7777. SELF-GOVERNMENT, Interference with.—
We [the Virginia House of
Burgesses] cannot, my Lord, close with the
terms of that resolution [Lord North's Conciliatory
Propositions] * * * because the
British Parliament has no right to intermeddle
with the support of civil government in
the Colonies. For us, not for them, has govern
ment been instituted here. Agreeable to our
ideas, provision has been made for such officers
as we think necessary for the administration
of public affairs; and we cannot conceive
that any other legislature has a right to
prescribe either the number or pecuniary appointments
of our offices. As a proof that the
claim of Parliament to interfere in the necessary
provisions for the support of civil government
is novel, and of a late date, we take
leave to refer to an Act of our Assembly,
passed so long since as the thirty-second year
of the reign of King Charles the Second, intituled,
“An Act for Raising a Publick Revenue,
and for the Better Support of the Government
of His Majesty's Colony of Virginia ”. This act was brought over by Lord
Culpepper, then Governor, under the great
seal of England, and was enacted in the name
of the “King's most Excellent Majesty, by
and with the consent of the General Assembly ”.—
Address to Governor Dunmore.
Ford ed., i, 456.
(1775)
