A dialogue on the principles of the constitution and legal liberty, compared with despotism; applied to the American question; and the Probable Events of the War, with observations on some important law authorities.
- Anonymous Pamphleteer 1776 (author)
- Jack P. Greene (collection editor)
This piece depicts a fictional exchange between a representative of imperial administration, Aristocraticus, and a defender of America, Philodemus, making the case for colonial self-government. The example of Ireland plays a prominent role as proving the lack of any necessity for a single, unitary imposition of authority. And to the extent that Englishmen residing in England are not themselves represented in Parliament, this shows only that “the representation is defective, unjust.”
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The text of these 18th century pamphlets has been converted by machine from scanned PDFs of the original microfilm copies. While the text has been machine-proofed, transcription errors may still remain. For example, the 18th-century long S, ſ , may be rendered as “f,” some words may be incorrectly transcribed, and there may be repeated words or phrases.