constitutional measures will be come into as
are proper. It seems to be necessary, that all possible care should be
taken that the representations of the several assemblies, upon so
delicate a point, should harmonise with each other: the house,
therefore, hope that this letter will be candidly considered in no
other light, than as expressing a disposition freely to communicate
their mind to a sister colony, upon a common concern, in the same
manner as they would be glad to receive the sentiments of your or any
other house of assembly on the continent.

The house have humbly represented to the ministry their own
sentiments; that his majesty's high court of parliament is the supreme
legislative power over the whole empire: that in all free states the
constitution is fixed: and, as the supreme legislative derives its
power and authority from the constitution, it cannot overleap the
bounds of it, without destroying its foundation; that the constitution
ascertains and limits both sovereignty and allegiance; and therefore,
his majesty's American subjects who acknowledge themselves bound by
the ties of allegiance, have an equitable claim to the full enjoyment
of the fundamental rules of the British constitution; that it is an
essential unalterable right in nature, ingrafted into the British
constitution as a fundamental law, and ever held sacred and
irrevocable by the subjects within the realm, that what a man hath
honestly acquired is absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but
cannot be taken from him without his consent; that the American
subjects may therefore, exclusive of any consideration of charter
rights, with a decent firmness adapted to the character of freemen and
subjects, assert this natural and constitutional right.

It is moreover their humble opinion, which they express with the
greatest deference to the wisdom of the parliament, that the acts made
there, imposing duties on the people of this province, with the sole
and express purpose of raising a revenue, are infringements of their
natural and constitutional rights; because as they are not represented
in the British parliament, his majesty's commons in Britain by those
acts grant their property without their consent.

This house further are of opinion, that their constituents,
considering their local circumstances, cannot by any possibility be
represented in the parliament; and that it will forever be
impracticable that they should be equally repres