George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 5, 13th edition.

[237] was one hundred and forty millions sterling, of Ame-

chap. XI.} 1765. Feb.

rica but eight hundred thousand pounds; that the increase of annual taxes in England, within ten years, was three millions, while all the establishments of America, according to accounts which were produced, cost the Americans but seventy-five thousand pounds.¹

The charters of the colonies were referred to, and Grenville interpreted their meaning. The clause under which a special exemption was claimed for Maryland was read, and he argued, that that province, upon a public emergency, is subject to taxation, in like manner with the rest of the colonies, or the sovereignty over it would cease; and, if it were otherwise, why is there a duty on its staple of tobacco? and why is it bound at present, by several acts affecting all America, and passed since the grant of its charter? Besides, all charters, he insisted, were under the control of the legislature.²

‘The colonies claim, it is true,’ he continued, ‘the privilege which is common to all British subjects, of being taxed only with their own consent, given by their representatives, and may they ever enjoy the privilege in all its extent: may this sacred pledge of liberty be preserved inviolate to the utmost verge of our dominions, and to the latest pages of our history.’³ ‘But the remonstrances of the Americans,’ he insisted, ‘failed in the great point of the colonies not being represented in parliament.’⁴ It was the common