<P> William Knox, an aide of George Grenville, pamphleteer and subsequent Irish Under - Secretary of State for the Colonies, received an appointment in 1756 to the American provinces, and after his return to London in 1761, he recommended the creation of a colonial aristocracy and colonial representation in the British Parliament . He was shortly afterwards appointed agent for Georgia and East Florida, a post which he forfeited by writing in favour of the Stamp Act . In his Grenville - backed pamphlet of 1769, The Controversy between Great Britain and her Colonies Reviewed, Knox suggested that colonial representatives might have been offered seats in the British Parliament if they had sought such representation . Knox submitted that, </P> <P> whilst (the radical colonists) exclaim against Parliament for taxing them when they are not represented, they candidly declare they will not have representatives (in Parliament) lest they should be taxed...The truth...is that they are determined to get rid of the jurisdiction of Parliament...and they therefore refuse to send members to that assembly lest they should preclude themselves of (the) plea (that Parliament's) legislative acts...are done without their consent; which, it must be confessed, holds equally good against all laws, as against taxes...The colony advocates...tell us, that by refusing to accept our offer of representatives they...mean to avoid giving Parliament a pretence for taxing them . </P> <P> Edmund Burke responded to Knox, who had drawn up The Controversy between Great Britain and her Colonies Reviewed as well as The Present State of the Nation (1768) under the supervision of George Grenville, by opining in his political tract Observations on a Late State of the Nation (1769), </P> <P> NOW comes (Knox's) American representation...Is not the reader a little astonished at the proposal of an American representation from that quarter (of Grenville's)? It is proposed merely as a project of speculative improvement; not from the necessity in the case, not to add any thing to the authority of parliament: but that we may afford a greater attention to the concerns of the Americans, and give them a better opportunity of stating their grievances, and of obtaining redress . I am glad to find the author has at length discovered that we have not given a sufficient attention to their concerns, or a proper redress to their grievances . His great friend (Grenville) would once have been exceedingly displeased with any person, who should tell him, that he did not attend sufficiently to those concerns . He thought he did so, when he regulated the colonies over and over again: he thought he did so, when he formed two general systems of revenue; one of port - duties, and the other of internal taxation . These systems supposed, or ought to suppose, the greatest attention to, and the most detailed information of, all their affairs . However, by contending for the American representation, he seems at last driven virtually to admit, that great caution ought to be used in the exercise of all our legislative rights over an object so remote from our eye, and so little connected with our immediate feelings; that in prudence we ought not to be quite so ready with our taxes, until we can secure the desired representation in parliament . Perhaps it may be some time before this hopeful scheme can be brought to perfect maturity; although the author seems to be no wise aware of any obstructions that lie in the way of it . </P>

What is taxation without representation why did the colonists consider this practice a problem