Page:A Declaration of the People's Natural Right to a Share in the Legislature (1775) (IA declarationofpeo00shar).djvu/189

 we must necessarily exclude, from the present enquiry, the most distant idea that Mr. Barrington’s 2d Precedent, for taxing Ireland by Prerogative, can possibly afford the least evidence against the just Rights of the Subjects in Ireland; for, if such Precedents are admitted to prove any thing at all, they prove too much; for they equally “shew that it was then imagined the King could tax” and oppress even England itself, as well as “Ireland, by his Prerogative, without the Intervention of Parliament;” and I am very sure that the worthy writer, who unguardedly cited from Rymer the above-mentioned Precedent against Ireland, would be as zealous to oppose any such doctrine as myself.

His 3d Precedent is still more destitute, if possible, of legal evidence, — ‘What would have been the answer of the the English Legislature, (says