The French renouncing the hope of reaping any advantage from the chances of war, resorted to the means of address; emissaries traversed the American continent, saying to all that would hear them, 'To what end have the Americans lavished their blood, encountered so many dangers, and expended so much treasure, in the late war, if the English supremacy must continue to press upon them with so much harshness and arrogance? In recompense of such fidelity, of so much constancy, the English government, perhaps, has moderated its prohibitions, has enfranchised commerce from trammels so prejudicial to the interests of America? Perhaps the odious and so much lamented laws against manufactures, have been repealed? Perhaps the Americans no longer need toil upon their lands, or traverse the immensity of the seas, exclusively to fill the purses of English merchants? Perhaps the government of England had shown a disposition to abandon for ever the project of parliamentary taxes? Is it not, on the contrary, too evident, that, with its forces and power, have increased its thirst of gold, and the tyranny of its caprices? Was not this admitted by Pitt himself, when he declared, the war being terminated, he should be at no loss to find the means of drawing a public revenue from America, and of putting an end, once for all, to American resistance? Has not England, at present being mistress of Canada, a province recently French, and, as such, more patient of the yoke, has she not the means of imposing it on her colonists themselves, by the hand of her numerous soldiery? Is it not time that the Americans, no longer in a state of infancy, should, at length, consider themselves a nation, strong and formidable of itself! Is it only for the utility of England they have demonstrated, in the late war, what they were capable of achieving? And by what right should a distant island pretend to govern, by its caprices, an immense and populous continent? How long must the partialities and the avarice of England be tolerated? Did ever men, arms, riches, courage, climate, invite to a more glorious enterprise? Let the Americans, then, seize the occasion, with a mmd worthy of themselves, now they have proved their arms, now that an enormous public debt overwhelms England, now that her name has become detestable to all! America can place her confidence in foreign succours. What could be objected to a resolution so generous? Consanguinity? But have not the English hitherto treated the colonists more as vassals, than as brothers? Gratitude? But have not the English strangled it, under the pretensions of that mercantile and avaricious spirit which animates them?'

The general state of Europe was eminently favorable to the secret designs of France. It is certain, that at this epoch, all the powers concurred in considering the enormous increase of the strength of the British nation, both upon land and sea, as imminently menacing to the repose and liberty of Europe; excessive pros

perity but too rarely permitting men to know where to limit their enterprises. Supported with one hand upon her colonies of America, and with the other upon her possessions of the East Indies, England seemed to press the two extremities of the globe, and to aspire at the entire dominion of the ocean. From the day in which was concluded the peace of 1763, England was viewed with the same jealousy which France had inspired under Lewis XIV. She was the object of the same umbrage, of the same distrusts. All desired to see her power reduced; and the more she had shown herself formidable in the preceding war, the more ardently was it wished to take advantage of the present peace, to humble and reduce her. These wishes were much the most fervent with the maritime states, and especially in Holland, to whom England, in these late times, had caused immense losses. The English squadrons had often interrupted, and sometimes by the most outrageous proceedings, the commerce, in the munitions of war, which the Dutch carried on with France; and, on many occasions, the officers of the British navy made use of this pretext to detain ships, laden with articles that could not really be considered as munitions of war..

The kingdoms of the north reluctantly supported the prepotence of England, and openly complained that she had presumed to harass the commerce of neutrals, in time of war. It was evident they were prepared to seize the first occasion to give her a check. But France, more than any other power, being of a martial spirit, was inflamed with a desire to avenge her defeats, to repair her losses, and reconquer her glory, eclipsed by recent discomfiture; she was incessantly occupied with calculations which might lead to this object of all her wishes; and no means more efficacious could be offered her for attaining it, than to lacerate the bosom of her adversary, by separating from England the American colonies, so important a part of her power and resources.

Excited by so many suggestions, the inhabitants of English America conceived an aversion, still more intense, for the avaricious proceedings of the British government. Already, those who were the most zealous for liberty, or the most ambitious, had formed in the secret of their hearts, the resolution to shake off the yoke of England, whenever a favorable occasion should present. This design was encouraged by the recent cession of Canada: while that province continued a dependency of France, the vicinity of a restless and powerful nation kept the colonists in continual alarm; they were often constrained to solicit the succours of England, as those from which alone they could expect protection against the incursions of the enemy. But the French having abandoned Canada, the Americans necessarily became more their own protectors; they placed greater reliance upon their own strength, and had less need of recurring to others, for their particular security. It should be consi

dered, besides, that in the late war a great number of the colonists had renounced the arts of peace, and assuming the sword instead of the spade, had learned the exercise of arms, inured their bodies to military fatigues, and their minds to the dangers of battle: they had, in a word, lost all the habits of agriculture and of commerce, and acquired those of the military profession. The being that has the consciousness of his force, becomes doubly strong, and the yoke he feels in a condition to break, is borne with reluctance: thus, the skill recently acquired in the use of arms, become general among the Americans, rendered obedience infinitely more intolerable to them. They considered it a shameful and outrageous thing, that a minister, residing at a distance of three thousand miles from their country, could oppress, by his agents, those who had combated with so much valor, and obtained frequent victories over the troops of a powerful, brave, and warlike nation. They often reflected, that this prosperity, in which England exulted, and which was the object of envy to so many nations, was in great part the work of their hands. They alleged that they had repaid with the fruit of their toils, and even with their blood, the fostering cares with which the mother country had protected and sustained them, in the infancy of their establishment: that now there was a greater parity between the two nations, and therefore they had claims to be treated on terms of greater equality. Thus the Americans habitually discoursed, and perhaps the less timid among them aspired to loftier things. The greater number, however, satisfied with the ancient terms of connexion with England, were reluctant to dissolve it, provided she would abandon all idea of ulterior usurpations. Even the most intrepid in the defence of their privileges, could not endure the thought of renouncing every species of dependence on their legiti mate sovereign. This project they condemned the more decidedly, as they perceived that in its execution they must not only encounter all the forces of England, by so many victories become formidable to the universe, but also must resort to the assistance of a nation, in language, manners and customs, so different from themselves: of a nation they had so long been accustomed to hate, and to combat under the banners of their mother country.

Notwithstanding the suggestions of the French, and the new impulse which their military essays had given to the minds of the Americans, this state of things might have continued still for a long time, if, after the conclusion of the peace of 1763, England had not conceived the extravagant idea of new taxes, of new prohibitions, of new outrages. The English commerce, about the close of the war with France, having arrived at the highest point of prosperity, it would be difficult to estimate the immense number of vessels which brought the productions of all parts of the globe into the ports of Great Britain, and received, in exchange, the produce, and espe

cially the manufactures, of the country, esteemed above all others in foreign markets; and, as these various commodities were subject, when introduced or exported, to duties, more or less considerable, this commerce had become a source of riches for the public treasury. But, it soon appeared that, to the great prejudice of this revenue, the increase of smuggling was in proportion to that of commerce. Government, desirous of arresting so pernicious a scourge, made a regulation, in 1764, by which it was enjoined the commanders of vessels stationed upon the coasts of England, and even those of ships that were destined for America, to perform the functions of revenue officers, and conform themselves to the rules established for the protection of the customs; a strange and pernicious measure, by which those brave officers, who had combated the enemy with so much glory, found themselves degraded into so many tide-waiters and bailiffs of the revenue. The most deplorable effects soon resulted from it; the naval commanders, little conversant with the regulations of the custom-house, seized and confiscated promiscuously the cargoes prohibited, and those that were not.

This confusion was the occasion of manifold abuses, which, if they were soon repaired in England, could not be remedied without extreme difficulty in America, from the distance of places, and the formalities required. Hence loud complaints were heard from all the colonies against the law. It produced, however, consequences still more pernicious. A commerce had been established, for a great length of time, between the English and Spanish colonies, extremely lucrative to both the parties, and, ultimately also to England. On the part of the British colonies, the principal objects of this traffic were the manufactures of England, which the Americans had acquired in exchange for their productions, and on the part of the Spanish, gold and silver, in specie or ingots, cochineal, medicinal drugs; besides live stock, especially mules, which the Americans transported to the islands of the West Indies, where they were demanded at great prices. This commerce procured for the Americans an abundance of these metals, and enabled them to make ample purchases of English merchandise; and furnished their own country, at the same time, with a sufficient quantity of gold and silver coin.

This traffic, if it was not prohibited by the commercial laws of England, was not expressly authorised. Accordingly, the new revenue officers believed it was their duty to interrupt its course, as if it had been contraband; and captured, without distinction, all vessels, whether English or foreign, laden with merchandise of this nature. Hence, in a short time, this commerce was destroyed, to the great prejudice, not only of the colonies upon the continent, but even of the English islands themselves, and particularly of Jamaica.

From the same cause proceeded the ruin of another very important commerce, which was exercised between the English colonies of America on the one part, and the islands appertaining to France on the other; and which had been productive of the greatest reciprocal utility. Its material consisted principally of such productions and commodities as were superfluous to the one, and totally wanting to the other. It is, therefore, not surprising, that the colonists, at the news of losses so disastrous, should have resolved not to purchase, in future, any English stuffs, with which they had been accustomed to clothe themselves; and, as far as possible, to use none but domestic manufactures. They determined, besides, to give every encouragement to those manufactories which wrought the materials abundantly produced by their lands and animals. But in Boston, particularly, a rich and populous city, where the luxury of British merchandise had been extensively introduced, it is difficult to express how extremely the public mind was exasperated, or with what promptitude all the inhabitants renounced superfluities, and adhered to the resolution of returning to the simplicity of early times a remarkable example of which was soon observed in the celebration of funerals, which began to take place without habiliments of mourning, and without English gloves. This new economy became so general at Boston, that, in the year 1764, the consumption of British merchandise was diminished upwards of ten thousand pounds sterling. Other towns followed this example; and, in a short time, all the colonists concurred in abstaining from the use of all objects of luxury, produced by the manufactories, or by the soil, of England. Besides this, and even of necessity, from the scarcity of money, the merchants of the colonies, finding themselves debtors for large sums to the English, and having no reason to expect new advances, without new payments, which they were not in a situation to make, resorted also to the plan of non-consumption; they renounced all purchase and all expense, to the incredible prejudice of the manufacturers in England.

But the English government did not stop here as if not satisfied with having excited the discontent of the colonists, it desired also to urge them to desperation. In the month of March, 1764, the parliament passed a regulation, by which, if on the one hand a traffic was permitted between the American colonies and the French islands of the West Indies, and others appertaining to other European powers; on the other, such enormous duties were imposed on the merchandise imported from the latter, as to create, as usual, an almost universal contraband, in every article, with immense disadvantage to the commerce itself, and equal prejudice to mercantile habits and probity. To crown so great an evil, it was ordered, by the same bill, that the sums proceeding from these duties should be paid, in specie, into the treasury of England. The execution of