frequently applied to their King and common Father, and repeatedly,
they own it with Gratitude, have received reasonable Reliefs from their
Mother Country. On the other Hand, when his Majesty has had Occasion
for the Assistance of his dutiful Subjects in America, Requisitions have
been constantly made from the Crown by the King’s Governors, to the
Representatives of the People, who have complied with them, to the ut-
most Extent of their Abilities. The ample and adequate Provision made
by the Assemblies of this Colony in the Reign of King Charles the Second,
and upon his Requisition, for the Support of the civil Government, by an
Impost of two Shillings Sterling per Hogshead upon all our Tobacco ex-
ported, one Shilling and three Pence per Ton upon Ships and Vessels,
and six Pence per Poll upon all Persons imported, except Mariners; the
many and large Supplies voted during the Course of the last War, upon
Requisitions from his Majesty and his Royal Grandfather, afford both
early and recent Instances of the Disposition of the Assemblies of this
Colony to do every Thing that could reasonably be asked or expected from
them; and are at the same Time incontestable Proofs that the Parliament
of Great-Britain never, until very lately, assumed a Power of imposing
Taxes on the People of the Colonies, for the Purposes of raising a Reve-
nue, or supporting the Contingencies of Government.

TO say that the Parliament of Great-Britain has a constitutional Authority
and Right to impose internal Taxes on the Inhabitants of this Continent,
who are not, and, from the Nature of their Situation, cannot be represented
in the House of Commons, is, in a Word, as your Memorialists most hum-
bly conceive, to command them to bid Adieu to their natural and civil
Liberties, and prepare for a State of Slavery. The Commons of Great-
Britain can impose no Tax on the People there, without burtherning them-
selves in some Proportion; if their Taxes should be disagreeable and grievous
to their Constituents, the Constitution has not left the People without a
Remedy. But what, my LORDS, must be the Situation of the Colonists,
if an Authority and Right to tax them should be established in the British
Parliament? Unrepresented as they are, and for ever must be, their Grie-
vances cannot be fairly and properly explained; they have it not in
their Power, if they are to be taxed, to point out the Mode least burthen-
some to themselves; the Parliament bears no Share of the Taxes im-
posed on the Colonies, and their Doom will generally be determined
before they receive the least Intelligence that a Subject had been agitated
in Parliament, whereby they or their Interests might be affected. The
Notion of a virtual Representation has been so often and clearly refuted,
that

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that your Memorialists decline troubling your Lordships with any Obser-
vations on that Head.

THE Stamp-Act, so often and justly complained of, confessedly imposed
internal Taxes on the Colonies; and several late Acts of Parliament plain-
ly, as your Memorialists conceive, tend to the same Point. That the
Parliament may make Laws for regulating the Trade of the Colonies has
been granted; sometimes Duties have been imposed to restrain the Com-
merce of one Part of the Empire, that was like to prove injurious to
another, and by this Means the general Welfare of the Whole may have
been promoted: But a Tax imposed upon such of the British Exports,
as are Necessaries of Life, to be paid by the Colonists upon Importation,
and this, not with the most distant View of the Interests of Commerce,
but merely to raise a Revenue, or in plainer Words, to compel the Colo-
nists to part with their Money against their Inclinations, your Memori-
alists conceive to be a Tax internal to all Intents and Purposes.

OF this Sort your Memorialists cannot but consider the late Act of
Parliament, granting certain Duties in the British Colonies and Planta-
tions in America; the Preamble of the Act plainly speaks the Design of
it; and can it, my LORDS, be thought just or reasonable that the Colo-
nists, restricted as they are in their Trade of every Kind, should be com-
pelled to pay Duties on the Articles enumerated in this Act? They have
long been restrained from purchasing many of the Necessaries of Life
at any other, than the British Market; they are confined in their Exports
also; and now are told that they shall not have such Necessaries, with-
out paying a Duty for them. The Stamp-Act imposed a Duty upon cer-
tain Instruments of Writing, and, by the late Act, the Colonies are to be
compelled to pay a Duty upon every Slip of Paper, they use in the most
ordinary Occurrences of Life.

THE Purposes of Government, which are said to be the chief Objects
of this Act, your Memorialists have shewn were long since provided for
in this Colony; this is again remarked, not that your Memorialists would
claim any particular, exclusive Merit from it, but to shew how easily our
internal Concerns may be mistaken at the Distance of three Thousand
Miles; for, had this been attended to, your Memorialists are unwilling
to suppose, that the Parliament would have imposed Taxes on a Colony
for Purposes amply provided for in that Colony. The Manner also in
which this Act is to be executed, your Memorialists are apprehensive may,
in Time, prove destructive to the Liberties of the People.

THE Act suspending the Legislative Power of the Province of New-York,
your Memorialists cannot but consider as still more alarming to the Colo-
nies in general, though it has that single Province in View, as its imme-
diate Object. If the Parliament has a Right to compel the Colonies to
furnish a single Article for the Troops sent over to America, by the same
Rule, they may oblige them to furnish Cloaths, Arms, and every other
Thing, even the Pay of the Officers and Soldiers; a Doctrine replete with
every

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every Kind of Mischief, and utterly subversive of every Thing dear and
valuable to us. For what Advantage could the People of the Colonies derive
from their Right of choosing their own Representatives, if those Represen-
tatives, when chosen, not permitted to exercise their own Judgments, were
under a Necessity (on Pain of being deprived of their Legislative Autho-
rity) of enforcing the Mandates of a British Parliament, though ever so
injurious to the Interests of the Colony they represent? Your Memo-
rialists could enlarge upon this disagreeable Subject, but fear they have
already trespassed too far upon your Lordships Time and Patience. They
have communicated to your Lordships, and it is hoped with the greatest
Decency and Respect, the Sentiments of a free and loyal People. It only
remains for them to beseech your Lordships, with that Earnestness which
the Importance of the Subject inspires, to use your Parliamentary Power
and Influence, in procuring a Repeal of the above recited Acts of Parlia-
ment, and in securing to us, his Majesty’s most dutiful, though distant
Subjects, the full Enjoyment of all our natural and constitutional Rights
and Privileges.

THE
REMONSTRANCE
TO THE
HOUSE OF COMMONS.

TO the Honourable the KNIGHTS, CITIZENS,
and BURGESSES of GREAT-BRITAIN, in
Parliament assembled,

THE COUNCIL, and the HOUSE of BRUGESSES, the sole constitu-
tional REPRESENTATIVES of his Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal
Subjects, the PEOPLE of Virginia, now met in General Assembly,
having taken into their most serious Consideration the State of
this Colony, with due Deference and Respect to the Wisdom of the Repre-
sentatives of the Commons of Great-Britain, remonstrate as follows:

IT is with equal Grief and Amazement that the Remonstrants have
learnt, that they have been represented in Great-Britain as disloyal to
their Most Gracious Sovereign, and disaffected to his Government, since,
by

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by their whole Conduct they have endeavoured to approve themselves
second to none of their Fellow Subjects, in any Part of his Majesty’s Do-
minions, for Duty and Affection.

THEY are truly sensible of the Happiness and Security they derive from
their Connexions with and Dependance upon Great-Britain, their Parent
Kingdom; and as they have at all Times exerted their best Endeavours
to make such suitable Returns, on their Parts, as might render the Conti-
nuance of those Connexions permanent, and equally desirable to both,
they cannot but feel the deepest Concern, that any Incidents should have
interrupted that pleasing Harmony, which they wish ever to subsist.

AS Members of the British Empire, they presume not to claim any
other than the common, unquestionable Rights of British Subjects, who,
by a fundamental and vital Principle of their Constitution, cannot be sub-
jected to any Kind of Taxation, or have the smallest Portion of their Pro-
perty taken from them by any Power on Earth, without their Consent
given by their Representatives in Parliament; this Pillar of their Consti-
tution, the very Palladium of their Liberties, hath been so zealously
preserved by the House of Commons of Great-Britain, that they have
never suffered any other Branch of their Legislature to make the smallest
Amendment or Alteration in any of their Supply Bills, lest it should
be drawn into Precedent, and considered as a Cession of so dear and essen-
tial a Right and Privilege.

IF this Principle is ever suffered to decay, the Constitution must pine
away and expire with it; as no Man can enjoy even the Shadow of Liber-
ty or Freedom, if his Property, acquired by his own Labour and Industry,
can be wrested from him at the Will of another. To attempt demonstrating
this to an Englishman must surely be unnecessary; he feels the Principle
within him, and it diffuses through his whole Frame that Complacency and
Chearfulness, without which he could not live at Ease.

OUR Ancestors, who, at the Expence of their Blood and Treasure, first
explored and settled these new Regions, being entitled to these natural and
constitutional Rights, could not forfeit or lose them by their Migration to
America, not as Vagabonds and Fugitives, but with the License and under
the Encouragement of their Sovereigns, being animated with the laudable
Desire of enlarging the English Dominion, and extending its Commerce;
but on the contrary they brought these their common Birthrights over
with them entire, and transmitted them inviolate to us their Posterity.

LET not the Remonstrants be misunderstood, as affecting or wishing an
Independency of Great-Britain; they rather rejoice in that constitutional
Connexion, which they know is essential to the Happiness of both; they
have been cherished, they have been kindly protected by her, and cannot
but indulge themselves with the Persuasion, that the Benefits which have
redounded, and which daily accrue to their Mother Country from her
Trade with the Colonies, have hitherto proved, and still continue, an ade-
quate and ample Recompence for such Protection.
THEY

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They have acquiesced in the Authority of Parliament to make Laws for
preserving a necessary Dependance, yet they cannot think it essential to
this Purpose, or to preserve a proper Relation between a Parent Kingdom
and Colonies transplanted from her, that she should raise Money upon
them without their Consent. The Trade of the Colonies, almost as soon
as it became an Object worthy the national Attention, was laid under such
Restrictions, as were thought necessary to secure their Dependance and pro-
mote the Interest of the whole extended Empire. The natural Rights and
first Principles of the English Constitution were very early ingrafted into
the Constitutions of the Colonies: Hence a Legislative Authority, which
has always been thought essential in every free State, was derived and as-
similated, as nearly as might be, to that established in England; the Crown
reserving to itself the executive Authority of Government and the Pow-
er of assenting and dissenting to all Laws; but the Privilege of choosing
their own Representatives was continued in the People, and confirmed to
them by repeated and express Stipulations. The Constitution and Govern-
ment of this Colony being thus established and fixed, the Remonstrants
and their Ancestors enjoyed the perfect Sweets of Liberty and Freedom.
Upon pressing and emergent Occasions, not within their own Powers of Re-
dress, they have frequently applied to their King and common Father, and
often, they own it with Gratitude, have received reasonable Reliefs from their
Mother Country. On the other Hand, when his Majesty has had Occasion
for the Assistance of his dutiful Subjects in America, Requisitions have been
constantly made from the Crown by the King’s Governors to the Repre-
sentatives of the People, who have complied with them to the utmost of
their Abilities. The ample and adequate Provision made by the Assembly
of this Colony, so long ago as the Reign of King Charles the Second, and
upon his Requisitions, for Support of the civil Government, by an Impost of
two Shillings Sterling per Hogshead on all Tobacco exported, one Shil-
ling and three Pence Tonnage upon all Ships and Vessels, and six Pence
per Poll on all Persons imported, except Mariners, with the many and large
Supplies, exceeding Half a Million voted during the Course of the last War,
upon Requisitions made to the Assembly of this Colony by his Majesty and
his Royal Grandfather, afford both early and recent Instances of the Dis-
position of the Assemblies of this Colony, to do every Thing that could
reasonably be desired or expected of them; and at the same Time are in-
contestable Proofs that the Commons of Great-Britain never, until very late-
ly, assumed a Power of imposing Taxers on the People of the Colonies for
the Purposes of Raising a Revenue, or supporting the Contingencies of Go-
vernment. To say that the Commons of Great-Britain have a constitu-
tional Right and Authority to give and grant, at their Pleasure, the Proper-
ties of the People in the Colonies, or to impose an internal Tax of any
Kind upon them, who are not, and cannot, from the Nature of their Si-
tuation, be represented in their House of Commons, is in a Word, to
command them to bid Adieu to their natural and civil Liberties, and to
prepare for a State of the most abject Slavery.

THE Commons of Great-Britain can impose no Tax on the People
there, without burthening themselves in some Proportion; if the Taxes
they impose should be thought grievous or unnecessary, the Constitution
hath

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hath not left the People without a proper Remedy. But what must be the
Situation of the Colonists, if the late and new broached Doctrine should
prevail? Unrepresented as they are, and for ever must be, they can have
no Opportunity of explaining their just Grievances; and if they are to be
taxed, of pointing out the least inconvenient and burthensome Mode of
doing it; in short, their Doom will generally be pronounced, before they
can receive the least Intelligence that a Subject, whereby they or their In-
terests might be affected, hath been agitated in Parliament.

THE Notion of a virtual Representation hath been so often and fully re-
futed, that it surely is unnecessary to multiply Words on that Head; if
the Property, the Liberties, the Lives of Millions of his Majesty’s most
dutiful Subjects are merely ideal, how deplorable must be their Condi-
tion!

THE late oppressive Stamp-Act, so often and justly complained of, in
repealing which, your Remonstrants have repeatedly acknowledged the
Wisdom and Justice of Parliament, did confessedly impose a Tax on the
Colonists merely internal; and the Remonstrants cannot but consider se-
veral late Acts of the British Parliament, as tending directly to the same
Point. That the Parliament may make Laws for regulating the Trade of
the Colonies, has been granted; sometimes Duties have been properly
enough imposed to restrain the Commerce of one Part of the Empire, that
might prove injurious to another; and by this Means, the general Wel-
fare of the whole may have been promoted; but a Tax imposed upon the
real Necessaries of Life, for the sole Purpose of raising a Revenue, or in
other Words, to compel the Inhabitants of the Colonies to pay large Sums
of Money, whether they will or not, and this, not with a View to the
general Interests of Commerce, the Remonstrants must ever think a mere
internal Tax to all Intents and Purposes. Of this Sort they cannot but
consider a late Act of Parliament “giving and granting certain Duties
in the British Colonies and Plantations in America;” the Preamble plain-
ly speaks the Design of the Act; and can it be thought just, or reasonable,
that the Colonists, restricted as they are in every Branch of their Trade,
should be obliged to pay Duties and the Articles enumerated in this Act?
They are, in the first Place, by former Laws prohibited from purchasing
these Necessaries of Life at any other than the British Market; they are
confined in their Exports also; by this they are to be compelled to pay
severe Duties on such Necessaries. By the Stamp-Act they were forbid,
under grievous Penalties, transacting all Sorts of important Business, ex-
cept upon stampt Paper; by this Act they are inhibited the Use of Paper,
in the most common and ordinary Occurrences, unless they will first sub-
mit to pay a Duty for it. The Purposes of Government, which are said
to be the chief Objects of this Act, the Remonstrants have shewn, were
long since provided for by an ample and perpetual Act of Assembly; this
is again remarked, not because the Remonstrants would claim any parti-
cular exclusive Merit from it, but to shew how easily their internal Con-
cerns may be mistaken at the Distance of three Thousand Miles; they
being unwilling to believe, that, had this Circumstance been attended to,
the Parliament would have imposed Taxes on this Colony for Purpose
already

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already provided for. The Manner in which this Act is to be executed,
the Remonstrants cannot but consider as extremely dangerous to the
Liberties of the People.

THE Act suspending the Legislative Power of the Province of New-York,
your Remonstrants consider as still more alarming to the Colonies in general,
though it has that single Province in View, as its immediate Object. If the
Parliament has a Right to compel the Colonies to furnish a single Article
for the Troops sent over to America, by the same Rule of Right they may
compel them to furnish Cloaths, Arms, and every other Necessary, even
the Pay of the Officers and Soldiers; a Doctrine replete with every Kind
of Mischief, and utterly subversive of all that is dear and valuable to
them. For what Advantage could the People of the Colonies derive from
their Right of choosing their own Representatives, if those Representa-
tives, when chosen, not permitted to exercise their own Judgments, were
under a Necessity (on Pain of being deprived of their Legislative Autho-
rity) of enforcing the Mandates of a British Parliament?

THUS have the Remonstrants expressed, and they trust with decent Firm-
ness, the Sentiments of a free and loyal People; it is hoped that the Honoura-
ble House of Commons will no longer prosecute Measures, which they, who
are designed to suffer under them, must ever consider as much fitter for Exiles,
driven from their native Country after having ignominiously forfeited her
Favours and Protection, than for the Posterity of Britons, who have been
at all Times anxious and sollicitous to demonstrate their Respect and Af-
fection for their Mother Kingdom, by embracing every Occasion to pro-
mote her Prosperity and Glory; but that British Patriots will never con-
sent to the Exercise of anti-constitutional Powers, which even in these
remote Corners, may, in Time, prove dangerous in their Example to the
interior Parts of the British Empire. Should the Remonstrants be dis-
appointed in these Hopes, the necessary Result will be, that the Colonists,
reduced to extreme Poverty, will be compelled to contract themselves
within their little Spheres, and obliged to content themselves with their
home-spun Manufactures.

WILLIAMSBURG:
Printed by WILLIAM RIND, Printer to the Colony.
M.DCC.LXIX.

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