vented their being cut off entirely. For two or three years after this, the war was carried on against France without vigour or success: but when Mr. Pitt was placed at the head of the ministry, public affairs assumed a new aspect. Victory every where crowned the British arms; and in a short time the French were dispossessed not only of all the British territories on which they had encroached, but also of Quebec, the capital of their antient province, Canada*.

In the course of this war, some of the colonies made exertions so far beyond their reasonable quota, as to merit a reimbursement from the national treasury; but this was not universally the case. In consequence of internal disputes, the necessary supplies had not been raised in due time by others of the provincial assemblies: this did not accord with the vigorous and decisive genius of Mr. Pitt, who is said to have told Mr. Franklin, "that when the war closed, if he should be in the ministry, he would take measures to prevent the colonies from having a power to prevent or delay the supplies that might be wanted for national purposes." As often, however, as money or men were wanted from the colonies, requisitions were made to their legislatures, which were generally and cheerfully complied with. Their exertions, with a few exceptions, were great, and manifested a serious desire to carry into effect the plans of Great Britain for reducing the power of France.

In the prosecution of this war, the colonies fitted out four hundred privateers, and furnished nearly twenty-four thousand men to co-operate with the British regular forces in North America, The

See Mavor's History of England, vol. 11. p. 394—5
U 3

success

success of the former; the activity of the latter; the convenience of their harbours; and their contiguity to the West India islands, made the colonies great acquisitions to Britain and formidable adversaries to France. From their growing importance the latter had much to fear. Their continued union with Great Britain threatened the subversion of the commerce and American possessions of France,

A.D.

1763.

At the general peace, Canada was ceded to Great Britain by France; and the two Floridas by Spain: her possessions, therefore, in the New World, were of an extent equal in dimensions to several of the kingdoms of Europe. The possession of Canada in the North, and of the Floridas in the South, made her sole mistress of the North American continent.

From the first settlement of English America till the close of this war, the conduct of Great Britain towards her colonies affords an useful lesson to those who are disposed to colonization. She treated them as a judicious mother does her dutiful children. They shared in every privilege belonging to her native sons, and but slightly felt the inconveniences of subordination. The catalogue of their grievances was small, and chiefly related to a few acts which operated against colonial manufactures. These were mostly evaded, but if carried into execution would have been slightly inconvenient, and only to a few. A.D. Till this period the colonial regulations seemed to have had no other object in view 1764. but the common good of the whole empire: exceptions to the contrary were few, and had 10 appearance of system. When the approach of the colonies to manhood made them more capable

of

of resisting impositions, Great Britain changed the antient system under which her colonies had long flourished. When policy would have dictated relaxation of authority, she rose in her demands, and multiplied her restraints. For some time before and after the termination of the war, a considerable intercourse had been carried on between the British and Spanish colonies, consisting of the manufactures of Great Britain, imported by the former and sold by the latter, by which the British colonies acquired gold and silver, and were enabled to make remittances to the mother country. This trade, though it did not clash with the 'spirit of the British navigation laws, was forbidden by their letter. On account of the advantages which all parties reaped from this intercourse, it had long been connived at by persons in power; but, at the period alluded to, some new regulations were adopted, by which it was almost destroyed. So sudden a stoppage was a serious blow to the northern colonies. It was their misfortune, that though they stood in need of vast quantities of British manufactures, their country produced very little that afforded a direct remittance to pay for them. They were, therefore, under a necessity of seeking elsewhere a market for their produce, and, by a circuitous route, acquiring the means of supporting their credit with the mother country. This they found by trading with the Spanish and French colonies in their neighbourhood. From them they obtained gold, silver, and valuable commodities, the ultimate profits of which centred in Great Britain. This intercourse gave life to business of every denomination; and why it should be stopped, could not be accounted for by the Americans, without supposing that the rulers of Great Britain

were jealous of their adventurous commercial spirit. Their actual sufferings were great, but their apprehensions were greater. Instead of viewing the parent state, as they had long done, in the light of an affectionate mother, they conceived her as beginning to be influenced by the narrow views of an illiberal step-dame.

In September, the trade between the British, French, and Spanish colonies was in some degree legalized, but under circumstances that brought no relief to the colonists. Indeed, the act passed on the occasion granted certain duties to the king upon goods imported, which were the produce of a colony not under the dominion of his majesty. Till that act passed, none avowedly for the purpose of revenue was to be found in the parliamentary statute book. The wording of it made the colonists fear that parliament would go on in charging them with such taxes as they pleased. The imposition of duties for the purpose of raising a revenue in America was considered as a dangerous innovation.

The national debt of Great Britain amounted at that period to nearly a hundred and fifty millions; and while the minister was digesting plans for diminishing this heavy burthen, as it was then thought, he conceived the idea of raising a substantial revenue in the British colonies from taxes laid by the parliament of the parent state. This in England was a very popular project. And in March was A.D. passed the memorable stamp act, by which it was enacted, that certain instruments of 1765. writing, as bills, bonds, &c., should not be valid unless they were drawn on stamped paper, on which a duty was laid. No sooner was this act published in America, than it raised a general

alarm.

alarm. The people were filled with apprehensions at an act which they supposed to be an attack on their constitutional rights. The colonies petitioned the king and parliament for a redress of the grievance, and formed associations for the purpose of preventing the importation and use of British manufactures until the act should be repealed. In this opposition Virginia took the lead: a number of resolutions were passed by the house of burgesses, which declared "those to be enemies to their country, who should, by writing or speaking, maintain that any person or persons, other than the general assembly of this colony, have any right or power to impose taxes on the people."

Upon reading these resolutions, the boldness and novelty of them affected one of the members to such a degree, that he cried out " Treason, treason!" They were, nevertheless, well received by the people, and forwarded to the other provinces. Till these appeared, it was the general opinion that the act would be quietly adopted. The countenance of so respectable a colony as Virginia confirmed the wavering and emboldened the timid. Opposition assumed a bolder face. The fire of liberty blazed forth from the press; some well-timed publications set the rights of the colonists in a plain but strong point of view; the tongues and pens of spirited citizens laboured in kindling the latent sparks of patriotism, and the flame spread from breast to breast till it became general.

A new mode of displaying resentment against the friends of the stamp act, of which there were many in America, began in Massachussetts, and was followed by the other colonies, A few gentlemen hung in effigy the stamp-master at

11

Boston;