on their account, they considered themselves. bound to assist their protectors with unremitting ardour. We have already mentioned their determined and successful co-operation with the British army; and it is worthy of observation, that their commerce, agriculture, and population, continued to increase, though surrounded by the evils of war.

By a succession of the most brilliant victories by sea and land, Great Britain effectually subdued the united powers of France and Spain, and acquired possession of a vast extent of territory in both the Indies. The peace of Paris in 1763, terminated a war which exalted Great Britain to the zenith of military glory; by this treaty she remained sole mistress of North America, and her colonies were relieved from the fears of their ambitious French neighbours.

The termination of hostilities was a most joyful event to the British colonies. From their enterprizing disposition, especially those of New England, they were continually engaged in new projects. They had carried their trade to almost every port in the American hemisphere, and were indefatigable in agricultural improvements. Among other things they had been particularly attentive to the education of youth. Their polity was re

gulated with the greatest propriety and prudence; they were blest with the necessaries of life in abundance, and being unacquainted with the luxurious refinements of more polished communities, their undepraved minds were alive to the moral duties that constitute the strength and the happiness of society. On the auspicious return of peace, the American farmer looked forward with hope to the security and future prosperity of his children; the mechanic was certain of encouragement in a rising nation; and the merchant was incited to enterprize by the prospect of successful commerce.

Such was the state of the British colonies at the conclusion of a war, in which they had been more than conquerors. Indeed the cession of Canada had placed them in a state of perfect security from the French; and the Indians were too contemptible an enemy to excite much apprehension.

The colonies had for ages been accustomed to look to the mother country for aid against the French, from a consciousness of their inability to contend alone against that powerful nation. Protection on the one side naturally implies obedience on the other; and her colonies would have continued to view Great Britain with an eye of filial reverence,

C

while the menaces of an ambitious neigh

bour kept them in awe.

But when the ces

sion of the French territory in America to the British crown removed a formidable and ambitious rival from the western hemisphere, the colonies began to view their situation in another light, and to cherish ideas of their future greatness.

Soon after the aforementioned pacification, the French ministry, jealous of the grandeur of Britain, and conscious of their inability to lessen it by force, sent emissaries to North America, to disseminate discontent among the colonists, and thus effect a separation.By the disunion of these colonies, which were one great source of wealth and aggrandizement of her rival in arts and arms, France hoped to regain the ascendancy which she had formerly assumed in the politics of Europe. Her machinations were successful in America; a spirit of disaffection to the mother country was gradually diffused throughout the colonies, and they began to investigate those prerogatives which had been so long exercised over them by the British go

vernment.

The national debt of Great Britain had been much encreased by the late war, a multitude of new taxes were levied at home, and

as the war had originated on account of the colonies, and they had derived the principal advantages from the peace, it was thought equitable that they should contribute to the common exigencies.

In March, 1764, a bill was passed in the British Parliament, laying heavy duties on all articles imported into the colonies from the French, and other islands in the WestIndies, and ordering these duties to be paid in specie into the exchequer of Great Britain. In the same session another bill was formed, to restrain the currency of paper money in

the colonies.

These acts excited the surprize and displeasure of the North Americans. They sent warm and energetic remonstrances to the mother country, and laid every argument before the ministry, that ingenuity could suggest, but in vain. As they had hitherto furnished their contingent in men and money, by the authority of their representatives in the colonial assemblies, they asserted, that not being represented in the British Parliament, it could have no right to tax them.Finding, however, that all their arguments were ineffectual to remove their grievances, they formed associations to prevent the use of British manufactures, till they should obtain redress.

The animosity of the colonists was farther increased, by the advice which they received, that the British ministry had it in contemplation to establish stamp duties in America, similar to those in Great Britain. In the spring of 1765, the stamp act, after a viclent opposition in parliament, was passed; and the following description of its reception in America, is given by an impartial historian.*

"This famous act has justly been considered as the prelude and occasion of all the subsequent storms that raged not only in North America, but extended their horrors to almost every other quarter of both hemispheres.

"Its arrival in America threw immediately the whole continent into flames. Boston, the capital of New England, where the news first arrived, expressed its resentment in a manner perfectly suitable to the violent spirit with which its inhabitants have always opposed whatever they have deemed injustice and oppression. The colours of the shipping of the harbour were hoisted half mast, the bells of the churches were muffled, and tolled a funeral peal; the act was printed with a death's head affixed to it, in lieu of the king's * Vide Andrew's History of the late War, vol. 1, p. 41.