Of the conduct of the Americans in the war, the par ticulars of which we are about to relate, we leave our readers to judge for themselves : as it is our desire to maintain an impartiality suited to the nature of our work.
We are no longer to c (insider the colonies of Ame rica as feeble settlements, without Immix •s, and almost wholly depending on loreig,n aid, but as opulent ;mid powerful states, abounding in men,' and lertde ni re sources. Their population had increased to a very grew degree, notwithstanding the wars in %i hich they had been engaged their trade was exensive.; and the cha racte• of the people adventurous and persevering, f • till of bold undertakings, and not easily deterred from the execution of their purposes. Flushed milli the extra ordinary success which had attended them in all their military operations, and feeling the benefits and the importance of their commerce, they justly regarded themselves as no interior part of the British and as contributing largely to its wealth and prosperity. Either with the permission or the connivance of Eng land, their ships had visited every port in tie western hemisphere. They had explored, and were continually exploring, new sources of trade, and were to be net with in every place where business of any kind was transacted. With this enlarged and vigorous commerce, they joined a remarkable attention to the agriculture of the provinces which they occupied. 'Whatever could be done by art, by labour, and by economy ; whatever judgment could plan, or ability could execute, fur im proving the advantages of their soil and climate, foi remedying the evils of their situation, or extending the happiness of domestic life, had been undertaken and prosecuted with unusual success. To all this they add ed a firmness, a prudence, and a lenity in the concerns of government, which have rarely been equalled, and never exceeded, on the opposite side of the Atlantic. But in the midst of their prosperity, when every thing was fair to the eye, and no cloud interposed to diminish the brightness of the view, a storm was about to gather, which was to darken for a while their clearest prospects, and introduce terror and confusion into all their settle ments.
No sooner had the treaty of peace been ratified at Paris, than the French appear to have formed the design of prompting the colonies in America to throw of the dominion of Great Britain. Animated by national hatred, and galled by the loss of their possessions in Canada and Louisiana, they despatched their emissaries into the English provinces,t and succeeded but too well, in alien ating the affections of the people from the mother coun try. The colonists were by no means unacquainted with resistance to the authority of Great Britain. They had been driven at' first, by the tyranny of absolute dominion, to take refuge in the Western World ; they had long cherished the republican principles which had carried them thither : they had been involved in frequent dis putes with their immediate governors, and in these they had often been successful ; and though they had derived the most effectual assistance from England during their late contests with the French, yet they dreaded her influ ence, and viewed her rather in the light of a sovereign than a parent.
Since the time of their earliest migration, the settlers in America had been accustomed to acknowledge the authority of the British parliament, in regulating the affairs of their commerce ; nor had they always distin guished between such enactments as respected their trade, and such as respected their internal circum stances. But they were now disposed to question the
right of England to interfere, whether in matters of commerce, or in those of civil institution ; as they were not present by their representatives in the legislative assembly of the nation, and therefore could neither give nor refuse their consent to any measure by which their prosperity might be affected. To do this, they consi dered as the chief and the unalienable privilege of Eng lishmen. They argued farther, that though they had submitted in former times to the duties which parlia ment had laid upon their commerce, the practice was wrong, and that when an evil was perceived and acknow ledged, no precedent ought to sanction its continuance. These reasonings, however, were not the consequence of abstract and philosophical speculation. In the year 1764, a bill was introduced into parliament, by which the colonists were to pay certain duties on goods brought from such of the West India islands as did not belong to the crown of Great Britain : and these duties were to be paid into the exchequer in specie. By another act of the same year, the paper currency was subjected to certain limitations throughout the colonies. As soon as the intelligence of these statutes had reached America, they appeared to all the settlers as odious in a great de gree : the profitable commerce which they had long maintained with the French and Spaniards in different parts of the New World was to be instantly and rigor ously suppressed by taxes, which were equal, in their judgment, to a prohibition of trade ; and these taxes were to be gathered by the sudden conversion of all the naval officers on the American station into collectors of the revenue. Such men being unacquainted with the proper duty of their new character, rendered the law, which was disagreeable in itself, still more hateful in Its execution. And as the penalties and forfeitures un der the act were recoverable in the vice-admiralty courts in America, to the exclusion of a fair trial by jury, this last circumstance gave an additional spur to the dissa tisfaction of the people. The whole continent was thrown into fermentation ; vehement remonstrances were made ; petitions were transmitted to the king, and memorials to both houses of parliament ; every argument which ingenuity could furnish, or interest could enforce, was employed in order to procure the repeal of the obnoxious statutes ; but all without effect. A committee was ap pointed at Massachusetts, to act dining the recess of the general court : and those who composed it were in itructed to communicate with the other settlements, and to entreat their concurrence and aid. In the mean time, associations were formed in all the provinces, in order to diminish the use of British manufactures : a step which, besides its immediate effects, rendered the merchants of England a party against the ministry, and increased the opposition with which those in power were obliged to contend.