tember, 1760, that city surrendered, and soon after all the French posts in Canada fell into the power of the English.

In the other parts of the world, their arms were equally successful; and, at the commencement of 1763, a peace, highly advantageous to their interests, was concluded at Paris. By the treaty, France ceded to Great Britian all her northern settlements in America, which relieved the colonies from the continual dread of savage incursions.

CHAPTER XV.

REVOLUTION.

In the late brilliant contest, England had made unprecedented exertions. At its close, she found that, though she had encircled her name with glory, and added extensive territories to her empire, she had increased in proportion the burdens of her subjects, having added three hundred and twenty millions of dollars to the amount of her debt. To find the means of defraying the annual charges of this debt, and her other increased expenditures, was the first and difficult task of her legislators.

Regard for their own interest and popularity impelled them to avoid, if possible, imposing the whole burden upon themselves and their fellow subjects at home; and their thoughts were turned

to the colonies, as the source whence alleviation and assistance might be derived. On their account, it was alleged, the contest had been waged; they would share the advantages of its glorious termination, and justice required that they should also defray a portion of the expences.

To adopt this expedient, the British ministry were the more naturally led by the opinion which all the European governments entertained of the relation between the mother country and her colonies. They were supposed to be dependent on her will; their inhabitants a distinct and subordinate class of subjects, and their interests entirely subservient to her aggrandizement and prosperity.

Acting upon these principles, Great Britain had, by her laws of trade and navigation, confined the commerce of the colonies almost wholly to herself. To encourage her own artizans, she had even, in some cases, prohibited the establishment of manufactories in America. These restrictions, while they increased her revenues and wealth, greatly diminished the profits of the trade of the colonies, and sensibly impeded their internal prosperity. They were most injurious to New England, where the sterility of the soil repelled the people from the pursuits of agriculture; there they were most frequently violated, and there the arbitrary mode of enforcing them by writs of assistance awakened the attention of a proud and jealous people to their natural rights; to their rights as English subjects, and to the rights granted and secured by their charters.

In the beginning of the year 1764, the British parliament enacted a law imposing duties upon certain articles of merchandise, to be paid in the colonial ports. Mr. Grenville, the prime minister, also proposed a resolution, "that it would be proper to charge certain stamp duties on the colonies," but postponed the consideration of that subject to a future session. As it was foreseen that the law would be disregarded, if extraordinary measures were not adopted to enforce it, provision was made that all penalties for violations of it, and of all other revenue laws, might be recovered in the admiralty courts. The judges of these courts were dependent solely on the king, and decided the causes brought before them without the intervention of a jury.

Intelligence of these proceedings occasioned in America great and universal alarm. They were considered the commencement of a system of taxation, which, if not vigorously resisted, would in time be extended to every article of commerce, and to every internal source of income; and if the colonists could be deprived in one class of causes, why not in all, of that inestimable privilege, the trial by jury?

The general court of Massachusetts, at their session in June, took this law into consideration. The house of representatives sent a spirited letter of instructions to their agent in England, in which they denied the right of parliament to impose duties and taxes upon the people, who are not represented in the house of commons; and directed him to remonstrate against the duties imposed

and the stamp act in contemplation. They also acquainted the other colonies with the instructions they had given to their agent, and desired their concurrence in the mode of opposition adopted. In the course of the year, several other colonies, particularly New York and Virginia, remonstrated in respectful, but decided terms, against the proceedings of parliament.

In these several state papers, the right of Great Britain to collect a tax in the colonies was explicitly denied; and the denial was supported by clear and powerful arguments. It was stated that the first emigrants came to America with the undoubted consent of the mother country; that all the expences of removal, of purchasing the territory, and, for a long time, of protection from savage warfare, were defrayed by private individuals, except in the single instance of the settlement of Georgia: that charters, under the great seal, were given to the emigrants, imparting and securing to them and to their descendants all the rights of natural-born English subjects; that of these rights, none was more indisputable, and none more highly valued, than that no subject could be deprived of his property but by his own consent, expressed in person or by his representatives; that taxes were but grants, by the representatives, of a portion of his own property, and of that of those who had authorized him to act in their behalf. Could it be just, it was asked, that the representatives of Englishmen should " give and grant" the property of Americans? With what safety to the colonies could the right of taxing them be

confided to a body of men three thousand miles distant, over whom they had no controul, none of whom could be acquainted with their situation or resources, and whose interests would impel them to make the burdens of the colonists heavy, that their own might be light?

But, besides infringing the rights of freemen, the measure was neither equitable nor generous. The colonies had domestic governments which they alone supported; in the late war, their exertions had been greater, in proportion to their ability, than those of England; they also had contracted debts which they must themselves pay; the taxes laid by many of the assemblies, were higher than those paid by the inhabitants of England; if the war had been waged on their account, it was because, as colonies, they were beneficial to the mother country; and from its happy termination, they derived no advantage which was not the source of ultimate profit to her.

Upon men who entertained the strictest notions of colonial dependence, and parliamentary supremacy, these arguments had little effect. The minister was not diverted from his purpose. In March, 1765, he laid before parliament a bill, imposing stamp duties on certain papers and documents used in the colonies. At the first reading it was warmly opposed; by some because it was impolitic, by two only because it was a violation of right.

The bill was supported by Charles Townshend, a brilliant orator, on the side of the ministry. At the conclusion of an animated speech, he de