"Do you think that the people of America would submit to the Stamp Act if it was moderated ?"

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No, never, unless compelled by force of arms."

The Act was repealed on the 15th of March, 1766, to the great joy of the true friends of both countries. But there was a fatal clause in the repeal, which declared that the king, with the consent of the Parliament (the Parliament in which America was not represented), had the power to make laws to bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever. The Parliament proceeded to impose duties on glass, pasteboard, white and red lead, painters' colours, and tea, and in other ways to annoy the people of America.

One man in England besides the great Pitt saw what mischief these schemes of Grenville, Townshend, and Lord North's were working. This was Edmund Burke; and in his glorious speech on conciliation with America, he has left us a record that he at least had a heart large enough to feel the responsibility that England incurred in having the welfare of more than two millions of people in her hand. He appealed to the self-interest of England, and showed how impolitic it would be to alienate such a vast community -how great was their commerce, how flourishing their agriculture. "The Old World was fed from the New." "When

I know," he said, "that the colonies in general owe little or nothing to any care of ours, that through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take her own way to perfection; when I reflect upon these effects, when I see how profitable they have been to us, I feel all the pride of power sink, and all presumption in the wisdom of human contrivances melt and die away within me. My rigour relents, I pardon something to the spirit of

EDMUND BURKE ON AMERICAN TAXATION.

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per

liberty. A nation is not governed which is petually to be conquered. I do not choose wholly to break the American spirit, because it is the spirit that has made the country." He urged that the American nation was not properly represented in Parliament, and therefore ought not to be taxed by it; that it had General Assemblies in every State, and that to these Assemblies alone the right of taxation should belong; and that England should only, as heretofore, receive grants from America, instead of trying to obtain a revenue by internal taxation. "I, for one," he said, "protest against compounding for a poor limited sum the immense, ever-growing, eternal debt which is due to generous governments from protected freedom. My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection.

. Let us get an American revenue as we have got an American empire. English privileges have made it all that it is; English privileges alone will make it all that it can be. In full confidence of this unalterable truth, I lay the first stone of the temple of peace."

But no building was reared upon the stone which he laid. It remained as a lonely monument, recording one prophetic, hopeless protest against the severance of the ties which bound the Old World to the New.

CHAPTER VIII.

AMONGST those who heard with the greatest pleasure of the repeal of the Stamp Act was Washington. In one of his letters he says, referring to it:-"Had the Parliament of Great Britain resolved upon enforcing it, the consequences, I conceive, would have been more direful than is generally apprehended, both to the mother country and her colonies. All, therefore, who were instrumental in procuring the repeal are entitled to the thanks of every British subject, and have mine cordially." He had watched the rising of the storm from Mount Vernon, and had shared in the indignation which was felt throughout the States, and especially in Virginia, at England's conduct. But Washington was loyally devoted to the old country; he desired no separation, and nothing but the conviction that America was being treated with injustice would have induced so calm and just a man to take up arms in the cause of revolt.

In 1769 he wrote to a friend :-"At a time when our lordly masters in Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing less than the deprivation of American freedom, it seems highly necessary that something should be done to avert the stroke, and maintain the liberty which we have derived from our ancestors. But the point of doing it so as to answer the purpose effectually is the point in question. That no man should hesitate or scruple a moment in defence of so valuable a blessing is clearly my opinion; yet arms should be the last resource. We have already, it is said, proved the

LORD BOTETOURT, THE NEW GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 71

inefficacy of addresses to the throne and remonstrances to Parliament. How far their attention to our rights and interests is to be awakened or alarmed by starving their trade and manufactures remains to be tried." A resolution was framed amongst Washington and some of his friends by which they pledged themselves not to import or to use any articles of British merchandise or manufacture subject to duty. For some time it was the habit amongst these men to dress in the cloth which was made in America, though it was not that superfine material of which Washington's riding-coat had been made when he ordered it from a fashionable tailor in England. They also drank no tea, which, as Washington was very fond of it," must have been an act of self-denial to him.

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While things were in this state, George III. sent out Lord Botetourt from England as Governor of Virginia. "When will you be ready to start?" said the king, when he gave him the appointment. "To-night, sire," was the answer. He accordingly went out as soon as possible, and in great state, imagining that by much display he would make an impression on the Americans. The king lent him a state coach, and he went to the House of Assembly in it at the opening of the session, "drawn by six milk-white horses."

But he had mistaken the people with whom he had to deal. They were men in earnest about getting their rights, and were not to be turned from their purpose by such expedients as this. He soon saw how false his idea of them had been, and entered with more gravity into the question of their grievances, trying with all his influence to have the taxes which they so much resented repealed as soon as possible. It is probable, had he succeeded in his endeavours

that America might have become peaceable again; but the unwise policy of Lord North, who was now Prime Minister in England, undid the good that Lord Botetourt had done. Lord North revoked all the taxes in America except that on tea, which he said should be retained, "to show that England had the power of taxing America." This was exactly what It was this very power

roused the anger of the Americans. which they denied, and they determined to resist the importation of the tea which England tried to force upon them. Just at the same time a riot took place in Boston between the military and some of the young men of the town. Four people were killed; and this gave a pretext to the mob for rising in anger against the soldiers. The affair was much exaggerated, and called "The Boston Massacre."

In Virginia, where things had looked most hopeful for peace, everything was suddenly plunged into confusion by the death of Lord Botetourt. His loss was greatly felt, for the Virginians knew that he had behaved wisely amongst them, and had done his best for their country. Washington was amongst those who most regretted him; but he was for a while drawn aside from political life, as he was obliged to go on another expedition to the Ohio to arrange some military claims on the newly-acquired territory. He seemed quite to enjoy being in the wild wood life again. His only attendants were Dr. Craik, his trusted medical friend, who had been with him over the same ground before, and three negro servants. The whole party were mounted on horseback.

Twelve days' riding brought them to Fort Pitt (the old Fort Duquesne). Already a small town of about twenty log-houses had sprung up, the commencement of the city of Pittsburg. From this place the travellers took canoes, and