ale of free legislation. So scrupulously was
the example of Chester followed, that the style of the preamble is
nearly the came with that of the Chester act; and, without affecting the
abstract extent of the authority of Parliament, it recognizes the equity
of not suffering any considerable district, in which the British
subjects may act as a body, to be taxed without their own voice in the
grant.

Now if the doctrines of policy contained in these preambles, and the
force of these examples in the acts of Parliament, avail anything, what
can be said against applying them with regard to America? Are not the
people of America as much Englishmen as the Welsh? The preamble of the
act of Henry the Eighth says, the Welsh speak a language no way
resembling that of his Majesty's English subjects. Are the Americana not
as numerous? If we may trust the learned and accurate Judge Barrington's
account of North Wales, and take that as a standard to measure the
rest, there is no comparison. The people cannot amount to above 200,000:
not a tenth part of the number in the colonies. Is America in rebellion?
Wales was hardly ever free from it. Have you attempted to govern America
by penal statutes? You made fifteen for Wales. But your legislative
authority is perfect with regard to America: was it less perfect in
Wales, Chester, and Durham? But America is virtually represented. What!
does the electric force of virtual representation more easily pass over
the Atlantic than pervade Wales, which lies in your neighborhood? or
than Chester and Durham, surrounded by abundance of representation that
is actual and palpable? But, Sir, your ancestors thought this sort of
virtual representation, however ample, to be totally insufficient for
the freedom of the inhabitants of territories that are so near, and
comparatively so inconsiderable. How, then, can I think it sufficient
for those which are infinitely greater, and infinitely more remote?

You will now, Sir, perhaps imagine that I am on the point of proposing
to you a scheme for a representation of the colonies in Parliament.
Perhaps I might be inclined to entertain some such thought; but a great
flood stops me in my course. _Opposuit Natura._ I cannot remove the
eternal barriers of the creation. The thing, in that mode, I do not know
to be possible. As I meddle with no theory, I do not absolutely assert
the impracticability of such a representation; but I do not see my way
to it; and those who