it will behoove the reprefentatives of the people, CHAP. in an especial manner, to keep in their own hands, I. undiminished and unimpaired, as a facred depofit, the great and exclufive privilege of granting or withholding the fupplies. If the council, independent of the governor and the people, fhall once poffefs themfelves of the fmalleft fhare in this most important of all popular rights, they will become, from that moment, a ftanding fenate, and an infolent aristocracy.

will of an arbitrary and capricious governor (and I remember an inftance in Jamaica, of feven members being fufpended in one day, on a very frivolous pretence) their authority is very lightly regarded, and fometimes they are even treated with contempt and infult. On the other hand, if they were appointed for life, they might, in their legislative capacity, become formidable both to the king's reprefentative and the people. They might obftruct the fupplies for no better reafon than to get a new governor. I am of opinion, therefore, that they should ftill be amovable, but, in order to give them greater weight than they poffefs at present, they should be amovable only by the king's exprefs order, in confequence of a joint addrefs. from the commander in chief and the houfe of affembly.Their prefent conftitution certainly requires fome correction and amendment; the more fo, as in fome of the colonies they have fet up pretenfions of a very wide and extraordinary naThey have, at different times, claimed and exercised the power of arbitrarily imprifoning for contempt, and formerly even for fines laid by their own authority. They have claimed a right of originating public bills at their board, and even of amending money bills paffed by the affembly. They have alfo claimed the right of appropriating the public revenue, &c. &c. All thefe, and other pretenfions, are equally inconfiftent with their original appointment of a council of affiftants to the governor, and with the tenure by which they at prefent exift, and ought to be conftantly and firmly refifted by the people's reprefentatives.

ture.

VOL. II.

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CHAP.

322

BOOK

C II A P. II*.

Loufes of Affembly.-Prerogative denied to be in the Crown of eftab.ifhing in the Colonics Constitutions lefs free than that of Great Britain.—Most of the Brith Weft Indian lands fettled by Emigrants from the Mother Country-Royal Proclamations and Charters, Confirmations only of ancient Rights.-Barbadoes, and fome other Bands, originally made Counties Palatine.-Their local Legislatures how conftituted, and the Extent of their Jurifdiction pointed out.-Their Allegiance to, and Dependance on, the Crown of Great Britain, how fecured.—Conftit :tional Extent of Parliamentary Authority over them.

N treating of the affemblics, or popular branch VI. in the local fyftem of colonial adminiftration, I fhall first attempt to inveftigate the origin of the claim of the colonifts to legiflate for themfelves, by means of thofe affemblies, and to difplay the principles on which this claim was confirmed by the mother country. Afterwards, I fhall enquire by what

*In this chapter, the nature and neceflary uniformity of my work, compel me to tread over a field wherein the footfteps of a great many preceding writers are ftill vifible. I prefime not therefore to fancy that I can produce many new arguments myfelf, or give additional weight to thofe which have been advanced by others, on fubjects fo well underflood, and fo frequently and freely canvaffed during the late unhappy difputes with America. My aim will be anfwered, if, inftead of originality and novelty, I am found to poffefs perfpicuity and precision. Happily, the great rights of mankind are fisiently apparent, without the aid of logical deduction, and abthacted hypothefis.

means

II.

means their allegiance to the crown of Great Bri- CHAP. tain, and profitable fubordination to the British parliament, is fecured and maintained.

From the arguments that have been urged in the latter part of the preceding chapter, concerning a prerogative in the crown to inveft the colonial council boards with fome fhare of legiflative authority, I truft it will not follow that the Englifh conflitution has at any time lodged in the king the ftill greater prerogative of eftablishing in the British dependencies, fuch a form and fyftem of government as his majefty fhall think beft. It is furely one thing to fay, that the crown may introduce into the plantations fuch checks and controuls as are congenial to thofe inftitutions by which freedom is beft fecured in the mother coun try, and another to aver that the crown may withhold from the colonies the enjoyment of freedom altogether. Neverthelefs, were the maxim well founded, that the prerogative of the crown in arranging the fyftem of colonial establishments is unlimited, no conclufion could be drawn from it that would impeach, in the fmalleft degree, the claim of the British colonifts in America to a British conftitution; inafmuch as the fovereign, reprefenting the whole nation, repeatedly recognized in the first fettlers and their pofterity, by various folemn grants, proclamations, charters, and treaties, the fame liberties, privileges, and immunities which were poffeffed and enjoyed by their fellow fubjects remaining in Great Britain.

I know not, indeed, that thofe grants, proclamations, charters, and treaties, were effentially neceffary to freedom; for if, as I prefume I have fufficiently demonftrated on a former occafion*,

VI.

BOOK even a conquered ftate, retaining its ancient inhabitants, no fooner becomes ceded to Great Britain, than it is aflimilated to its government, and imbibes the fpirit of its free conftitution; if this, as I contend, is the law of England, it requires but little argument to prove that English fubjects, whether fettling in countries which their valour has annexed to the British dominion, or emigrating for the purpose of forming plantations on vacant or derelict lands, are entitled of right, fo long as they preferve their allegiance, to at leaft an equal degree of national protection, with adopted aliens and vanquished enemies. Some of our poffeffions in America and the Weft Indies (Jamaica in particular, as we have seen) were obtained by the forces of the ftate; the individuals of which became proprietors of the country which they had conquered. Other countries, as Barbadoes and Antigua, were found vacant and unoccupied, and were made valuable appendages to Great Britain, by the enterprizing fpirit and at the fole expence of a few private adventu rers. Even where the lands were forcibly taken from the ancient Indian inhabitants, though nothing can fanctify injuftice, yet the English title is unimpeachable by any other European power; and the English nation has received the benefit of the enterprize. Shall it then (to ufe an excellent and unanfwerable argument of Mr. Long on this fubject) fhall it be affirmed, that if English forces conquer, or English adventurers poffefs themfelves of diftant lands, and thereby extend the empire, and add to the trade and opulence of England; the Englishmen fo poffeffing and planting fuch territory, ought, in confideration

Hift. Jamaica.

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of the great fervices thereby effected to their CHAP. nation, to be treated worse than aliens, to forfeit all the rights of English fubjects, and to be left to the mercy of an abfolute and arbitrary form of government? Nothing furely can equal the abfurdity of fo favage a doctrine* !

Confidering, therefore, the further difcuffion of this point as fuperfluous, I come to the conclufion which neceffarily refults from the premifes, and

"Let us confider (fays Mr. Locke) a conqueror in a lawful war, and fee what power he gets, and over whom.

"First, he gets no power by his conqueft over thofe that conquered with him. They that fought on his fide cannot fuffer by the conqueft, but must at least be as much freemen as they were before. And moft commonly, they ferve upon terms, and on condition to fhare with their leader, and enjoy a part of the fpoil, and other advantages that attend the conquering fword, or, at leaft, have a part of the fubdued country beftowed upon them. And the conquering people are not, I hope, to be flaves by conqueft, and wear their laurels only to fhew they are facrifices to their leader's triumph. We are told by fome, that the English monarchy is founded in the Norman conqueft, and that our princes have thereby a title to abfolute dominion; which, if it were true (as by hiftory it appears otherwife) and that William had a right to make war on this ifland, yet his dominion by conqueft could reach no farther than to the Saxons and Britons, that were then inhabitants of this country. The Normans that came with him, and helped to conquer, and all defcended from them, are freemen, and no fubjects by conqueft; let that give what dominion it will."

So far Mr. Locke-His friend and correfpondent Mr. Mollyneux, of Dublin, in his Treatife of the Cafe of Ireland's being bound by English Acts of Parliament, repeats the fame argument, and illuftrates it as follows: "Suppofing (he ob ferves) that Hen. II. had a right to invade Ireland, and that he had been opposed therein by the inhabitants, it was only the ancient race of the Irish that could fuffer by this fubjugation; the English and Britons, that came over and conquered with him, retained all the freedoms and immunities of free-born fubjects: they, and their defcendants, could not in reafon lose these for being fuccefsful and victorious; for fo, the state of both conquerors and conquered fhall be equally flavifh."