For instance, when we allege that it is against reason to tax a people under so
many restraints in trade as the Americans, the noble lord in the blue ribbon
shall tell you that the restraints on trade are futile and useless--of no
advantage to us, and of no burthen to those on whom they are imposed; that the
trade to America is not secured by the Acts of Navigation, but by the natural
and irresistible advantage of a commercial preference.
Such is the merit of the trade laws in this posture of the debate. But when
strong internal circumstances are urged against the taxes; when the scheme is
dissected; when experience and the nature of things are brought to prove, and do
prove, the utter impossibility of obtaining an effective revenue from the
Colonies; when these things are pressed, or rather press themselves, so as to
drive the advocates of Colony taxes to a clear admission of the futility of the
scheme; then, Sir, the sleeping trade laws revive from their trance, and this
useless taxation is to be kept sacred, not for its own sake, but as a
counterguard and security of the laws of trade.
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