in their natures, be no more than to answer particular local & Provincial purposes & could not take the People in America out of ye General & Supreme Jurisdiction of Parliament &c &c. The General Rule of the House against Receiving Petitions against money bills was also again urged;—on the other Side I think no-body but General Conway Denied the right of Parliament to tax us; this to be sure he did in ye most Peremtory manner & urged with Great Vehemence ye many Hardships & what he was Pleased to Call Absurdities yt would follow from the contrary Doctrine & practice; ye Hardships & Inconveniences were also again urged & placed in various lights by our other Friends in the House. And here I would remark yt in ye whole Debate first & last Alderman Beckford & Gl. Conway were ye Only Persons who Disputed ye right of Parliament to tax us. This is the same Gl Conway who was Dismissed from all his offices just at Close of ye last Sessions for his Continual opposition to all the Measures of the Present Ministry; & here I find myself Obliged to say yt Except ye Gentlemen Interested in ye West Indies & a few Members yt happen to be Particularly connected with some of the colonies & a few of the heads of the minority who are sure to athwart & oppose ye Ministry in Every Measure of what Nature or kind soever, I say Except these few Persons so Circumstanced there are Scarce any People here, Either within Doors or Without, but what approve the Measures now taking which Regard America. Upon the Whole the Question being put Whether the House would Receive ye Petition, it Passed in the Negative by a great Majority. Then Mr. Jackson offered ours which met with the same Fate. He then acquainted ye House yt he had one to offer for ye Massachusets Colony, which however as it respected as well the late act called the Sugar act as the present, & seeing which way the same would be governed he told the house he would defer it till another Time; & here I ought not to omit to acquaint you that Mr. Charles, Agent for N. York, had received a Petition from his Constituents with orders to present the same, but which was conceived in terms so inflammatory that he could not prevail on any one Member of the House to present it.
