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Nature of theſe inſtructions,Is it meant to inſinuate any objections to the meaſure itſelf? Let us ſhortly expoſe the nature of thoſe inſtructions. And here it may be neceſſary to premiſe, that the Governor of every Colony has a negative in the paſſing of all laws; and that he is controllable in the exerciſe of that power, by ſuch inſtructions as he ſhall from time to time receive from the King, under his ſignet and ſign manual, or by order in his Privy Council. Thofe who know the conſtitution of the Colonies, governed under immediate commiſſion from his Majeſty—and it is to thoſe only that the caſe applies—know this to be the fact. This once admitted, it follows that there is a conſtitutional power in the Crown, of inſtructing the Governor to refuſe his aſſent to ſuch laws, as his Majeſty judges unfit to be paſſed. By this teſt then let us examine the juſtice, or injuſtice, of theſe inſtructions.
And of the bills, to which they apply.To what bills do theſe inſtructions apply? To ſuch only as are of an extraordinary nature, affecting the trade and ſhipping of Great Britain; the prerogatives of the Crown, and the property of the ſubjects of the empire in general. Poſſible it was, that laws of this nature ſhould be paſſed by the Colonial legiſlatures. It was more than poſſible. Such laws were paſt. Frequent complaints of them occur in the Journals of both houſes of Parliament.
Under theſe circumſtances, what was to be done? It was not, I ſuppoſe, to be endured, that local, ſubordinate legiſlatures ſhould paſs laws injurious to all the ſubjects of the empire. How then were they to be reſtrained from the aſſumption of a power, they were ſo prone to aſſume?
The Crown might direct its Governors to negative theſe bills in the firſt inſtance;Would not the Crown have been juſtified, had it recurred to the moſt obvious expedient; to that which
