īenjamin Franklin told the House of Commons that, "I know that whenever taxation has occurred in conversation where I have been present, it has appeared to be the opinion of every one that we could not be taxed by a Parliament wherein we were not represented.An external tax is a duty laid on commodities imported that duty is added to the first cost and other charges on the commodity, and, when it is offered for sale, makes a part of the price. Pitt pointed out that, unlike the "India company, merchants, stockholders, manufacturers" who "have it in their option to be actually represented.have connections with those that elect, and.have influence over them," the colonists had no such option, connections or influence. higher example in Wales-Wales that never was taxed by Parliament till it was incorporated. Pitt then stated to Parliament that, "I myself would have cited the two cases of Chester and Durham.to show that, even under former arbitrary reigns, Parliaments were ashamed of taxing a people without their consent, and allowed them representatives. If it does not drop, it must be amputated. Is he represented by any knight of the shire, in any county in this kingdom? Would to God that respectable representation was augmented to a greater number! Or will you tell him that he is represented by any representative of a borough?-a borough which, perhaps, its own representatives never saw! This is what is called the rotten part of the Constitution. I would fain know by whom an American is represented here. But in an American tax, what do we do? "We, your majesty’s Commons for Great Britain, give and grant to your majesty"-what? Our own property! No! "We give and grant to your majesty" the property of your majesty’s Commons of America! It is an absurdity in terms.There is an idea in some that the colonies are virtually represented in the House. It is my opinion, that this kingdom has no right to lay a tax upon the colonies.The taxes are a voluntary gift and grant of the Commons alone.When, therefore, in this House we give and grant, we give and grant what is our own. William Pitt, a defender of colonial rights, ridiculed virtual representation, calling it "the most contemptible idea that ever entered into the head of a man it does not deserve serious refutation." Pitt said to the House of Commons in 1766, The idea of virtual representation "found little support on either side of the Atlantic" as a means of solving the constitutional controversy between colonists and Britons. Parliament rejected any criticism that virtual representation was constitutionally invalid as a whole, and passed the Declaratory Act in 1766, asserting the right of Parliament to legislate for the colonies "all cases whatsoever." Thus Grenville defended all the taxes by arguing that the colonists were virtually represented in Parliament, a position that had critics on both sides of the British Empire. Grenville and Whately's theory, known as "virtual representation" put forth that, just like the vast majority of British citizens who could not vote, the colonists were nonetheless virtually represented in Parliament. This concept was famously expressed as " No taxation without representation".ĭuring the winter of 1764–1765, British MP George Grenville and his lieutenant, Thomas Whately, attempted to explicitly articulate a theory that could justify the lack of representation in colonial taxation. Because the colonists were represented only in their provincial assemblies, they said, only those legislatures could levy taxes in the colonies. According to the British constitution, colonists argued, taxes could be levied on British subjects only with their consent. In the early stages of the American Revolution, colonists in the Thirteen Colonies rejected legislation imposed upon them by the Parliament of Great Britain because the colonies were not represented in Parliament. Parliament claimed that their members had the well being of the colonists in mind. The Second Continental Congress asked for representation in Parliament in the Suffolk Resolves, also known as the first Olive Branch Petition. Virtual representation was the British response to the First Continental Congress in the American colonies. Virtual representation was the idea that the members of Parliament, including the Lords and the Crown-in-Parliament, reserved the right to speak for the interests of all British subjects, rather than for the interests of only the district that elected them or for the regions in which they held peerages and spiritual sway. Catholic Quebec enjoys peace, Protestant Boston burns, and blinded Britannia approaches a pit. Virtual Representative (standing, clad in brown) gives the Government (with blunderbuss) permission to rob a colonist. For the usage in representation theory in mathematics, see representation ring.
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