t, they prohibit our going to any
markets northward of Cape Finisterra, in the kingdom of Spain, for the
sale of commodities which Great Britian will not take from us, and for
the purchase of others, with which she cannot supply us; and that, for
no other than the arbitrary purpose of purchasing for themselves, by
a sacrifice of our rights and interests, certain privileges in their
commerce with an allied state, who, in confidence that their exclusive
trade with America will be continued, while the principles and power of
the British Parliament be the same, have indulged themselves in every
exorbitance which their avarice could dictate, or our necessities
extort; have raised their commodities called for in America, to
the double and treble of what they sold for, before such exclusive
privileges were given them, and of what better commodities of the same
kind would cost us elsewhere; and, at the same time, give us much less
for what we carry thither, than might be had at more convenient ports.
That these acts prohibit us from carrying, in quest of other purchasers,
the surplus of our tobaccos, remaining after the consumption of Great
Britain is supplied: so that we must leave them with the British
merchant, for whatever he will please to allow us, to be by him
re-shipped to foreign markets, where he will reap the benefits of
making sale of them for full value. That, to heighten still the idea of
Parliamentary justice, and to show with what moderation they are like to
exercise power, where themselves are to feel no part of its weight, we
take leave to mention to his Majesty certain other acts of the British
Parliament, by which they would prohibit us from manufacturing, for our
own use, the articles we raise on our own lands, with our own labor. By
an act passed in the fifth year of the reign of his late Majesty, King
George the Second, an American subject is forbidden to make a hat for
himself, of the fur which he has taken, perhaps on his own soil; an
instance of despotism, to which no parallel can be produced in the
most arbitrary ages of British history. By one other act, passed in
the twenty-third year of the same reign, the iron which we make, we are
forbidden to manufacture; and, heavy as that article is, and necessary
in every branch of husbandry, besides commission and insurance, we are
to pay freight for it to Great Britain, and freight for it back again,
for the purpose of supporting, not men, but machines, in th