George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

‘ [33] king governs by his prerogative;’¹ and Sir John Holt

chap. II.} 1748.

had said, ‘Virginia being a conquered country, their law is what the king pleases.’ But when, in 1711, New York, during the administration of Hunter, was left without a revenue, the high powers of parliament were the resource of the ministers; and they prepared a bill, reciting the neglect of the province, and imposing all the taxes which had been discontinued by its legislature. Northey and Raymond, the attorney and the solicitor general, lawyers of the greatest authority, approved the measure.² When, in 1724, a similar strife occurred between the crown and Jamaica, and some held that the king and his Privy Council had a right to levy taxes on the inhabitants of that island, the crown lawyers, Lord Hardwicke, then Sir Philip Yorke, and Sir Clement Wearg,³ made the memorable reply, that ‘a colony of English subjects cannot be taxed but by some representative body of their own, or by the parliament of England.’ That opinion impressed itself early and deeply on the mind of Lord Mansfield, and in October, 1744, when the neglect of Pennsylvania to render aid in the war had engaged the attention of the ministry, Sir Dudley Rider and Lord Mansfield, then William Murray, declared, that ‘a colonial assembly cannot be compelled to do more towards their own defence than they shall see fit, unless by the force of an act of parliament, which alone can prescribe rules of conduct for them.’⁴ Away, then, with all attempts to compel by prerogative,