which
compose them. Much power is tolerated, and passes unquestioned, where
much is yielded to opinion. All is disputed, where everything is
enforced.

Such are our sentiments on the duty and policy of conforming to the
prejudices of a whole people, even where the foundation of such
prejudices may be false or disputable. But permit us to lay at your
Majesty's feet our deliberate judgment on the real merits of that
principle, the violation of which is the known ground and origin of
these troubles. We assure your Majesty, that, on our parts, we should
think ourselves unjustifiable, as good citizens, and not influenced by
the true spirit of Englishmen, if, with any effectual means of
prevention in our hands, we were to submit to taxes to which we did not
consent, either directly, or by a representation of the people securing
to us the substantial benefit of an absolutely free disposition of our
own property in that important case. And we add, Sir, that, if fortune,
instead of blessing us with a situation where we may have daily access
to the propitious presence of a gracious prince, had fixed us in
settlements on the remotest part of the globe, we must carry these
sentiments with us, as part of our being,--persuaded that the distance
of situation would render this privilege in the disposal of property but
the more necessary. If no provision had been made for it, such provision
ought to be made or permitted. Abuses of subordinate authority increase,
and all means of redress lessen, as the distance of the subject removes
him from the seat of the supreme power. What, in those circumstances,
can save him from the last extremes of indignity and oppression, but
something left in his own hands which may enable him to conciliate the
favor and control the excesses of government? When no means of power to
awe or to oblige are possessed, the strongest ties which connect mankind
in every relation, social and civil, and which teach them mutually to
respect each other, are broken. Independency, from that moment,
virtually exists. Its formal declaration will quickly follow. Such must
be our feelings for ourselves: we are not in possession of another rule
for our brethren.

When the late attempt practically to annihilate that inestimable
privilege was made, great disorders and tumults, very unhappily and very
naturally, arose from it. In this state of things, we were of opinion
that satisfaction ought instantly to be given, or that, at