Page:A Declaration of the People's Natural Right to a Share in the Legislature (1775) (IA declarationofpeo00shar).djvu/90



But if (according to Dr. 's 5th proposition) the flourishing branches, of North-America were to be entirely separated from the trunk, and excluded from the circle of the royal diadem, the effect would be reciprocally humiliating; for the act of separation would, at the fame time, unavoidably contract the imperial Authority of the British Empire to the narrow limits of British and Irish ground, except a few small Sugar-Islands, peopled chiefly by the most miserable of slaves: so that both Great-Britain and her Colonies would reciprocally lose importance, strength, and security, by the disunion, A Guarantee of independence against all foreign invaders, as proposed by Dr. ---, would fall far short of the effect which we enjoy by the present constitution, because it would not, like the latter, produce that mutual consideration and protection which are due from fellow-subjects.