.. in all cases of
taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their
sovereign, in such manner as has been heretofore used and accustomed. But,
... we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of Parliament as
are, _bona fide_, restrained to the regulation of our external commerce."
In 1778 a statute was passed, of which an English jurist wrote in 1885:
"One act, indeed, of the British Parliament might, looked at in the light
of history, claim a peculiar sanctity. It is certainly an enactment of
which the terms, we may safely predict, will never be repealed and the
spirit never be violated.... It provides that Parliament' will not impose
any duty, tax or assessment whatever, payable in any of his majesty's
colonies ... except only such duties as it may be expedient to impose for
the regulation of commerce.'" [Footnote: _The Law of the Constitution_,
Dicey, p. 62.]
Thus is the memory of their grievance held sacred by the descendants of
their adversaries after the lapse of a century, and the local self-
government for which they pleaded has become the immutable policy of the
empire. The principles they laid down have been equally enduring, for they
proclaimed the equality of men before the law, the corner-stone of modern
civilization, and the Constitution they wrote still remains the
fundamental charter of the liberties of the republic of the United States.
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