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VOL. VI-1

THE CRISIS.

HOW GREAT BRITAIN ESTRANGED

AMERICA.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS IN PERIL.-THE FALL OF THE
ROCKINGHAM ADMINISTRATION.

MAY-JULY, 1766.

1

XXV.

1766.

May.

THE satisfaction of America was not suffered to con- CHAP. tinue long. The King, regarding the repeal of the Stamp Act as "a fatal compliance," which had for ever "wounded the majesty" of England, and “planted thorns" under his own pillow, preferred the hazard of losing the colonies to tempering the British claim of absolute authority. Their denial of that claim and their union were ascribed by his friends to the hesitation of his Ministers, whose measures, they insisted, had prevailed by "artifices" against the real opinion of Parliament; and "the coming hour" was foretold, "when the British Augustus would grieve for the obscuring of the glories of his reign by the loss, not of a province,

George the Third to Lord North, 4 February, 1776.

A short history, &c., &c., &c., 18, 19.

Considerations on the Present State of the Nation, &c., &c., by a late Under-Secretary of State, 50.

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