h is to be found the following
extraordinary clause: "Be it farther declared that, if any of the
governors, or any person or persons in authority there, shall refuse
to yield obedience to this act, such refusal is hereby declared to be
a forfeiture of all and every [_sic_] the charters granted for the
government and propriety of such plantations."

The English statute book furnishes many instances in which the
legislative power of parliament over the colonies was extended to
regulations completely internal; and it is not recollected that their
authority was in any case openly controverted.

In the middle and southern provinces, no question respecting the
supremacy of parliament, in matters of general legislation, ever
existed. The authority of such acts of internal regulation as were
made for America, as well as of those for the regulation of commerce,
even by the imposition of duties, provided those duties were imposed
for the purpose of regulation, had been at all times admitted. But
these colonies, however they might acknowledge the supremacy of
parliament in other respects, denied the right of that body to tax
them internally.

Their submission to the act for establishing a general post office,
which raised a revenue on the carriage of letters, was not thought a
dereliction of this principle; because that regulation was not
considered as a tax, but as a compensation for a service rendered,
which every person might accept or decline. And all the duties on
trade were understood to be imposed, rather with a view to prevent
foreign commerce, than to raise a revenue. Perhaps the legality of
such acts was the less questioned, because they were not rigorously
executed, and their violation was sometimes designedly overlooked. A
scheme for taxing the colonies by authority of parliament had been
formed so early as the year 1739, and recommended to government by a
club of American merchants, at whose head was sir William Keith,
governor of Pennsylvania. In this scheme, it was proposed to raise a
body of regulars, to be stationed along the western frontier of the
British settlements, for the protection of the Indian traders; the
expense of which establishment was to be paid with monies arising from
a duty on stamped paper and parchment in all the colonies. This plan,
however, was not countenanced by those in power; and seems never to
have been seriously taken up by the government until the year 1754.
The attention of the mi