They also built ships for the French and Spaniards, in the West Indies. They had extensive iron and copper mines and works in different states. They manufactured great quantities of hats in New England. The fisheries of Massachusetts produced two hundred and thirty thousand quintals of dried fish, which they exported to Spain and Portugal, and other catholic countries of Europe. Carolina exported its rice to these countries as well as to England; and they exported great quantities of cured provisions, dyewoods, apples, wax, leather, tobacco from Virginia and Maryland, fifty thousand hogsheads annually to England alone, valued at three hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds; flax, furs, skins, hemp, linseed oil, sawn timber, shingles, cask staves, silk and indigo, from Georgia and Carolina, &c. &c. The masts from New England, sent over for our royal navy, were the largest in the world.

Such was the busy scene which these colonies were now presenting. Dutch, German, and Swedish emigrants were carrying their industry and handicrafts thither. But, instead of our merchants seeing what a mighty market was growing up for them there, their commercial jealousy was aroused at the sight of the trade which the colonists carried on with the Spanish, French, and other colonies, and even with Europe. They complained of the introduction of the American hats into Spain, Portugal, and the West Indies. The planters of the British West Indies complained of the American colonists taking their rum, sugar, coffee, &c., from the Dutch, French, and Spanish islands, in return for their raw produce, asserting that they had a monopoly for all their productions throughout the whole of the British dominions. Loud clamours were raised by these planters in the English parliament, demanding the prohibition of this trade; and, after repeated endeavours, in 1733 an act was passed to crush it, by granting a drawback on the re-exportation of West Indian sugar from England, and imposing duties on the importation of West Indian produce direct into the American colonies.

These were measures which must have greatly irritated the American colonists. They exhibited a disposition to curb and repress their growing energies betwixt the interests of English merchants and English West Indian planters. The prospect was far from encouraging; whilst, at the same time, the English ministers, crushing these energies with one hand, were contemplating drawing a revenue by taxation from them on the other. The whole process betrayed a profound ignorance of the science of colonisation. England contended that she sacrificed large amounts in building up colonies, and therefore had a right to expect a return for this expenditure. Such a return, had they had the sagacity to let them alone, was inevitable from the trade of the colonies in an ever-increasing ratio. But colonies, like children, demand, as a right of nature, support in their minority; and they cannot be made to return that care and cost, except as the free-will offering of men and states at their majority. Then, and in the spirit of mutual love and benefit, they will pay, and pay munificently.

It was well said of Grenville, that "he lost America because he read the colonial dispatches which some of his predecessors did." That is, he was looking out for new taxes, and, by paying attention to the rapid growth of these

colonies, he was inspired with the design of drawing a revenue from them. And so he might, had he not attempted to force it from them by taxation without representation. The scheme had been suggested to Sir Robert Walpole, when his excise bill failed, by Sir William Keith, who had been governor of Pennsylvania; but Sir Robert had a far deeper insight into human nature than the shallow and obstinate Grenville. He replied, "I have already Old England set against me, and do you think I will have New England set against me too?" But the "Gentle Shepherd" was still looking round and asking, "Where? tell me where?" During the session of 1764 he imposed several duties on American articles of export, as well as those we have just mentioned, if imported direct from the French, Dutch, and Spanish West Indies. The Americans did not dispute the right of the mother country to impose such duties on the trade of the empire in any quarter; but these imposts, seeing the object of them, were not the less galling. But Grenville did not stop there; he stated, at the time of passing these duties, that it was probable that government would charge certain stamp duties in America. This was making a raw and immediately striking on it. The infatuated minister was contemplating an act, of the nature of which neither he nor his colleagues had any conception.

The news of these imposts, and of this intended stamp duty, flew across the Atlantic, and produced the most bitter excitement. It was true that Grenville had called together the agents of the several American colonies, and told them to write to their respective assemblies, and say that if any other duties would be more agreeable, he should be glad to consult their wishes. It was a choice of modes only where the radical evil was the same-a violation of the fundamental right of free people; and therefore the Americans made no reply on that head. Never, either, could these unwelcome news have reached the colonies at a more unpropitious moment. To the restrictions on their legitimate trade, they had been adding others on their illegitimate trade. Nearly all the American colonies lay on the seaboard, and were, therefore, naturally addicted to a free sort of trade, which these new duties made contraband. The English government had sent out a number of revenue ships and officers to cut off this trade, and capture and confiscate all vessels found practising it. The colonists met in various places, and passed very strong resolutions against these regulations. They declared that to cut off their trade with foreign West Indies and the Spanish main, was to crush them altogether. They complained that the English officers and crew were only solicitous to make prizes; that they understood little of maritime law, and set that little at defiance; that British officers, thus degraded to tide-waiters, knowing nothing of bonds, clearances, cockets, affidavits, stamps, registers, manifests, &c., confounded the legal and illegal traders together, and were knocking all commerce on the head.

To add to the bitterness of the American mind, the colonies were suffering frightfully from the inroads of the Indians. These savage tribes lay all along their frontiers, and the scattered populations exposed to them had come into a deadly conflict with them. The French, smarting under the loss of Canada, and their other North American possessions, sent their agents amongst the Indians, with

A.D. 1765.]

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have been treated only as the expression of chagrin in Barré, who had just been deprived of his regiment. But Barré, on many other occasions, spoke in the same strain, without effect. No cloquence, however divine, could havo turned these stupid Pharaohs of England from the work of national dissection. They went on, rejecting all information, all remonstrance. English merchants, connected with these colonies, and others who had interests in them, or had been in them, sent in petitions which were treated with contempt. The agents of Connecticut, Virginia, Rhode Island, Carolina, and Jamaica, begged to be heard, but were refused, and on the 22nd of March the fatal stamp act became law.

colonial government by the loss of a continent. Fifty-five resolutions, prepared by a committee of ways and means, were laid by him on the table of the House of Commons at an early day of the session, imposing on America nearly the same stamp-duties as were already in practical operation in England. These resolutions being adopted, were embodied in a bill; and when it was introduced to the house, it was received with an apathy which betrayed on all hands the profoundest ignorance of its importance. No ordinary turnpike act ever went through it with half the indifference. Horace Walpole, in his private correspondence on all the topics of parliament, never alludes to it but once, and that is to say that on the 7th of February "there was a slight day ou the American taxes." Walpole confessed his utter ignorance of American affairs, and almost every other member of parliament might have done the same. This stolid apathy is only equalled by that of our own times which attached to East Indian affairs. In vain did gentlemen out of doors, and in-doors, too-well acquainted with the ruinous and wicked policy in progress in India-warn and expostulate. They awoke no feelings but impatience and disgust till the tempest burst upon us in all its horrors. So, then, all was apathy and stolid unconsciousness. Burke, who was a spectator of the debates in both houses, in a speech some years afterwards, stated that he never heard a more languid debate than that in the commons. Only two or three persons spoke against the measure, and that with great composure. There was but one division in the whole progress of the bill, and the minority did not reach to more than thirty-nine or forty. In the lords, he said, there was, to the best of his recollection, neither division nor debate! With such ease are empires thrown away, whilst a question of contemptible party interest will convulse parliament and nation.

Grenville, when afterwards upbraided with this disastrous measure, said, "I did propose the stamp act, and shall have no objection to have it christened in my name." Posterity has taken him at his word. Yet it would be unjust to charge all the blame upon him. Nearly every other member of the ministry and parliament were equally impercipient of the mischief or equally indifferent. Barré, Grenville admits, did anticipate that the Americans would be angry, but he denied that Barré, or any one, had prophesied beforehand what they spoke loud enough after the event. Pitt himself was quite as undiscerning, or as culpable. During all this time, when his voice should have been heard in its most potent tones, it was silent. Either he did not see the extent of the mischief, or he lay wilfully and criminally still, in order to allow his opponents to commit themselves irrevocably with the nation. Nay, what is still more singular, the cool and sagacious Franklin undoubtedly gave up the question as inevitable. Writing to Mr. Charles Thompson, in America, July 11th, 1765-a letter preserved in the Biography of Jared Sparks-he says, "There is no use in any further opposing this act. We might as well have hindered the sun's setting. That we could not do. But since it is down, my friend, and may be long before it rises again, let us make as good a night of it as we can. We may still light candles. Frugality and industry will go a great way towards indemnifying us." He even consented, at Grenville's request, in conjunction with the other agents, to nominate such a person, for his own province, as the most suitable distributor of stamps in America, under the act!

Yet, if we are to believe colonel Barré, Grenville having spoken of the Americans as our children, planted by our care, and nourished by our indulgence, he burst out "Children planted by your care! No; your oppression planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny, to a then uncultivated and inhospitable wilderness, exposed to all the hardships to which human nature is liable. They nourished by your indulgence! No; they grew by your neglect of them. Your care of them was displayed, as soon as you began to care about them, by sending persons to rule them who were the deputies of deputies of ministers; men, whose behaviour, on many occasions, has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them-men, who have been promoted to the highest seats of justice in that country, in order to escape being brought to the bar of a court of justice in their own. I have been conversant with the Americans, and I know them to be loyal indeed, but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them, if ever they should be violated; and let my prediction of this day be remembered, that the same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will accompany them

still."

Unfortunately, so far as can be discovered from Debrett's parliamentary debates, and the evidence of Burke, it is doubtful whether this spirited appeal was made at the time. Had it been so, it would have produced no effect. It would

But a very different spirit displayed itself in America on the arrival of the news of the passing of the act. Franklin's friend Thompson replied to him, that, instead of lighting candles, there would be works of darkness. The rage of the American public burst forth in unequivocal vigour. At New York, the odious stamp act was represented surmounted with a death's head instead of the royal arms, and was hawked through the streets with the title of "the folly of England and the ruin of America." At Boston the colours of the shipping were lowered half-mast high, and the bells of the city were muffled and tolled funereal knells. Everywhere there was a frenzied excitement, and the provincial assemblies resounded with the clamour of indignant patriotism. It was the fortune of that of Virginia to give the leading idea of union and co-operative resistance, which led to the grand conflict, and to eventual victory over the infatuated mother country. There a very different man

to Franklin, started up, and kindled by his fiery breath the torch of confederate resistance, which was soon sent, like the fiery cross, through every state, and lit the conflagration which burnt England and all her follies and despotisms from the country.

Patrick Henry, like Franklin, was an American born. He saw the light at Mount Brilliant, in Virginia, in 1736; consequently, he was now twenty-nine years of age. He had tried his hand at a little shop, at farming, and other things, and failed in all. He then commenced as barrister, on a six weeks' study of the law, but soon found that, though he could not be heavily laden with law, he had eloquence and strong sense, and they gave him immediate popularity. He rose at once to the head of his profession; he became a member of the assembly of burgesses, at Williamsburg, and then he burst out on the stamp act with that fire and impetuosity which carried all before him. "Cæsar," he cried, with indignant vehemence, "had his Brutus; Charles I. had his Cromwell; and George III.-" "Treason!" cried the speaker. "Treason! treason!" resounded from all sides of the house; but Henry, pausing only for a moment, added, "may profit by their example. If that be treason, make the most of it."

Catching the contagious fire, the assembly passed a series of resolutions, denying, in the most unqualified language, the right of the mother country to tax them without their consent, and demanding the repeal of the obnoxious statute. The governor hastened to dissolve the assembly; but the resolutions were already passed, and set the example to the other assemblies. But it was at once seen that, to acquire their full weight, the colonies must unite. Speeches, pamphlets, articles in newspapers, all called for co-operation. A print was published exhibiting a snake cut into a number of pieces, each piece inscribed with the name of a colony, and with the motto, "Join or die." In consequence, several of the states sent representatives to a general congress, to be held at New York in the month of October, to take measures for a general resistance to the stamp act.

Whilst the American colonies were thus stimulated, by unwise taxation, into a temper which never again could be entirely allayed, and which concession only made more determined, because it gave them a heightened idea of their own strength, the king was suddenly attacked with an illness, that startled himself and the kingdom from that security which his apparently robust constitution had inspired. The disorder was attributed to a humour which appeared in his face, and which means had been employed to remove which only repelled it inwardly, and threw it upon his lungs. He was said to labour under cough and fever; but it became pretty well understood, after a time, that it was something more alarming-that it was, in fact, an attack of that insanity which recurred again and again, and held him for years, during the latter part of his reign, in its fearful power. This time it was of short occurrence; and the moment it was past, George held a levee at St. James's, and appeared at it with a cheerful air, as if to dissipate all alarm. The real nature of the attack was kept as close buried as possible in the inner circle of the palace. But the king himself immediately proposed a measure, which showed that it had awoke serious thoughts in him. He submitted to

ministers the propriety of a provision for a regency, in case of any recurring malady which should incapacitate him for business. His eldest son was not yet quite three years old. He did not wish to nominate any particular person now, but to authorise, by an act of parliament, at any time when he might deem it expedient, such person as he thought proper. The matter was discussed in the cabinet, and it was agreed that such a bill should be prepared, empowering the king to name, if deemed necessary, "either the queen, or any other person of the royal family usually residing in Great Britain."

On the 24th of April, accordingly, the king proposed, in a speech from the throne, the measure to the houses in these words. Both houses sent addresses of affection, and the bill was introduced into the house of lords; and it was there contended that it was too vague, no person being directly named, except the queen. To remedy this, the king sent a new message, naming the five princes of the royal house, with the power of nominating others in the case of the deaths of any of them. Still, on the second reading, lord Lyttleton declared that this left it perfectly uncertain who would become regent; and he moved an address to the king to name which one of the persons specified he would nominate as regent. But here the dake of Richmond asked, whether the queen were naturalised ; and if not, whether she were capable of acting as regent. He asked, also, who were, strictly speaking, the royal family? The earl of Denbigh replied, "All who were prayed for;" but the duke of Bedford contended that those only in the order of succession constituted the royal family. This went at once to exclude the princess dowager of Wales, the king's mother; and Halifax, his colleague, agreed with him. The question was proposed to lord Mansfield, but he warded it off by saying, that he had his own thoughts who were, and who were not, of the royal family, but he did not choose to express them. The question of the queen's naturalisation was then referred to the judges, who reported that she was capable of acting without any formal naturalisation. The lord chancellor, Henley, also declared that the royal family was not confined to the persons merely in course of succession, as the duke of Bedford supposed. Amidst all this confusion, lord Halifax hastened away to the king, and advised him to have the name of his mother omitted, lest the lords should strike it out, and thus make it appear a public insult. The poor, bewildered king, taken by surprise, said, "I will consent, if it will satisfy my people."

Halifax, possessed of this authority, returned to the house of lords, and announced that, by the king's permission, he proposed the re-commitment of the bill, with the names only of the queen and the sons of the late king now living. Thus, the princess dowager was publicly stigmatised, on the authority of her own son, as incapable of reigning, whilst such men as the butcher Cumberland were made capable. The amendment, as the royal pleasure, was agreed to. The country was struck with astonishment. The duke of Bedford is represented by Horace Walpole as almost dancing about for joy; the consternation of Bute and his party was indescribable. To cover the disgrace, they represented it as the wish of the princess dowager herself. But, when the king was left to his own reflections, it