It is not to be wondered at that an adjudged case in point is not to be found; no dispute ever was started before upon the King's legislative right over a conquest. It never was denied in a court of law or equity in Westminster Hall, never was questioned in Parliament.

Upon full consideration, we are all of opinion that before the 20th of July, 1764, the King had precluded himself from an exercise of the legislative authority by virtue of his prerogative, which he had before over the Island of Grenada.

We therefore think that, by the two proclamations [of October 11, 1763, and March 26, 1764, the latter inviting settlers to the Island] and the commission to Governor Melville [of April 29, 1764], the King had immediately and irrevocably granted to all who did or should inhabit, all who had or should have property in the Island of Grenada-in general, to all whom it may concern-that the subordinate legislation over the Island should be exercised by the Assembly and the Governor and Council, in like manner as in the other Provinces under the King.

And, therefore, though the right of the King to have levied taxes on a conquered country, subject to him in right of his Crown, was good, and the duty reasonable, equitable and expedient, and according to the finding of the verdict paid in the Barbadoes and all the other Leeward Islands; yet, by the inadvertency of the King's servants, the order in which the several instruments passed the office (for the patent of the 20th of July, for raising the impost stated, should have been first), the order is inverted and the last we think contrary to and a violation of the first, and therefore void.

However proper soever the thing may be respecting the object of these letters patent, it can only now be done

by act of the Assembly of the Island, or by the Parliament of Great Britain.

While the British looked upon this case as supporting the claim of Parliament over the Colonies, the Americans, on the other hand, disregarded this feature of it (which was, in fact, a mere dictum), and laid stress upon the

point actually decided, namely, that the King—that is, the King in Council-had legislative power over the dependencies of Great Britain, but that his legislative power was conditioned and limited.

As Blackstone, in his Commentaries, had regarded the American Colonies as conquests, the effect of this decision, if his proposition was correct, was to declare that the King had legislative power over the American Colonies. Though the Americans vigorously denied Blackstone's proposition, they seem to have accepted the statement of Attorney General Thurlow, in the argument of the case, that the power of the King was the same "both in conquests and in colonies."

After that decision, the only question left, as the Americans looked at it, was whether the King or the Parliament was the Supreme Head of the Empire-that is, whether Parliament had no power over the Colonies or whether it had power over them under the same conditions and limitations as the King, in the exercise of which, however, it was supreme over the King.

If the Colonies were true States, the only bond of union between them and the State of Great Britain was logically the King, since the King was the representative of that State in its dealings with foreign States. If the Colonies were municipal corporations, Parliament was the representative of the State of Great Britain in dealing with them, and its powers were the same as it exercised in the Realm. If they were neither true States nor true municipal corporations, the question arose whether they most nearly resembled States or municipal corporations. The Colonies claimed that they so nearly resembled States that the King was the sole representative of the State of Great Britain as respected them. Some persons in the Colonies stopped here, and denied all power to Parliament; others took the position that, while the King was the usual and proper representative of the State of

Great Britain in its relations with the Colonies, the Parliament was, within the same sphere of action as the King, supreme over him and hence over the Colonial Legislatures.

The difference in view concerning the respective powers of the King and Parliament was really a difference in view concerning the character of the British Empire. If it was a federal organism, the power of both the King and Parliament over the Colonies was the same in character and extent, except that the King was the superior and Parliament the supreme governmental agency of the Empire. If the British Empire was a unitary organism, the power of Parliament was different from the power of the King, equally in the Realm and in the Empire.

Among the persons in Great Britain who, in the early part of 1775, had grasped the American conception of the British Empire as a federal organism, was Lord Chatham. When, therefore, the Houses of Parliament were, during the last days of January, 1775, considering the American Papers laid before them by the Ministry on January 20, and the Ministry was attempting to procure the adoption of an Address to the King, declaring the Colonies in a state of rebellion, Lord Chatham applied himself to the preparation of a Bill which should embody the principles underlying the British Empire as a federal organism, counselling with Franklin concerning the details, and on February 1, 1775, introduced his Bill in the House of Lords.

The Bill showed, from its title, that it was based on the theory that the British Empire was a federal organism. It was entitled "A Bill for a Provisional Act for Settling the Troubles in America and for Asserting the Supreme Legislative Authority and Superintending Power of Great Britain over the Colonies." The authority and power over the Colonies, according to this title, was vested in the State of Great Britain, from which it necessarily

follows that the Colonies were related to the State of Great Britain as States and that the powers of both King and Parliament were measured by the powers which the State of Great Britain had, under the contract or constitution existing between itself and the Colonies as States. The full text of the Bill was as follows:

Whereas, by an Act, 6 Geo. III., it is declared that Parliament has full power and authority to make laws and statutes to bind the people of the Colonies in all cases whatsoever: And whereas reiterated complaints and most dangerous disorders have grown, touching the right of taxation claimed and exercised over America, to the disturbance of peace and good order there, and to the actual interruption of the due intercourse from Great Britain and Ireland to the Colonies; deeply affecting the navigation, trade and manufactures of this Kingdom, and of Ireland, and announcing farther an interruption of all exports from the said Colonies to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British islands in America: Now, for the prevention of these ruinous mischiefs, and in order to an equitable, honorable, and lasting settlement of claims not sufficiently ascertained and circumscribed; May it please your most excellent Majesty that it may be declared, and be it declared, by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the Colonies of America have been, are, and of right ought to be dependent upon the Imperial Crown of Great Britain, and subordinate unto the British Parliament; and that the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, had, hath, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the people of the British Colonies in America, in all matters touching the general weal of the whole dominion of the Imperial Crown of Great Britain, and beyond the competency of the Local Representative of a distinct Colony, and most especially an indubitable and in

dispensable right to make and ordain laws for regulating navigation and trade throughout the complicated system of British commerce, the deep policy of such prudent acts upholding the guardian navy of the whole British Empire, -and that all subjects in the Colonies are bound in duty and allegiance duly to recognize and obey (and they are hereby required so to do) the supreme legislative authority and superintending power of the Parliament of Great Britain, as aforesaid,

And whereas, in a petition from America to his Majesty, it has been represented that the keeping a standing army within. any of the Colonies, in time of peace, without consent of the respective Provincial Assembly there, is against law: Be it declared by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, that the declaration of right, at the ever-glorious Revolution, namely, "that the raising and keeping a standing army within the Kingdom, in time of peace, unless it be by consent of Parliament, is against law," having reference only to the consent of the Parliament of Great Britain, the legal, constitutional, and hitherto unquestioned prerogative of the Crown to send any part of such army, so lawfully kept, to any part of the British dominions and possessions, whether in America or elsewhere, as his Majesty, in the due care of his subjects, may judge necessary for the security and protection of the same, cannot be rendered dependent upon the consent of a Provincial Assembly in the Colonies, without most dangerous innovation and derogation from the dignity of the Imperial Crown of Great Britain. Nevertheless, in order to quiet and dispel jealousies and fears, be it hereby declared, that no military force, however raised and kept according to law, can ever be employed to violate and destroy the just rights of the people.

Moreover, in order to remove, forever, all causes of pernicious discords, and in due contemplation of the vast increase of possessions and population in the Colonies; and having at heart to render the condition of so great a body of industrious subjects there, more and more happy, by the