which it is humbly submitted whether the Duties of Stamps upon Parchment & Paper in England, may not with good reason be extended by Act of Parliament to all the American Plantations.
William Byrd, The History of the Dividing Line, between Virginia and North Carolina, etc. (edited by Thomas H. Wynne, Richmond, 1866), II, 215-227 passim.
50. Various Kinds of Colonial Government (1747)
BY DOCTOR WILLIAM DOUGLASS
Douglass was a physician and savant in Boston; he wrote much, assembling in confused form much of his learning in his Summary. His strong prejudices are manifest, but he is a valuable witness. — Bibliography : Tyler, American Literature, II, 151-157; H. L. Osgood, in American Historical Review, II, 644, III, 31, 244.
General Remarks concerning the British Colonies in America.
THE Subject-Matters of this Section according to my first Plan are prolix, being various and copious, and perhaps would be the most curious and informing Piece of the Performance to some Readers ; but as many of our Readers in these Colonies seem impatient for our entring upon the Affairs of their several Settlements, we shall contract the present Section, and shall defer several Articles to the Appendix ; such as, the Rise, Progress, and present State of the pernicious Paper-Currencies ; some Account of the prevailing or Endemial Diseases in our North-America Colonies, and many other loose Particulars, the various Sectaries in Religion, which have any Footing in our American Colonies shall be enumerated in the Section of Rhode Island, where we find all Degrees of Sectaries (some perhaps not known in Europe) from no Religion to that of the most wild Enthusiasts. Religious Affairs, so far as they may in some Manner appertain to the Constitution of the Colonies, do make an Article in this Section. . . .
Concerning the general Nature and Constitution of British North-American Colonies.
ALL our American Settlements are properly Colonies, not Provinces as they are generally called : Province respects a conquered People (the Spaniards in Mexico and Peru may perhaps in Propriety
