"In doing this, however, they (lid not think pro per to consider it so much in the light of a contra band trade, as in that of a treasonable practice, by supplying the enemy with necessaries, without which it would have been impossible for these valu able islands to hold out so long against our attempt to reduce them. Accordingly, as soon as the con clusion of the war had taken the appellation of treason from this trade, it returned again to its pristine flourishing condition; and thus it remain ed, till it sunk beneath the same blow with the trade between us and the Spaniards, whose history we have already related.
" This trade not only prevented our North Ame rican colonies from being drained of their current cash, by calls of the mother country, but added greatly to it, so as to make it in some measure keep pace with their domestic trade, which could not but greatly increase in proportion to the remark able increase of mankind in that part of the world, where the cheapness of the lands determines so great a part of the inhabitants to the exercise of the rural arts, which arc known to be favourable to population.
Though the suppression of that trade which we have just been relating, instead of barely interrupt ing these supplies of the necessaries and conveni ences of life, which the North American colonies were before accustomed to receive in return for their superfluities and incumbrances, tended visibly, by obstructing their internal commerce, to deprive them, in a great degree, even of these blessings, the sources of which lay within themselves; yet a law was made in the beginning of the last year (1764), which, whilst it rendered legal, in some re spects, their intercourse with the other European colonies in the new world, loaded the best part of it with duties so far above its strength to bear, as to render it contraband to all intents and pur poses.
" Warm and spirited remonstrances were sent to England on the occasion, by the people of North America. Among other arguments, they alleged that such restraints upon their trade were absolutely ruinous, as they tended to put an end to the clearing of their lands, and damped the prosecution of their fisheries. They also asserted, that unless those fo reign ports where they deposited the surplus of their corn, and of the provisions of all kinds with which their country abounded, were freely opened to them, they knew not whither to carry them. The British islands in the West Indies were not equal to their consumption, and Great Britain did not want them: it was absolutely necessary, therefore, that some places for the disposal of them should he permitted, where they might fetch a reasonable price." Whil the people were in the state of mind pro duced by the restrictions imposed on their trade by the acts of 1764, the stamp act was passed, and the first of November 1765 fixed on as the day in which it should go into operation. The measures which
were thereupon taken by the inhabitants and the governments of the different colonies belong to the political history of the country.
In the following year the stamp act was repealed: but the British parliament did not relinquish its pretensions to a right to tax the colonies, and passed an act "to amend an act for regulating cer tain duties in the British colonies and plantations, and also duties upon East India goods exported from Great Britain, and for granting other duties instead thereof, and for further encouraging, regu lating, and securing several branches of the trade of this kingdom and the British dominions in America, as relates to the exportation of non enumerated goods from the British colonies in America." This act was not of a character to allay the irri tation of the Americans, as it prevented them from exporting to any of the countries of Europe north of Cape Finisterre, except England, any of the arti cles before known as non-enumerated commodities.
In 1767, an act was passed which imposed du ties on teas, paper, painters' colours, and glass im ported into the British plantations in America.
In 1770, the duties on paper, painters' colours and glass were repealed: " but in order to preserve the dignity of the legislature, and merely to save the national honour, the duty on tea was con tinued." In 1775, a bill was passed to prohibit all trade and intercourse with the colonies in actual rebellion: and in the same year a resolution was passed by Congress shutting every port in the country against British ships.
We have thus brought up our commercial his tory to the commencement of the revolutionary war. Many of the incidents which followed the passage of the acts of 1764, we have thought it unnecessary to introduce, as they are related in the popular histories of that period. The facts we have stated are sufficient to show that it was inter ference with their trade that roused the Americans to assert the principle, that no body of men had a right to tax them without their own consent. This ground once taken by them, the evil or the good that the commercial regulations of the mother country might do them, was lost sight of in atten tion to the principle. Various attempts were made by the British parliament to conciliate them by granting bounties on raw silk, on oak staves, and on building timber, by taking off some of the re strictions on the exportation of rice, and by re ducing the duties on man? imported articles to a nominal amount: but the Americans having once asserted the principle, that the British parliament had no right to impose any tax or duty upon them, maintained their cause with a spirit which deserv ed and which obtained success.