Page:A Declaration of the People's Natural Right to a Share in the Legislature (1775) (IA declarationofpeo00shar).djvu/190

 he,) in the year 1650, to the late claim of Independency in the Colonies, will appear by the preamble to an Ordinance of the 3d Oct. of that year;' — “Whereas in Virginia, and the islands of St, Christopher’s, Nevis, Montserrat, and divers other islands and places in America, which were planted at the cost, and settled by the people and authority, of this nation, which are and ought to be subordinate to, and dependent upon, England, and hath ever since the planting thereof, and ought to be subject to such Laws, Orders, and Regulations, as shall be made by the parliament of England;” p. 146.

But, though this was indeed the opinion of what Mr. Harrington calls “the English Legislature in the year 1650,” yet no just argument can be drawn from