210 
HISTORY OF THE [book vr; 
a part of the English people, in every respect equal 
fo them, and possessed of every right and privi¬ 
lege at the time of their emigration, which the 
people of England were possessed of, and irrefra- 
gably to that great right of consenting to all Jaws 
by which they were to be governed. The people 
of England therefore, or their representatives, ha¬ 
ving no rights, powers, or privileges to bestow on 
the emigrants, which the latter were not already 
possessed of equally with themselves, had no claim 
to their allegiance, or any pretence to exercise au¬ 
thority over them. 
As to the English peers, they are possessed of 
very eminent privileges, from none of which how¬ 
ever can they communicate any advantage to the 
eolonies. They are a court of justice in the der¬ 
nier resort for all appeals from the people of Great 
Britain; but they act in no such capacity for the in¬ 
habitants of the colonies; the house of peers having 
never heard or determined causes in appeal from 
the plantations, in which it ever was, and is their 
duty to serve the subjects within the realm. 
Thus, incapable from their situation of being 
admitted to a participation with the people and 
peers of Great Britain in the British legislature, 
the colonists have legislatures of their own, which 
are subject to the king of Great Britain, as to their 
own proper head. The person, who, by the laws 
of Great Britain, is king of Great Britain, is their 
king; but they owe no allegiance to the lords and 
