The Virginia Gazette

NUMBER II.

To the PARLIAMENT of VIRGINIA.

Gentlemen,

Names have an Influence upon Things. It is by hearing often of the Attributes of Kings that we forget they are Men. It is because we have heard so much of the unlimited Power of Parliament in Britain that some People have thought it wrong to limit it in America. It is because some of the Rights of the Colonies have been founded upon Charters that these Colonies have been supposed to be upon the same Footing with incorporated Towns. It is because our supreme legislative Bodies in America have been called Assemblies, or Houses of Burgesses, that they have been treated as inferior to the legislative Body in Britain. And lastly, it is because of our latter Birth that we have been abridged of the Privileges of Children, to which the Relation we bear to our King entitles us, in common with our Brethren and Fellow Subjects in Britain.

As you claim the Honour of your being the first of the Colonies that asserted its exclusive legislative Power, I have taken the Liberty of addressing this Letter to you, to request that you would set another laudable Example to the Colonies, by burying the Name of a House of Burgesses in that of a Parliament. This Innovation is the more necessary at the present Juncture from the late Revival of the Claim of the British Parliament to tax us, through the Medium of the East India Company. I need not tell you, that you possess all the Powers of a British Parliament over your own Colony. You have no Superior but the King. or his Representative who resides amongst you. Should you acknowledge the Power of the British Parliament to tax you, you will have no Security against the Encroachments of the first Parliament in America that shall become more powerful than yourselves. The British Parliament is nothing but your elder Sister. Affection is due to her, but Obedience is a Tribute due only to the King. You derived your Parliament, with all its free and ample Powers, from a Contract equally solemn and binding with that signed by King John at Runnymede. You have nothing to fear, for Centuries to come, while you continue under the Protection of the Crown. You are defended against its Encroachments by the Power you have derived from the People. Your Parliament is the sole Palladium of your Liberty. Should the King of Britain ever invade your Rights, he ceases, according to the Principles of the British Constitution, to be King of the Dominion of Virginia.

These are Sentiments of true Loyalty, as well as Liberty. They are designed to rescue your Parliament from the usurped Jurisdiction of your elder Sister, and to place it, under proper Limitations, in the Hands of the King. Did the Ministers of our Sovereign fully comprehend the Nature and Extent of their Master's Prerogative in America, they would impeach that Man for high Treason who first broached the Right of the British Parliament to tax the Colonies.

This, Gentlemen, is the Only Basis upon which you can claim or support your Privileges. In the Distinctions which have been aimed at, of external and internal Taxes, there are inexplicable Difficulties, which have served only to weaken the Nerves of Patriotism in America. No superior Wisdom or Eloquence will be necessary to explain or enforce your Claims, while they are founded upon the simple Principles of the British Constitution. The System of the British Empire can only be regulated by these Principles. If Wheels are thus taken out of a Wheel, the single Hand of Justice will be sufficient to set the whole Machine in Motion. Wisdom will hardly be necessary to keep it in Order.

HAMP DEN.