The Pennsylvania Ledger, Or, The Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, & New Jersey Weekly Advertiser

of partial taxation over the Province of Pennsylvania, was at the time granted as a favour to Mr. Penn, who then had a strong personal interest with the Sovereign; Penn was a sensible penetrating man He knew the power to tax existed in the Sovereign; he therefore got the right transferred to the Parliament, lest he or some of his successors, should suffer under a tax laid on at the will and discretion of the Sovereign for the time being. This right was first vested in Parliament, at the Revolution. It was not to be sure a full Parliament, but a Convention, which laid a foundation for the privileges the nation now enjoys. From the time, the right has continued clearly in Parliament, in the three branches of the Legislative conjunctively; so that taking the right of taxing, as derived from the Sovereign through Parliament, in the manner here described, or considering it as inherently existing in the whole Legislature, as part of its very essence, the effect would be the same; but still it comes to this, that the supreme power retains the Sovereignty over its several subordinate members, and of course among the other various powers which it possesses, is constitutionally entitled to exercise the right of taxation, whenever the common interest or exigencies of the state, make it necessary.

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