The Order of the Day being read for the second reading of the Bill, entituled, An Act to repeal an act made in the last session of parliament, entituled, An Act for granting and applying certain stamp duties and other duties in the British Colonies and Plantations in America,...Then the said Bill was read a second Time, and it being proposed to commit the Bill, the same was objected to. After a long Debate thereupon, the Question was put, Whether the said Bill shall be committed: It was resolved in the Affirmative.

Because, as this House has in this Session by several resolutions most solemnly asserted and declared, first, “That the King’s Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons of Great Britain, in Parliament assembled, had, hath, and of right ought to have,

full power and authority, to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the Colonies, and people of America, subjects of the Crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever:”

Secondly, “That tumults and insurrections of the most dangerous nature have been raised and carried on in several of the North American Colonies, in open defiance of the power and dignity of his Majesty’s Government,

and in manifest violation of the laws and legislative authority of this Kingdom:” Thirdly, “That the said tumults and insurrections have been encouraged and inflamed, by sundry votes and resolutions passed in several of the Assemblies of the said Provinces, derogatory to the honour of his Majesty’s Government,

and destructive of the legal and constitutional dependency of the said Colonies, on the imperial Crown and Parliament of Great Britain”:

Which resolutions were founded on a full examination of the papers on our table, manifesting a

denial of the legislative authority of the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain,

to impose duties and taxes on our North American Colonies;

and a criminal resistance

there made to the execution of the commercial and other regulations of the Stamp Act, and of other acts of parliament: we are of opinion, that the total repealing of that law, especially while such resistance continues, would (as Governor Barnarde says is their intention) “make the authority of Great Britain contemptible hereafter:”

and that such a submission of King, Lords, and Commons, under such circumstances, in so strange and unheard of a contest, would in effect, surrender their antient, unalienable rights of supreme jurisdiction,

and give them exclusively to the subordinate Provincial Legislatures established by prerogative;

which was never intended or thought of, and is not in the power of prerogative to bestow;

as they are inseparable from the Three Estates of the Realm assembled in Parliament.

Because the law, which this Bill now proposes to repeal, was passed in the other House with very little opposition, and in this without one dissentient voice, during the last session of Parliament, which we presume, if it had been wholly and fundamentally wrong, could not possibly have happened; as the matter of it is so important,

and as the intention of bringing of it in, had been communicated to the Commons by the first Commissioner of the Treasury the year before, and a resolution relating and preparatory*

to it was then agreed to in that House, without any division.†

Because, if any particular parts of that law, the principle of which has been experienced and submitted to in this country, without repining,

for near a century past, had been found liable to just and reasonable objections, [these might have been altered by a bill for the purpose, and had the Commons sent the Lords such an amending bill, it would have been our duty to give it] a most serious consideration, with a warm desire of relieving our countrymen in America from any grievance or hardship;

but with proper care to enforce their submission and obedience to the law so amended,

and to the whole legislative authority of Great Britain, without any reserve or distinction whatsoever.

Because, it appears to us, that a most essential branch of that authority, the power of Taxation, cannot be properly, equitably or impartially exercised, if it does not extend itself to all the members of the state in proportion to their respective abilities;

but suffers a part to be exempt from a due share of those burthens, which the public exigencies require to be imposed upon the whole:

a partiality which is directly and manifestly repugnant to the trust reposed by the people in every legislature, and destructive of that confidence on which all government is founded.

Because, the ability of our North American Colonies, to bear without inconveniency the proportion laid on them by the Stamp Act of last year, appears to us most unquestionable, for the following reasons:

First, That the estimated produce of this Tax, amounting to sixty thousand pounds per Annum,

if divided amongst twelve hundred thousand people (being little more than one half of the subjects of the Crown in North America) would be only one shilling per head a year; which is but a third of the wages usually paid to every labourer or manufacturer there for one day’s labour:

Secondly, That it appears by the accounts that have been laid before this House from the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, that of the debt contracted by those Colonies in the last war, above £1,755,000 has already been discharged during the course of three years only, by the funds provided for that purpose in the several Provinces;

and the much greater part of the remaining incumbrance, which in the whole is about 760,000 pounds, will be paid in two years more:

We must likewise observe, that the bounties and advantages given to them by Parliament in 1764 and 1765,

and the duties thereby lost to Great Britain for their service, and in order to enable them the more easily to pay this Tax,

must necessarily amount in a few years to a far greater sum than the produce thereof. It is also evident, that such produce being wholly appropriated to the payment of the army maintained by this Kingdom in our Colonies,

at the vast expence of almost a shilling in the pound land tax, annually remitted by us for their special defence and protection;

not only no money would have been actually drawn by it out of that country,

but the ease given by it to the people of Great Britain, who are labouring under a debt of seventy millions, contracted by them to support a very dangerous war, entered into for the interest and security of those Colonies,

would have redounded to the benefit of the Colonies themselves in their own immediate safety, by contributing to deliver them from the necessary expence, which many of them have hitherto always borne, in guarding their frontiers against the savage Indians.

Because, not only the right, but the expediency and necessity of the supreme legislature,

exerting its authority to lay a general tax on our American Colonies, whenever the wants of the public make it fitting and reasonable, that all the Provinces should contribute in a proper proportion to the defence of the whole, appear to us undeniable, from these considerations: First, that every Province being separate and independent on the others, and having no Common Council

impowered by the constitution of the Colonies to act for all, or bind all, such a tax cannot regularly, or without infinite difficulty, be imposed upon them* at any time,

even for their immediate defence or protection, by their own provincial assemblies; but requires the intervention and superintending power of the Parliament of Great Britain. Secondly, That in looking forwards to the possible contingency of a new war, a contingency perhaps not far remote, the prospect of the burthens which the gentry and people of this Kingdom must then sustain, in addition to those, which now lie so heavy upon them, is so melancholy and dreadful,

that we cannot but feel it, a most indispensible duty to ease them

as much as is possible, by a due and moderate exertion of that great right, which the constitution of this realm has vested in the Parliament,

to provide for the safety of all, by a proportionable charge upon all, equally and indifferently laid. We likewise apprehend, that a partial exemption of our Colonies from any exercise of this right by the British Legislature, would be thought so invidious, and so unjust

to the other subjects of the Crown of Great Britain, as to alienate the hearts of these from their Countrymen residing in America,

to the great detriment of the latter, who have on many occasions received, and may again want assistance, from the generous warmth of their affection.

Because, the reasons assigned in the public resolutions of the Provincial Assemblies, in the North American Colonies, for their disobeying the Stamp Act, viz. “That they are not represented in the Parliament of Great Britain,” extends to all other laws, of what nature soever,

which that Parliament has enacted, or shall enact, to bind them in times to come, and must (if admitted) set them absolutely free from any obedience to the power of the British Legislature;

we likewise observe, that in a letter to Mr. Secretary Conway, dated the 12th of October 1765; the commander in chief of his Majesty’s forces in North America has declared his opinion, “That the Question is not of the inexpediency of the Stamp Act, or of the inability of the Colonies to pay the Tax; but that it is unconstitutional and contrary to their Rights, supporting the independency of the Provinces, and not subject to the legislative power of Great Britain.” It is moreover affirmed, in a letter to Mr. Conway, dated 7th November, “That the people in general are averse to Taxes of any kind;

and that the merchants of that place think they have a right to every freedom of trade which the subjects of Great Britain now enjoy.”

This opinion of theirs strikes directly at the Act of Navigation, and other subsequent laws, which from time to time have been made in the wise policy of that Act;

and should they ever be encouraged to procure for themselves that absolute freedom of trade, which they appear to desire, our plantations would become, not only of no benefit,

but in the highest degree prejudicial to the commerce and welfare of their Mother-country;

nor is it easy to conceive a greater encouragement, than the repealing of a law opposed by them on such principles, and with so much contempt of the Sovereignty of the British Legislature.

Because, the appearance of weakness and timidity in the Government and Parliament of this kingdom, which a concession of this nature may too probably carry with it,

has a manifest tendency to draw on further insults, and by lessening the respect of all his Majesty’s subjects to the dignity of his Crown,

and authority of his Laws,

throw the whole British empire into a miserable state of confusion and anarchy, with which it seems by many symptoms to be dangerously threatned; and this is the more to be feared, as the plea of our North American Colonies, that not being represented in the Parliament of Great Britain, they ought not to pay Taxes imposed or levied upon them by the authority thereof, may by the same reasoning be extended to all persons in this Island, who do not actually vote for Members of Parliament;

nor can we help apprehending, that the opinion of some countenance being given to such notions by the Legislature itself, in consenting to this Bill, for the Repeal of the Stamp Act, may greatly promote the contagion of a most dangerous doctrine, destructive to all Government,

which has spread itself over all our North American Colonies, that the obedience of the subject is not due to the Laws and Legislature of the Realm, farther than he in his private judgment shall think it comformable to the ideas he has formed of a free constitution.

Because, we think it no effectual guard, or security against this danger, that the Parliament has declared in the resolutions of both Houses, passed during this session, and now reduced into a Bill, That such notions are ill founded; as men will always look more to deeds than words, and may therefore incline to believe, that the insurrections in our Colonies, excited by those notions, having so far proved successful, as to attain the very point, at which they aimed, the immediate repeal of the Stamp Act, without any previous submission on the part of the Colonies; the Legislature has in fact submitted to them, and has only more grievously injured its own dignity and authority, by verbally asserting that Right, which it substantially yields up to their Opposition.

The reasons assigned for this concession render it still more alarming, as they arise from an illegal and hostile combination of the people of America.

to distress and starve our Manufacturers, and to with-hold from our Merchants the payment of their just debts:

the former of which measures has only been practised in open war between two States; and the latter, we believe, not even in that situation, either by the public or by individuals, among the civilized nations of Europe, in modern times. If this unprecedented plan of intimidation shall meet with success,

it is easy to foresee, that the practice of it for other and still greater objects will frequently be renewed,

and our manufacturers and merchants reduced to the like, and more permanent distress;

we cannot therefore but wish, that some more eligible method, consistent with their future safety and our dignity, had been taken by Parliament, to shew our tender concern and compassion for their sufferings, and to discourage any other such unwarrantable attempts;

which we are fully persuaded would have been very practicable, with due care and attention, and at an expence very inferior to the importance of the object.

Because, we are convinced from the unanimous testimony of the Governors, and other officers of the Crown in America,

that if, by a most unhappy delay and neglect to provide for the due execution of the law, and arming the Government there with proper orders and powers, repeatedly called for in vain,

these disturbances had not been continued and encreased, they might easily have been quieted before they had attained to any dangerous height; and we cannot, without feeling the most lively sense of grief and indignation, hear arguments drawn from the progress of evils, which should and might have been stopped in their first and feeble beginnings,

used for the still greater evil of sacrificing to a present relief the highest permanent interest, and the whole Majesty, Power, and Reputation of Government: This afflicts us the more deeply, because it appears from many letters, that this law, if properly supported by Government, would from the peculiar circumstances attending the disobedience to it, execute itself without bloodshed.

And it is said one of the letters to Mr. Secretary Conway, “That the principal view is to intimidate the Parliament; but that if it be thought prudent to enforce their authority, the people dare not oppose a vigorous resolution of the Parliament of Great Britain.”

That vigorous resolution has not yet been found in the Parliament; and we greatly fear, that the want of it will certainly produce one of these two fatal consequences; either that the repeal of this law will in effect annull and abrogate all other laws and statutes*

relating to our Colonies, and particularly the Acts that restrain or limit their Commerce, of which they are most impatient,†

or, if we should hereafter attempt to enforce the execution of those laws against their will,

and by virtue of an authority, which they have dared to insult with impunity and success, that endeavour will bring upon us all those evils and inconveniencies, to the fear of which we now sacrifice the Sovereignty of the Realm;

and this at a time when the strength of our Colonies, as well as their desire of a total independence on the Legislature and Government of their Mother-country,

may be greatly augmented, and when the circumstances and dispositions of the other powers of Europe, may render the contest far more dangerous and formidable to this Kingdom. [Here follow the names of 33 peers who signed the Protest. bf underlined the names of two Scottish representative peers, the Earls of Eglintown and Abercorn, and that of the Earl of Ker, whose British earldom entitled the Scottish Duke of Roxburghe to sit in the House of Lords.]