The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Boston [Mass.]) 1770-1772, 1771-12-19
NUMB. a..

bi,ants of-taid colony ~ az Sa!-s Wn2seFSf1
as by &C. III. is dselated.
The charter las in The lait number was
obfcfvel) is all the bond OF unioh ! know Of,
between Great. Britain and the MahAchuieiIs,
and ia that there is not fylab'e of conaita-
tional fubietfion to the authority OF the BIZ
tin parliament. Indeed the very nature Of
a parliament abhors the idea ofany authority
underived from the people over whom the
authority is TO be exercled F; lords OF paria-
ment being therein guardians Of their own
right, and commons, of theirs and coni'i'u-
eats. But though 70 abfurd claim mutt
render ferrous refutation Of it ridiculous to
men Of understanding AMI honeRy, the inAI-
ence il now has upon our whole intcrnal po-
hey will execute fair expolal OF i to the ap-
prehenion Of every one BlackRoneCom.
|. .. IoI. fays, But as Ireland was dif-
tin2 dominion, and had parlaments of It's
own, it is TO be obGerved, that the imTemo-
rial cufoms, or common law, OF England
were made the ride efjgfiee in Ireland ALTO,
yet no acts of.the Eugliih parliament, iince
the twelfth of King John, extended to that
kingdom; unleis il were ipecialIy named, or
included under general words, fuch as,
Z" within any of the Kings dominions."---
And this is particularly expreiled, and the
reafon given in the year books /: " A tax
granted by the parliament of England ihall
not bind thofe OF Ireland, becaufc they are
no, 6,mroned 10 our parliament" And
again, Ireland hath parliament OF its own,
and maketh and altereth laws and our TIA
tutes do not bind them, becaule they do not
fcnd knights to our parliament. The gene
raj run Of laws, Jays Backbone, enaeted BY a
hyperion Fate, are fuppofed to be calculated
for its own internal government, and do not
extend to its diGant dependent countries
which, bearing nc part in the Legislature, are
not therefore in its ordinary and daily con-
temptation. This indeed aries from fun
dameutal article in the contribution which
as the fame author, p. Is8, obieryes, conf
ders, that in free fate, every man, who 10
fuppofed free agent, ought to be, IN lome
meafure, his own governor and therefore
branch at leaf of the Legislative power
fhould relide in the whole body of the Peo.-
pie. And herein fays he, p. is4, indeed
coniifis the true excellence of the Engliih
government, that all parts Of it form mutual
check upon each other. In the Legislature
the people are check upon the nobllity,and
the nobility upon the people, by the mutual
privilege of rejecting what the other has re-
foIved. In this check OF the people there
fore reGdes their contttutional freedom and
political happiness; and hence may be clearly
underfood the propriety Of the 10 frequently
mentioned political maxim, that pssOEr 1Vifb>
out CHECK is t,ranny.
If therefore Governor Bufchinfon holds
the Britifh parliament TO be the fGPreme e-
gllature for this colony, it behoves him TO
(lew By what means the commons Of Great
Britain, become the representatives. Of the
Americans. That the people in common,
or even the high and mighty Lords of Brtains
ever Stained foot of America in their own
right, is unknown to me and how they be-
come entitled to the proju9 Of foil, which
thoufands of them know as linle Of, as they
do Of the mountains in the moon, Judge
Backbone himlelf, prefune, would be
puzzled to account for. If tksy are then,
neither in their own right, nor by delegation,
the representatives of the Americans, and
vet pretend to bind the Americans BY ediGis
Of their formation, and take from them whaE