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CHAPTER 11
第11章
BRITAIN'S COLONIAL SYSTEM
不列顛的殖民地制度
103. Early Colonial Policy.
103．早期殖民政策
At the outset, England's rulers had been very kind to Englishmen who founded colonies. They gave them great grants of land. They gave them rights of self-government greater than any Englishmen living in England enjoyed. They allowed them to manage their own trade and industries as they saw fit. They even permitted them to worship God as their consciences told them to worship him. But, as the colonists grew in strength and in riches, Britain's rulers tried to make their trade profitable to British merchants and interfered in their government. On their part the colonists disobeyed the navigation laws and disputed with the royal officials. For years Britain's rulers allowed this to go on. But, at length, near the close of the last French war Mr. Pitt ordered the laws to be enforced.
一開始，英格蘭統治者一直對創建殖民地的英國人非常仁慈，給他們大片的土地，給予他們自治權。這種自治權比之給予生活在英格蘭本土的人還要多，并且允許他們以自己的意愿管理商貿活動與工業，甚至允許他們按照各自良心的導引去崇拜上帝。但是，當殖民地居民變得富強起來時，不列顛的統治者試圖讓這些人的商貿活動對不列顛商人有利，并干涉這些人的政府。考慮到自身利益，殖民者不服從航海法規并與王室官員發生糾紛，不列顛對此容忍數年，但是，最終，在最后一場與法國的戰爭快結束的時候，皮特先生頒布了必須強制執行的法律。
104. Writs of Assistance, 1761.
104．"給予援助令狀"（1761年）
It was a good deal easier to order the laws to be carried out than it was to carry them out. It was almost impossible for the customs officers to prevent goods being landed contrary to law. When the goods were once on shore, it was difficult to seize them. So the officers asked the judges to give them writs of assistance. Among the leading lawyers of Boston was James Otis. He was the king's law officer in the province. But he resigned his office and opposed the granting of the writs. He objected to the use of writs of assistance because they enabled a customs officer to become a tyrant. Armed with one of them he could go to the house of a man he did not like and search it from attic to cellar, turn everything upside down and break open doors and trunks. It made no difference, said Otis, whether Parliament had said that the writs were legal. For Parliament could not make an act of tyranny legal. To do that was beyond the power even of Parliament.
制定法律比起執行法律要容易得多，海關官員幾乎不可能阻止非法販運的貨物到港，一旦貨物上岸，就難以繳獲這些貨物。因此，海關官員要求法官給他們"給予援助令狀"。詹姆斯o奧蒂斯是波士頓的大法官之一，他是王室在這個地區的法官，但是，詹姆斯o奧蒂斯辭去公職并反對授予海關命令狀，他反對使用"給予援助令狀"的理由是，這樣會把海關官員變成"暴君"：海關官員可以根據某條命令狀去他不喜歡的人家里四處搜查，他們可以把房子翻個底朝天，可以弄壞他人的大門，可以扯破他人的游泳褲。奧蒂斯說，議會是否說過這些"給予援助令狀"為合法無濟于事，因為不可能促使一項暴政合法，這件事遠非議會所能掌控。
105. The Parson's Cause, 1763.
105．牧師案件（1763年）
The next important case arose in Virginia and came about in this way. The Virginians made a law regulating the salaries of clergymen in the colony. The king vetoed the law. The Virginians paid no heed to the veto. The clergy men appealed to the courts and the case of one of them was selected for trial. Patrick Henry, a prosperous young lawyer, stated the opinions of the Virginians in a speech which made his reputation. The king, he said, had no right to veto a Virginia law that was for the good of the people. To do so was an act of tyranny, and the people owed no obedience to a tyrant. The case was decided for the clergyman. For the law was clearly on his side. But the jurymen agreed with Henry. They gave the clergyman only one farthing damages, and no more clergymen brought cases into the court. The king's veto was openly disobeyed.
弗吉尼亞發生了第二個同樣重要的案例，與"給予援助令狀"案如出一轍。弗吉尼亞制定一個規范殖民地神職人員薪水的法律，國王否決了這個法律，弗吉尼亞人不理會國王的否決，神職人員們紛紛訴諸法院，法院選擇其中一個案例來審理。帕特里克o亨利是一位非常成功的年輕律師，他因陳述弗吉尼亞人的觀點而出名。他說，國王沒有權力否決一項為了弗吉尼亞人民利益的法律，國王這么做就是一個暴政行為，人民不會服從暴政。案件判決那個神職人員勝訴，因為法律顯然支持他。但是，陪審團贊同亨利。他們僅僅給予這個神職人員一法新硬幣的賠償，因此，再也沒有神職人員向法院提起訴訟，人們公然不服從國王的否決。
106. The King's Proclamation of 1763.
106．國王1763年的宣言
In the same year that the Parson's Cause was decided the king issued a proclamation which greatly lessened the rights of Virginia and several other colonies to western lands. Some of the old charter lines, as those of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, and the Carolinas had extended to the Pacific Ocean. By the treaty of 1763 the king, for himself and his subjects, abandoned all claim to lands west of Mississippi River. Now in the Proclamation of 1763 he forbade the colonial governors to grant any lands west of the Alleghany Mountains. The western limit of Virginia and the Carolinas was fixed. Their pioneers could not pass the mountains and settle in the fertile valleys of the Ohio and its branches.
在裁定牧師案同一年，國王發布一個文告，這個文告大大減少了弗吉尼亞和其他殖民地在西部的權力，馬薩諸塞、康涅狄格、弗吉尼亞和卡羅萊納等殖民地原來勘定的邊界線被延伸到太平洋。在1763年條約中，國王和他的人放棄了密西西比河以西的所有土地的所有權。而在1763年文告中，他禁止殖民地的總督接受奧利哈尼山脈以西的任何土地。弗吉尼亞和卡羅萊納的西部邊界被固定下來，他們的拓荒者不得越過這些山到肥沃的俄亥俄河及其支流流過的地方定居。
