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INSTRUCTIONS TO JASPER MAUDUIT1

SIR,Our late Agent William Bollan, Esqr., having by his letters of the 8th of May 1761, of the 12th of February, and the 15th of March last, Copies of which will be transmitted you with this, informed the General Court that the Province's power of Legislation is like to be nearly, affected if not called in Question, by the Requisition of a suspending Clause in our Acts, and that in certain Cases, at least, they shall not take Effect untill they shall have received the Royal Sanction.

We are also informed by the same Gentleman, that many powerful Reasons have for a long" Time called "for a thorough Examination in order for a full proof and firm Establishment of the Original, inherent and just Title of the Colonies in America to the Rights, Liberties and Benefits of the State, whereof they were Members, when they prosecuted this noble Enterprize, and of which by their great Expence, Toil and Peril in inlarging the Dominions for the Common good, they continued perfect Members, and from whom of Course these Rights descended to their Posterity."

The natural Rights of the Colonists, we humbly conceive to be the same with those of all other British Subjects, and indeed of all Mankind. The principal of these Rights is to be "free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the Will or Legislative Authority of Man, but to have only the Law of Nature for his Rule."

1 June 12, 1762, the Council named Thomas Hutchinson and James Bowdoin, and the House, Thomas Cushing, Colonel John Phillips and Royall Tyler, to prepare during the recess of the Court a letter of instructions to Mauduit. To these instructions were added the like instructions sent to Bollan. Mass. Arch., xxII. 247. The draft of these instructions is in Mass. Arch., LVI. 386, and is in three different writings.

Our political or Civil Rights will be best understood by beginning at the Foundation, "The Liberty of all Men in society is to be under no other legislative power but that established by Consent in the Commonwealth, nor under the Dominion of any Will or Restraint of any Law, but what such legislative shall enact, according to the trust put in it. In General freedom of Men under Government, is to have standing fundamental Rules to live by, common to every one of that Society, and made by the legislative power erected in it; a Liberty to follow my own will in all things where that Rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown arbitrary will of another Man; as freedom of Nature is to be under no Restraint but the law of Nature.' This Liberty is not only the Right of Britons, and British Subjects, but the Right of all Men in Society, and is so inherent, that they Can't give it up without becoming Slaves, by which they forfeit even life itself. Civil Society great or small, is but the Union of many, for the Mutual Preservation of Life, Liberty and Estate. These notions of Liberty had the Ancient Greeks and Romans, and the same Ideas had our Ancestors in Britain, long before the discovery of America. Most of the Transactions from the Grant of Magna Charta to the Revolution may be considered as one continued Struggle between Prince and People, all tending to that happy Establishment, which Great Britain has since enjoyed and is every day increasing to perfection.

The Allegiance of British Subjects being perpetual and inseparable from their persons, so while they are in the Breach of none of the Laws of their Country, is their Liberty. No Reason can be given why a man should be abridg'd in his Liberty, by removing from Europe to America, any more than by his removing from London to Dover,

or from one side of a street to the other. So long as he remains a British Subject, so long must he be intitled to all the privileges of such an one: The most essential and fundamental of these Priviledges, are by no means local, that is, confined to the Realm; but by the Common law, by the Constitution and by particular Acts of Parliament extended throughout the Dominions. The particulars of these priviledges are to be found in Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, and in almost every publick Transaction, since the Revolution. By the Laws of Nature and of Nations, which in this Instance at least, are the voice of universal Reason, and of God, when a Nation takes possession of desert, uncultivated and uninhabited Countries, or which to our present purpose is the same thing, of a Country inhabited by Salvages, who are without Laws and Government, and settles a Colony there; such Country tho' separated from the principal Establishment or Mother Country, naturally becomes part of the State, equally with its antient possessions. This is not only Confirmed by the Practice of the Antients, but by the Moderns, ever since the Discovery of America. Frenchmen, Portugals, and Spaniards are no greater Slaves abroad than at home, and by Analogy Britains should be as free on one side of the Atlantic as on the other.

That this is the sense of the British Parliament is among many instances that might be cited very evident from the 13th G: 2nd C: 7. By this Act even Foreigners having lived seven Years in any of the British Colonies are deemed Natives, on taking the Oaths of Allegiance, etc., and are declared by said Act, to be his Majesty's natural born Subjects, of the Kingdom of Great Britain, to all intents, Constructions and purposes, as if any, or every of them, had been or were born within the Kingdom. The Reasons

given for this Naturalization, in the Preamble of the Act are, that "the Increase of the People is the Means of advancing the wealth and Strength of any Nation or Country, and that many Foreigners and Strangers from the Lenity of our Government, the Purity of our Religion, the Benefit of our Laws, the advantages of our Trade, and the security of our property, might be induced to come and settle in some of his Majesty's Colonies in America, if they were made partakers of the advantages and privileges which the natural born Subjects of this Realm do there enjoy."

It seems a little strange that after this explicit declaration of the Parliament, made no longer since, than the 13th Year of the last Reign, that any of the Colonies should be called upon by their agent, and earnestly pressed for a full proof and firm Establishment of their original and inherent Rights.

It is now near three Hundred Years since America was. first discovered, and that by, British Subjects, and near ten Generations have passed away, thro' various Toils and many bloody Conflicts, in settling this Country. None of these ever dreamt, but what they were intitled to equal Priviledges, with those of the same Rank, born within the Realm. We have heard it from our Fathers, and their Fathers told it unto them, that British America was ever to be distinguished from the slavish Colonies round about it, as the fortunate Britains are from their Neighbours, upon the Continent of Europe. We humbly conceive that it is for the Interest of Great Britain that her Colonies should be thus distinguished. It is agreed by some very judicious English Writers, that the Expeditions made by our antient Princes, however they might enlarge their power, and exalt their glory, were far enough from being serviceable to the Liberty or property of the Subjects. The

figure Great Britain now makes, arises from Maxims embraced in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, and which have been in a measure adhered to ever since, and are daily improving by Practice. This wise Queen is thought to have laid the Real Foundation of that. Wealth, power and true Glory which we rejoice to see our illustrious Sovereign in the full possession of. She among other great things, promoted the Navigation and Commerce of her subjects, open'd a free passage for them to both the Indies, and excited that spirit which induced her Subjects to make Settlements in the most distant parts of the Globe.

Some things indeed of a very disagreeable kind, (even in her Reign, and much more so, in every Reign afterwards till the Revolution) conspired to hasten these Settlements. These furnish a very striking proof, that the great Author of Nature, and the kind Father of us all, has made the sorest temporal Evils, Civil war and discord subservient to his allwise purposes, and productive of great temporal good. To the freedom of the British Constitution, and to their Increase of Commerce, it is owing, that these Colonies have flourished, without diminishing the inhabitants of the mother Country, contrary to the Effects of plantations made by most other Countries, which have suffered at home, in order to aggrandize themselves abroad.

Great Britain is well known to have increased prodigiously both in Numbers and in wealth, since she began to Colonize. There are very good judges, who scruple not to affirm, that it is to the Growth of the plantations Great Britain is indebted for her present Strength, and populousness. As the wild wastes in America have been turned into pleasant Habitations, and flourishing trading Towns, so many of the little Villages, and obscure Burroughs in England, have put on a New Face, suddenly started up and

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