196 HISTORY OF THE [book vi. 
trade; but it implies also a reciprocal engagement 
or obligation on the part of the British parliament, 
not to interpose its authority in matters to which 
‘ To his honour Roger Hope Eli.etson, Esq. his majesty’s 
‘ Lieutenant Governor and commander in chief, in and over 
‘ this his majesty’s island of Jamaica, &c. &c, 
‘ May it please your honour, 
‘ We, his majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the assembly? 
‘ of Jamaica, thoroughly convinced of your honour’s readiness to 
‘ hear, and inclination to redress, as much as in you lies, every 
‘ grievance that may affect any of his majesty’s subjects, beg leave to 
* represent to you one which calls aloud for immediate relief, it being 
‘ in -tselfof ihe most dangerous and alarming nature, and having 
* already given birth to such confusions and distractions in this un- 
‘ happy country, as have not at any time before been known in it. 
* Our ancestors, sir, who settled this British colony, were English- 
‘ men, and brought with them a right to the laws of England as their 
‘ inheritance, which they did not, nor could forfeit by settling here. 
* Ever since civil government was first established among us, which 
‘ was very soon after the restoration of king Charles the Second, we 
* have enjoyed in this colony a constitution and form of government 
* as nearly resembling that of our mother-country as it was perhaps 
* possible tu make it; our lives, our liberties, and our properties, se- 
* cured to us by the same laws, have ever been determined and ad- 
* judged by similar jurisdictions, and such monies as have been ne- 
* cessary for the support of his majesty’s government here, have, as in 
* England, ever been raised upon the people with their own consent 
‘given by their repiesentatives in assembly; our courts of justice, 
* where life, liberty, and property are adjudged, are governed by the 
‘ same laws, and stand in the same degree of subordination to one 
‘ another, as the courts which they respectively stand for, do in 
* England ; our house of assembly, as representing the whole body 
5 of our people, docs and ever did hold the same rank in the system 
