308 EURAMERICA over-ruled at any time by the sovereign and therefore superior legislature. The British legislature possessed the right to levy external and internal taxes upon the colonies and could legislate for them on any matter whatsoever: For without a right to tax, there can be no sovereignty— Sovereignty comprehends legislation, and government; without which, it cannot exist. And wherever the right of legislation and government is, there alone, exists the supreme right to tax. Wherefore, to have a right to sovereignty, and yet no right to tax, is a political absurdity. (Anonymous, 1768: 5) The Westminster parliament repealed the Stamp Act in early 1766, although much to the alarm of the American colonies, the Rockingham ministry secured on exactly the same day, the Declaratory Act that laid down that parliament could legislate for the colonies “in all cases whatsoever.” For expedient reasons, perhaps, no explicit reference was made to parliament’s right to levy another internal tax on the colonies (York, 2009: 341-374). Believing that the colonists would accept the imposition on them of external customs duties, as they had often done in the past, the Chatham government in 1767 passed the Townshend duties, levying duties on a range of imports from Britain. These duties were not conceived, however, to regulate the Atlantic trade in the interests of all parties. Instead, they were designed to raise revenue to be used to help pay the salaries of royal officials in America; so not only saving Britain administrative expenses, but making royal officials less dependent on money provided by the colonial legislature. Recognizing the threat to their influence over the royal executive power in the colonies, the colonial elite again led a formidable challenge to this provocation. This provoked another strong challenge from the colonies in defense of the authority of their own legislatures over all matters of taxation. When parliament considered repealing the Townshend duties of 1767, Lord Hillsborough, the Secretary of State responsible for American
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