icans ever dispute the controlling power of
Parliament to regulate the commerce?

A.--No.

Q.--Can anything less than a military force carry the Stamp Act
into execution??

A.--I do not see how a military force can be applied to that
purpose.

Q.--Why may it not?

A.--Suppose a military force sent into America, they will find
nobody in arms; what are they then to do? They cannot force a man
to take stamps, who refuses to do without them. They will not find
a rebellion; they may indeed make one.

Q.--If the Act is not repealed, what do you think will be the
consequences?

A.--A total loss of the respect and affection the people of America
bear to this country, and of all the commerce that depends on that
respect and affection.

Q.--How can the commerce be affected?

A.--You will find that, if the Act is not repealed, they will take
very little of your manufactures in a short time.

Q.--Is it in their power to do without them?

A.--I think they may very well do without them.

Q.--Is it their interest not to take them?

A.--The goods they take from Britain are either necessaries, mere
conveniences, or superfluities. The first, as cloth, etc., with a
little industry they can make at home; the second they can do
without, till they are able to provide them among themselves; and
the last, which are much the greatest part, they will strike off
immediately. They are mere articles of fashion, purchased and
consumed because the fashion in a respected country, but will now
be detested and rejected. The people have already struck off, by
general agreement, the use of all goods fashionable in mournings,
and many thousand pounds worth are sent back as unsaleable.

Q.--Suppose an Act of internal regulations connected with a tax,
how would they receive it?

A.--I think it would be objected to.

Q.--Then no regulation with a tax would be submitted to?

A.--Their opinion is, that when aids to the Crown are wanted, they
are to be asked of the several Assemblies, according to the
old-established usage, who will, as they always have done, grant
them freely; and that their money ought not to be given away
without their consent by persons at a distance, unacquainted with
their circumstances and abilities. The granti