Daniel Dulany: "Considerations" (1765)
... The notion of a virtual representation of the colonies must fail, which,
in Truth, is a mere cob-web, spread to catch the unwary, and tangle the weak...
There is not that intimate and inseparable relation between the colonies and
Great Britain and the inhabitants of the colonies, which may inevitably involve
both in the same taxation; on the contrary, not a single actual elector in England,
might be immediately affected by taxation in America, imposed by a statute which
would have a general effect on the properties and inhabitants of the colonies...
It appears to me that there is a clear and necessary distinction between an
act imposing a tax for the simple purpose of revenue, and those acts which have
been made for the regulation of trade, and have produced some revenue in consequence
of their effect and operation as regulations of trade.
The subordination of the colonies, and the authority of Parliament to preserve
it, have been fully acknowledged. Not only the welfare, but perhaps the existence
of the mother country, as an independent kingdom, may depend on her trade and
navigation, and these so far upon her intercourse with her colonies, that if
this should be neglected, there would soon be an end to that commerce whence
her greatest wealth is derived. From these considerations, the right of British
Parliament to regulate the trade of the colonies may be justly deduced... It
is a common, and frequently the most popular method to regulate trade by duties
on imports and exports... The authority of the mother country to regulate the
trade of the colonies being unquestionable, what regulations are the most proper,
are to be of course to the determination of Parliament...