It is, ſay the American advocates, the natural diſtinction of a freeman, and the legal privilege of an Engliſhman, that he is able to call his poſſeſſions his own, that he can ſit ſecure in the enjoyment of inheritance or acquiſition, that his houſe is fortified by the law, and that nothing can be taken from him but by his own conſent. This conſent is given for every man by his repreſentative in parliament. The Americans unrepreſented cannot conſent to Engliſh taxations, as a corporation, and they not conſent as individuals.
Of this argument, it has been obſerved by more than one, that its force extends equally to all other laws, for a freeman is not to be expoſed to puniſhment, or be called to any onerous ſervice but by his own conſent. The Congreſs has extracted a poſition from the fanciful Monteſquieu, that in a free ſtate every man being a free agent ought to be concerned in his own go-
