ning I can suggest
anything new upon the subject. The objections to it are very glaring,
and must strike the eyes of all those who have not their reasons for
shutting them against evident truth. I have no feelings or opinions on
this subject which I do not partake with all the sensible and informed
people that I meet with. At first I could scarcely meet with any one who
could believe that this scheme originated from the English government.
They considered it not only as absurd, but as something monstrous and
unnatural. In the first instance, it strikes at the power of this
country; in the end, at the union of the whole empire. I do not mean to
express, most certainly I do not entertain in my mind, anything
invidious concerning the superintending authority of Great Britain. But
if it be true that the several bodies which make up this complicated
mass are to be preserved as one empire, an authority sufficient to
preserve that unity, and by its equal weight and pressure to
consolidate the various parts that compose it, must reside somewhere:
that somewhere can only be in England. Possibly any one member,
distinctly taken, might decide in favor of that residence within itself;
but certainly no member would give its voice for any other except this.
So that I look upon the residence of the supreme power to be settled
here: not by force, or tyranny, or even by mere long usage, but by the
very nature of things, and the joint consent of the whole body.

If all this be admitted, then without question this country must have
the sole right to the imperial legislation: by which I mean that law
which regulates the polity and economy of the several parts, as they
relate to one another and to the whole. But if any of the parts, which
(not for oppression, but for order) are placed in a subordinate
situation, will assume to themselves the power of hindering or checking
the resort of their municipal subjects to the centre, or even to any
other part of the empire, they arrogate to themselves the imperial
rights, which do not, which cannot, belong to them, and, so far as in
them lies, destroy the happy arrangement of the entire empire.

A free communication by _discretionary residence_ is necessary to all
the other purposes of communication. For what purpose are the Irish and
Plantation laws sent hither, but as means of preserving this sovereign
constitution? Whether such a constitution was originally right or wrong
this is not the time of