"Very surprising," remarks an independent, and even elo quent writer of those times, "very surprising that thieves, burglars, pick-pockets, and cut-purses, and a horde of the most flagitious banditti upon earth, should be sent as agreedble companions to us! That the supreme legislature did intend a transportation to America as a punishment, I verily believe; but so great is the mistake, that confident I am, they are thereby on the contrary highly rewarded. For what can be more agreeable to a penurious wretch, driven through necessity to seek a livelihood by the breaking of houses and robbing upon the king's highway, than to be saved from the halter; redeemed from the stench of a gaol, and transported, without expense to himself, into a country, where, being unknown, no man can reproach him for his crimes; where labour is high, a little of which will maintain him; and where all his expenses will be moderate and low. There is scarce a thier in England that would not rather be transported than hanged." “But the acts," continues the same writer, “ are intended for the better peopling of the colonies. And will thieves and murderers conduce to that end? what advantage can we reap from a colony of unrestrainable renegadoes! will they exalt the glory of the crown? or rather will not the dignity of the most illustrious monarch in the world be sullied by a province of subjects so lawless, detestable, and ignorant ? can agriculture be promoted, when the wild boar of the forest breaks down our hedges, and pulls up our vines? will trade flourish, or manufactures be encouraged, where property is made the spoil of such, who are too idle to work, and wicked enough to murder and steal?-How injurious does it seem to free one part of the dominions from the plagues of mankind, and cast them upon another! We want people, 'tis true; but not villains, ready at any time, encouraged by impunity, and habituated, upon the slightest occasion, to cut a man's throat for a small part of his property.'

་

To this catalogue of grievances, not imaginary, but real; not transient, but long continued; not local, but mostly universal;-many others might be added, did our limits permit.

But under all these oppressions, amidst obstinate and va

rious efforts of the crown, to extend the royal prerogative, and to keep the colonies in humble dependence, they retained, in general, a warm affection for the parent country. They regarded the sovereign as a father, and themselves as children. They acknowledged their obligations of obedience to him, in all things which were lawful, and consistent with their natural and unalienable rights; and they appealed to him in various disputes, which arose about colonial rights, limits, and jurisdiction.

It was a characteristic trait in the colonists to provide for their own defence. They had been taught to do this by the neglect of the parent country, from the very days of their infancy-even before the problem was, solved, whether the country should longer continue the domain of pagan darkness, or the empire of cultivated mind. They might, indeed justly have claimed the assistance and protection of the land of their birth, but seldom did they urge their rights. On the contrary, their treasuries were often emptied, and the blood of their yeomanry shed, in furnishing assistance to the parent country. In her contests, and her wars, they engaged with all the enthusiasm of her native sons; and persevered with all the bravery of soldiers trained to the art of war.

The testimony to be adduced in support of these statements, is more ample than we have space to devote to it. "Wheneyer," said a conspicuous member of parliament, some years after the peace of 1763, “whenever Great Britain has declared war, the colonies have taken their part: They were engaged in King William's wars, and Queen Anne's wars, even in their infancy. They conquered Arcadia, in the last century, for us; and we then gave it up. Again, in Queen Anne's war, they conquered Nova Scotia, which from that time has belonged to Great Britain. They have been engaged in more than one expedition to Canada, ever foremost to partake of honour and danger with the mother country.

"Well, sir, what have we done for them? Have we con-quered the country for them, from the Indians? Have we cleared it? Have we drained it? Have we made it habitable? What have we done for them? I believe precisely

nothing at all, but just keeping watch and ward over their trade, that they should receive nothing but from ourselves, at our own price.

"I will not positively say, that we have spent nothing; though I don't recollect any such article upon our journals; I mean any national expense in setting them out as colonists. The royal military government of Nova Scotia cost, indeed, not a little sum; above 500,000l. for its plantations and its first years. Had your other colonies cost any thing similar, either in their outset or support, there would be something to say on that side; but instead of that, they have been left to themselves, for one hundred, or one hundred and fifty years, upon the fortune and capital of private adventurers, to encounter every difficulty and danger. What towns have we built for them? What forests have we cleared? What country have we conquered for them from the Indians? Name the officers-name the troops-the expeditions-their dates.Where are they to be found? Not on the journals of this kingdom. They are no where to be found.

"In all the wars, which have been common to us and them, they have taken their full share. But in all their own dangers, in the difficulties belonging separately to their situation, in all the Indian wars, which did not immediately concern us, we left them to themselves, to struggle their way through. For the whim of a minister, you can bestow half a million to build a town, and to plant a royal colony of Nova Scotia ; a greater sum than you have bestowed upon every other colony together.

“And, notwithstanding all these, which are the real facts, now that they have struggled through their difficulties, and begin to hold up their heads, and to shew an empire, which promises to be foremost in the world, we claim them, and theirs, as implicitly belonging to us, without any consideration of their own rights. We charge them with ingratitude, without the least regard to truth, just as if this kingdom had for a century and a half attended to no other subject; as if all our revenue, all our power, all our thought, had been bestowed upon them, and all our national debt had been con

wasted in the Indian wars of America; totally forgetting the subordination in commerce and manufactures in which we have bound them, and for which, at least, we owe them help towards their protection.

"Look at the preamble of the act of navigation, and every other American act, and see if the interest of this country is not the avowed object. If they make a hat, or a piece of steel, an act of parliament calls it a nuisance; a tilting hammer, a steel furnace, must be abated in America, as a nuisance. Sir, I speak from facts. I call your books of statutes and journals to witness.”

Of an equally high and honourable character, is the testimony of Pounal, one of the royal governors in America. “I profess,' ," said he, in 1765, “an affection for the colonies, because, having lived amongst those people in a private as well as in a public character, I know them; I know that in their private, social relations, there is not a more friendly, and in their political ones, a more zealously loyal people, in all his majesty's dominions. When fairly and openly dealt with, there is not a people who have a truer sense of the necessary powers of government. They would sacrifice their dearest interests for the honour and prosperity of their mother country. I have a right to say this, because experience has given me a practical knowledge, and this impression of them.

“The duty of a colony is affection for the mother country. Here I may affirm, that in whatever form and temper this affection can lie in the human breast, in that form, by the deepest and most permanent affection, it ever did lie in the breast of the American people. They have no other idea of this country, than as their home; they have no other word by which to express it; and till of late, it has constantly been expressed by the name of home. That powerful affection, the love of our native country, which operates in every breast, operates in this people towards England, which they consider as their native country; nor is this a mere passive impres sion, a mere opinion in speculation-it has been wrought up in them to a vigilant and active seal for the service of this country.'

99

This affection for the parent country, and devotedness to her interests; this promptness to assist her, though unassisted by her themselves; this liberality in emptying their treasuries, and shedding their blood, were felt and cherished by the colonies, before, and for years after, the peace of 1763. They continued to be thus cherished, and thus manifested, until exactions and oppressions "left not a hook to hang a doubt on," that they must either passively submit to the arbitrary impositions of a jealous and rapacious parent, or rise in defence of those rights, which had been given to them by the God of nature, in common with his other children.

The peace of 1763, while it secured to Great Britain all the country east of the Mississippi, and annihilated the French power in America, restored peace to the colonies, and put an end to the calamities of a French and Indian war, by which they had been harrassed for nearly a century. The joy consequent upon an event so auspicious, was universal and sincere. But that joy was soon to be diminished by the agitation of the question, in England, as to the taxation of the colonies.

The project of laying internal taxes upon the American provinces, and drawing a revenue from them, had been suggested to the ministry, during the administrations of Sir Robert Walpole and Mr. Pitt. But to these wise and sagacious statesmen it appeared to be measure of doubtful right, and of still more doubtful policy. "I will leave the taxation of the Americans," said Walpole, " for some of my successors, who may have more courage than I have, and are less friendly to commerce than I am."

a

After the termination of the French war, the consideration of the subject was renewed, and that moment seized as a favourable one, to commence the operation of the system. During the war, a heavy debt had been incurred by Great Britain, for the benefit and protection, as it was said, of the American colonies. It was, therefore, no more than an act of justice, that they should assist in the payment of that debt. In the winter of 1764, Lord Grenville, who had recently been elevated to the premiership, announced to the agents of the colonies, then in England, his intention of drawing a re