Q. Is there a power on earth that can force them to erase them?
A. No power, how great soever, can force men to change their opinions.
Q. Do they consider the postoffice as a tax or as a regulation?
A. Not as a tax, but as a regulation and convenience; every assembly encouraged it, and supported it in its infancy by grants of money, which they would not otherwise have done; and the people have always paid the postage.
Q. When did you receive the instructions you mentioned?
A. I brought them with me when I came to England, about fifteen months since.
Q. When did you communicate that instruction to the minister?
A. Soon after my arrival; while the stamping of America was under consideration, and before the bill was brought in.
Q. Would it be most for the interest of Great Britain to employ the hands of Virginia in tobacco or in manufactures?
A. In tobacco, to be sure.