The Virginia Gazette

The Lords conclude their Protest to the Bill for better regulating the Government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, as follows:

'Parliament has asserted the Authority of the Legislature of this Kingdom, supreme and unlimited, over all the Members of the British Empire; but the legal Extent of this Authority furnishes no Argument in Favour of an unwarrantable Use of it. The Sense of the Nation on the Repeal of the Stamp Act was, "that, in Equity and Sound Policy, the Taxation of the Colonies, for the ordinary Purposes of Supply, ought to be forborn;" and that this Kingdom ought to satisfy itself with the Advantages to be derived from a flourishing and increasing Trade, and with the free Grants of the American Assemblies, as being far more beneficial, far more easily obtained, less oppressive, and more likely to be lasting, than any Revenue to be acquired by Parliamentary Taxes, accompanied by a total Alienation of the Affections of those who were to pay them. This Principle of Repeal was nothing more than a Return to the ancient standing Policy of this Empire. The unhappy Departure from it has led to that Course of Shifting, and contradictory Measures, which have since given Rise to such continued Contradictions, by which unadvised Plan new Duties have been imposed in the very Year after the former had been repealed, these new Duties afterwards in Part repealed and in Part continued, in Contradiction to the Principles upon which those repealed were given up; all which, with many weak, injudicious, and precipitate Steps taken to enforce a Compliance, have kept up that Jealousy; which on the Repeal of the Stamp Act was subsiding, revived dangerous Questions, and gradually estranged the Affections of the Colonies from the Mother Country, without any Object of Advantage to either. If the Force proposed should have its full Effect, that Effect, we greatly apprehend, may not continue longer than whilst the Sword is held up. To render the Colonies permanently advantageous, they must be satisfied with their Condition. That Satisfaction we see no Chance of restoring, whatever Measures may be pursued, except by recurring, in the Whole, to the wise and salutary Principles on which the Stamp Act was repealed.'