Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/306

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LETTERS OF

LETTER LXIV.


2. November, 1771.

We are desired to make the following declaration, in behalf of Junius, upon three material points, on which his opinion has been mistaken or misrepresented.

1°. Junius considers the right of taxing the colonies, by an act of the British legislature, as a speculative right merely, never to be exerted nor ever to be renounced. To his judgment it appears plain, "That the general reasonings which were employed against that power, went directly to our whole legislative right; and that one part of it could not be yielded to such arguments, without a virtual surrender of all the rest."

2°. That, with regard to press-warrants, his argument should be taken in his own words, and answered strictly;—that comparisons may sometimes illustrate, but prove nothing; and that, in this case, an appeal to the passions is unfair and unnecessary. Junius feels and