ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a letter from a gentleman in London to a member of parliament. According to his notions of the English Constitution in particular, and indeed of all human Governments in general, there can be no qualified partial Allegiance or Obedience to the Laws; they exact from all an implicit Submission, in toto, and with a sovereign Superintendency watch over the Actions of every Individual. The Doctrine of the Colonists not only dictates to, but strikes at the very Root and Essence of the Constitution; and indeed the Example might be of the most calamitous Consequence to the State, if Englishmen were, at this Time of Day, to be instructed in their Privileges or Duty. The gentleman conceives that neither the Policy or Object of an Act of Parliament, are to be considered as the Means for determining the Legality of the Duty it enjoins, or the Tax it imposes.
