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ARTICLE II.
would preſent itſelf at firſt ſight? The expedient, I mean, of directing the Governors, in the firſt inſtance, to refuſe their aſſent to all extraordinary bills, affecting the trade, or navigation, or property, of its ſubjects in general; or its own juſt and conſtitutional prerogative. Theſe points might, and perhaps not improperly, have been referred to the ſole cogniſance of the ſupreme legiſlature of the whole empire. But Government, it ſhould ſeem, apprehenſive, on the one hand, that this might, in ſome caſes, bear hard on the Colonies; and unwilling, on the other, to entruſt to the ſole judgment of a local Governor, what ought to be ſubmitted to the judgment of the King, better able to ſee and to combine the intereſts of the empire at large, did not adopt this expedient.
or to withhold their aſſent till a copy of ſuch bills be tranſmitted to the King, and returned with the royal approbation.Still eaſier muſt it have been to juſtify the Crown, had the Governors been inſtructed not to aſſent to any ſuch extraordinary law, till a copy of the bill ſhould have been tranſmitted, and the royal approbation obtained. But ſo anxious was the Crown to guard againſt every unneceſſary inconvenience that might accrue to the Colonies, that even this expedient was not adopted without a particular qualification. Had the copy of the bills been tranſmitted, they muſt, when returned with the royal approbation, have waited for another aſſembly; have repaſſed through all the forms of being read, debated and approved, by the Aſſembly, the Council, and the Governor. Much time might have been loſt, and the operation of the law, where the law was approved, ſuſpended longer than was needful.
But the Crown empowers them to give their aſſent, provided a clauſe be inſerted, ſuſpending the operation till the King’s pleasure be known.To prevent this inconvenience it was, that the Governors were empowered to give their aſſent, even to