It must always be remembered, that they are represented by the same
virtual representation as the greater part of Englishmen; and that, if
by change of place, they have less share in the legislature than is
proportionate to their opulence, they, by their removal, gained that
opulence, and had originally, and have now, their choice of a vote at
home, or riches at a distance.
We are told, what appears to the old member and to others, a position
that must drive us into inextricable absurdity: that we have either no
right, or the sole right, of taxing the colonies. The meaning is, that
if we can tax them, they cannot tax themselves; and that if they can tax
themselves, we cannot tax them. We answer, with very little hesitation,
that, for the general use of the empire, we have the sole right of
taxing them. If they have contributed any thing in their own assemblies,
what they contributed was not paid, but given; it was not a tax or
tribute, but a present. Yet they have the natural and legal power of
levying money on themselves for provincial purposes, of providing for
their own expense at their own discretion. Let not this be thought new
or strange; it is the state of every parish in the kingdom.
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