chap, ii.] WEST INDIES. 211 
commons; to whom they are not subject, but fel¬ 
low subjects with them to the same sovereign. 
Justly considering, nevertheless, the protection 
which they receive in the name of the sovereign, 
as afforded, by the state, and that the colonies are 
parts of one great empire, of the various branches 
of which the king in parliament, is arbiter, con- 
troling and regulating all intercourse with foreign 
nations, they readily admit, that they stand towards 
the British legislature in the degree of subordination, 
which implies every authority in the latter essen¬ 
tial to the preservation of the whole; and to the 
maintenance of the relation between a mother- 
country and her colonies. “ We are (said the Ame¬ 
ricans) but parts of a whole, and therefore there 
must exist a power somewhere to preside and pre¬ 
serve the connexion in due order. This power is 
lodged in the British parliament.” In all matters 
therefore, to which the local jurisdiction of any one 
particular colony is not competent, the superin¬ 
tending control of Great Britain is necessarily ad¬ 
mitted; and they likewise admit that each and all 
the colonies owe contribution for protection.* 
* The nature and extent of the subordination here contended for, 
was clearly understood, and is well explained, in the case of Ireland, 
by Davenant, in a treatise published by him soon after the revolution. 
—His words are these : 
" The inhabitants of Ireland, from ancient concessions, have a 
privilege perhaps above the Roman colonies, namely, to tax them¬ 
selves by their own suffrages, within their own limits; but this is no 
more than what is claimed by several provinces of France, which ns- 
