were not
ashamed to say, that they sympathized with the feelings of our
merchants. The universal alarm of the whole trading body of England,
will never be laughed at by them as an ill-grounded or a pretended
panic. The universal desire of that body will always have great weight
with them in every consideration connected with commerce: neither ought
the opinion of that body to be slighted (notwithstanding the
contemptuous and indecent language of this author and his associates) in
any consideration whatsoever of revenue. Nothing amongst us is more
quickly or deeply affected by taxes of any kind than trade; and if an
American tax was a real relief to England, no part of the community
would be sooner or more materially relieved by it than our merchants.
But they well know that the trade of England must be more burdened by
one penny raised in America, than by three in England; and if that penny
be raised with the uneasiness, the discontent, and the confusion of
America, more than by ten.

If the opinion and wish of the landed interest is a motive, and it is a
fair and just one, for taking away a real and large revenue, the desire
of the trading interest of England ought to be a just ground for taking
away a tax of little better than speculation, which was to be collected
by a war, which was to be kept up with the perpetual discontent of those
who were to be affected by it, and the value of whose produce even after
the _ordinary_ charges of collection, was very uncertain;[87] after the
_extraordinary_, the dearest purchased revenue that ever was made by any
nation.

These were some of the motives drawn from principles of convenience for
that repeal. When the object came to be more narrowly inspected, every
motive concurred. These colonies were evidently founded in subservience
to the commerce of Great Britain. From this principle, the whole system
of our laws concerning them became a system of restriction. A double
monopoly was established on the part of the parent country; 1. A
monopoly of their whole import, which is to be altogether from Great
Britain; 2. A monopoly of all their export, which is to be nowhere but
to Great Britain, as far as it can serve any purpose here. On the same
idea it was contrived that they should send all their products to us
raw, and in their first state; and that they should take everything from
us in the last stage of manufacture.

Were ever a people under such circumstances, that is, a peop