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 this 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 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 A. D. 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associations for the purpose of preventing the importation and use of British manufactures until the act should be repealed.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 Boston; Boston; great numbers from town and country came to see it. A spirit of enthusiasm was diffused among the spectators, and in the evening it was cut down and carried in procession by the populace, shouting "Liberty and property for ever! No stamps!" They next pulled down a new building lately erected by Mr. Oliver the stampmaster; thence they proceeded to his dwellinghouse, before which they beheaded the effigy, and at the same time broke the windows of his house. These violences were repeated upon the dwellings of several officers under government, both at Massachussetts and in the adjacent colonies. From the decided opposition to the act, which had been exhibited in the colonies, it became necessary for Great Britain to enforce or repeal it. Both methods of proceeding had supporters. Dr. Franklin, who on the passing of the act had written to his friend in America, and emphatically said, "The sun of liberty is set: you must light up the candles of industry and economy," was afterwards examined at the bar of the house, of commons, and contributed to remove prejudices, and to produce a disposition friendly to the repeal. Some speakers of great celebrity and weight in both houses of parliament denied the right of taxing the colonies: among these were lord Camden in the house of peers, and Mr. Pitt in the house of commons. 66 My position," says lord Camden," is this, I repeat it, I will maintain it to my last hour: Taxation and representation are inseparable. This position is founded on the laws of nature. It is more, it is an eternal law of nature. For, whatever is a man's own no other man has a right to take from him without his consent, and whoever does it commits a robbery.” Mr. Mr. Pitt justified the colonists in opposing the stamp act. “You have no right," said he, "to tax America. I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of our fellow subjects so lost to every sense of virtue, as tamely to give up their liberties, would be fit instruments to make slaves of the rest." At length the repeal of the stamp act was finally carried. This event A. D. gave great joy in London. Ships in the river Thames displayed their colours, and 1766. houses were generally illuminated in many parts of the metropolis. The news of the repeal was received in the colonies with universal joy, and the trade between them and Great Britain was renewed on the most liberal footing. The stamp act was not repealed on American principles; nor without declaring "that parliament had, and of right ought to have, power to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever." The bulk of the Americans, intoxicated with the advantage gained, overlooked the statute which is generally known by the title of the declaratory act, and which in one short sentence not only deprived them of liberty and property, but of every right incident to humanity. It was evident to the thoughtful and considerate, that from the ungracious manner in which the stamp act had been repealed, ministers had not abandoned the project of raising a revenue in the colonies. The stamp act was brought forward and carried under the auspices of Mr. Grenville; and now Mr. Charles Townshend, chancellor of the exchequer, pawned his credit to accomplish that in which Mr. Grenville had failed. 1767. He accordingly brought into parliament a bill for granting duties in the British colonies on glass, A. D. paper, paper, painter's-colours, and tea, which was afterwards passed into a law. This act kindled the resentment of the Americans, and excited a general opposition to the measure; so that parliament in the course of three years abanA. D. doned the whole tax, except threepence 1770. per pound on all tea imported. Previously to this both houses of parliament had concurred in a joint address to his majesty, in which they pledged themselves to support him in such farther measures as might be found necessary to maintain the civil magistrates in a due execution of the laws in Massachussetts, and beseeched him to direct the governor to take the most effectual methods for procuring the fullest information touching all treasons, &c. committed within the government since the 30th day of December 1767, in order to bring the offenders to trial within the realm of Great Britain, pursuant to the provisions of the statute of the 35th of Henry VIII. The latter part of this address, which proposed the bringing delinquents from Massachussetts to be tried in Great Britain for crimes committed in America, underwent many severe animadversions, and led the house of burgesses of Virginia to adopt some very strong resolutions expressive of their opposition to such proceedings. These were imitated in other colonies. And at Boston they contemptuously re-shipped the goods sent out for sale. This, it is probable, was the ultimate cause of the repeal of all the duties, except of that on tea. Yet this, however trifling, kept alive the jealousy of the colonists, and their opposition to parliamentary taxation continued and increased. It was not the inconvenience of paying the duty that was the cause of the opposition; it was the principle, |