be induc'd by the interposition and persuasion of some private friends,
to accommodate matters amicably. I then waited on my old friend and
correspondent, Mr. Peter Collinson, who told me that John Hanbury, the
great Virginia merchant, had requested to be informed when I should
arrive, that he might carry me to Lord Granville's, who was then
President of the Council and wished to see me as soon as possible. I
agreed to go with him the next morning. Accordingly Mr. Hanbury called
for me and took me in his carriage to that nobleman's, who receiv'd me
with great civility; and after some questions respecting the present
state of affairs in America and discourse thereupon, he said to me:
"You Americans have wrong ideas of the nature of your constitution; you
contend that the king's instructions to his governors are not laws, and
think yourselves at liberty to regard or disregard them at your own
discretion. But those instructions are not like the pocket
instructions given to a minister going abroad, for regulating his
conduct in some trifling point of ceremony. They are first drawn up by
judges learned in the laws; they are then considered, debated, and
perhaps amended in Council, after which they are signed by the king.
They are then, so far as they relate to you, the law of the land, for
the king is the LEGISLATOR OF THE COLONIES." I told his lordship this
was new doctrine to me. I had always understood from our charters that
our laws were to be made by our Assemblies, to be presented indeed to
the king for his royal assent, but that being once given the king could
not repeal or alter them. And as the Assemblies could not make
permanent laws without his assent, so neither could he make a law for
them without theirs. He assur'd me I was totally mistaken. I did not
think so, however, and his lordship's conversation having a little
alarm'd me as to what might be the sentiments of the court concerning
us, I wrote it down as soon as I return'd to my lodgings. I
recollected that about 20 years before, a clause in a bill brought into
Parliament by the ministry had propos'd to make the king's instructions
laws in the colonies, but the clause was thrown out by the Commons, for
which we adored them as our friends and friends of liberty, till by
their conduct towards us in 1765 it seem'd that they had refus'd that
point of sovereignty to the king only that they might reserve it for
themselves.

After some days, Dr. Fothe