Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/36

xxx the greateſt tranſports of joy, and celebrated their triumph by burning the miniſtry in effigy.

time after the acceſſion of our preſent moſt gracious ſovereign, the cyder tax occaſioned a great clamour throughout the whole nation, it being looked upon as partial and oppreſſive, and the means of collecting it, dangerous and unconſtitutional. In conſequence of this, the people inſtructed the repreſentatives to oppoſe this ſcheme, and petition every branch of the legiſlature againſt it; notwithſtanding this, the bill paſſed and occaſioned great diſcontents amongſt the people, and continued in full force till it was repealed by means of the popular miniſtry in the year 1766.

To inveſtigate the merits of our preſent unhappy diſputes with the Americans, and the conteſt between the adminiſtration and Mr., would fill a conſiderable volume; but as the various grievances complained of by the people are enumerated in a conciſe and ſpirited manner, in the petition of the freeholders of Middleſex, it may not be unneceſſary to lay it, in this place, before our readers, eſpecially as we have already preſented them with copies of the moſt celebrated papers that have been written in the glorious cauſe of liberty. To