A. If they do, they mean only internal taxes; the same words have not always the same meaning here and in the colonies. By taxes they mean internal taxes; by duties they mean customs; these are their ideas of the language.
Q. Have you not seen the resolutions of the Massachusett's Bay assembly?
A. I have.
Q. Do they not say, that neither external nor internal taxes can be laid on them by parliament?
A. I don't know that they do; I believe not.
Q. If the same colony should say, neither tax nor imposition could be laid, does not that province hold the power of parliament can lay neither?
A. I suppose that by the word imposition, they do not intend to express duties to be laid on goods imported, as regulations of commerce.
Q. What can the colonies mean then by imposition as distinct from taxes?
A. They may mean many things, as impressing of men, or of carriages, quartering troops on private houses, and the like; there may be great impositions that are not properly taxes.
Q. Is not the post-office rate an internal tax laid by act of parliament?