Benjamin Franklin [1773 
fort themselves, and say; “Though we have no prop- 
erty, we have yet something left that is valuable; we 
have constitutional liberty, both of person and of con- 
science. ‘This King, these Lords, and these Com- 
mons, who it seems are too remote from us to know 
us, and feel for us, cannot take from us our Habeas 
Corpus right, or our right of trial by a jury of our 
neighbors; they cannot deprive us of the exercise of 
our religion, alter our ecclesiastical constitution, and 
compel us to be Papists, if they please, or Mahome- 
tans.”” To annihilate this comfort, begin by laws 
to perplex their commerce with infinite regulations, 
impossible to be remembered and observed; ordain 
seizures of their property for every failure; take 
away the trial of such property by jury, and give it 
to arbitrary judges of your own appointing, and of 
the lowest characters in the country, whose salaries 
and emoluments are to arise out of the duties or 
condemnations, and whose appointments are during 
pleasure. Then let there be a formal declaration of 
both houses, that opposition to your edicts is treason, 
and that persons suspected of treason in the pro- 
vinces may, according to same obsolete law, be seized 
and sent to the metropolis of the empire for trial; 
and pass an act, that those there charged with certain 
other offences shall be sent away in chains from their 
friends and country to be tried in the same manner 
for felony. Then erect a new court of Inquisition 
among them, accompanied by an armed force, with 
instructions to transport all such suspected persons; 
to be ruined by the expense, if they bring over evi- 
dences to prove their innocence, or be found guilty 
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