WEST INDIES. 
2 07 
CHAP. II.] 
straint against trie exorbitance and abuse of the pow¬ 
er contended for in the present case. It is to lit¬ 
tle purpose to tell the colonists, when groaning 
under the pressure of military government, that 
no military force however legally raised and main¬ 
tained, can be lawfully employed to violate their 
rights as whoever holds the sword will decide 
upon the question of law.* 
To as little purpose may our remaining colonies 
be told, that the parliament of Great Britain will 
never suffer a precedent of arbitrary power to be 
established in any part of the British dominions. 
They will probably insist that the British parlia¬ 
ment is not competent to judge for them —at least 
in the first instance. They may contend that those 
who feel, or are in danger of feeling oppression, 
can best determine when it may be proper to resist 
its attack, or to guard against its approach. 
It cannot however be denied, that if parliament 
should be apprised that the just authority of the 
crown over the colonies has degenerated into ty¬ 
ranny, it is not only their right, but their duty to 
* It Is observable, that this claim in the crown was admitted to be 
a grievance by the commissioners appointed, in April 1778, for re¬ 
storing peace in America. In a letter from the earl of Carlisle, Mes¬ 
sieurs Eden and Johnstone, three of the said commissioners, to the 
president of the congress, dated the 9th of June 177S, they declare a 
disposition to concur in such an arrangement as should provide that 
no military force should be kept up in the different states of North 
America, without the consent of the general congress or particular 
assemblies. 
