198 The New England charters. [1774 colonies a general model in the British Constitution. The conduct of James I and Charles I made the case still clearer. When in the year 1621 a bill had been introduced in the House of Commons to give to English subjects fishing privileges on the coasts of America, the Secretary of State, by command of the King, informed the House that "America was not annexed to the realm, and that it was not fitting that Parliament should make laws for those countries." So when, in the time of Charles I, the same bill was again proposed, the King declared that "it was unnecessary; that the colonies were without the realm and jurisdiction of Parliament." This showed that the clauses quoted (that the laws should not be contrary to those of England) "were not inserted to render the colonies dependent on Parliament, but only... to mark out a model of government for them. If then the colonies were, at first, without the realm and jurisdiction of Parliament, no human authority could afterwards alter the case without their own consent." Hamilton then considers the other colonial charters ; first those of New England. The object of these colonists "was to be emancipated from their sufferings under the authority of Parliament and the laws of England." In evidence of this, Hamilton quotes the compact on the Mayflower, in full. Soon afterwards King James issued his Plymouth charter "for the planting, ordering, and governing of New England in America," with a charter to the same effect as the charters of Virginia. There was to be a Council having "sole power of legislation"; the right of electing all officers, civil and military, and authority to coin money, and to make war and peace, were also conferred upon the colonists. The charter of Charles I to Massachusetts Bay was similar. The charters of the other colonies were reviewed, with the same result, except in the case of that of Pennsylvania. This con- tained a clause which was " a reverse, in favour of Parliament, perfectly singular and unprecedented in any foregoing charter, and which must either be rejected or the general tenour of the grant becomes unintelli- gible" a statement with which the loyalist Galloway agreed. Reference is then made to the revocation of the Massachusetts charter and the granting of the new one by William and Mary. The agents of the colony would not accept the new charter until they had consulted competent authority; which done, the agents drew up a declaration in which they said: "The colony is now made a province; and the General Court has, with the King's approbation, as much power in New England as the King and Parliament have in England. They have all English privileges and liberties, and can be touched by no law and by no tax but of their own making." The troubles in Virginia over the first Act of Parliament imposing duties in America, in the 25th year of Charles II, were then referred to; and although this was only a matter of the regulation of trade,
