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It was not until the campaign in 1758 that affairs affumed a more favourable aspect in America. But upon a change of administration, Mr. Pitt was appointed prime minister, and the operations of war became more vigorous and fuccefsful. General Amherst was fent to take poffeffion of Cape Breton; and after a warm fiege, the Garrison of Louisburgh furrendered by capitulation. General Forbes was fuccefsful in taking poffeffion of Fort Du Quefne, which the French thought fit to abandon. But General Abercrombie, who commanded the troops deftined to act against the French at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, attacked the lines at Ticonderoga, where the enemy were ftrongly entrenched, and was defeated with a terrible flaughter of his troops. After his defeat, he returned to his camp at Lake George. The next year, more effectual measures were taken to fubdue the French in America. General Prideax and Sir William Johnson began the operations of the campaign by taking the French fort near Niagara General Amherst took poffeffion of the forts at Crown Point and Ticonderoga which the French had abandonded.

But the decifive blow, which proved fatal to the French interefts in America, was the defeat of the French army, and the taking of Quebec, by the brave General Wolfe. This hero was flain in the beginning of the action, on the plains of Abram, and Monfieur Montcalm, the French commander, likewife loft his life. The lofs of Quebec was foon followed by the capture of Montreal by General Amherst, and Canada has remained ever fince in the poffeffion of the English.

Colonel Grant, in 1761, defeated the Cherokees in Carolina, and obliged them to fue for peace. The next year, Martinico was taken by Admiral Rodney and General Monckton; and also the island of Grenada, St. Vincents and others. The capture of these was soon followed by the furrender of the Havanna, the capital of the island of Cuba.

In 1763, a definitive treaty of peace was concluded at Paris between Great-Britain, France, and Spain, by which the English ceded to the French feveral islands in the Weft-Indies, but were confirmed in the poffeffion of all North America on this fide the Miffiffippi, except New Orleans, and a small diftrict of the neighbouring country.

But this war, however brilliant the fucceffes, and glorious the event, proved the caufe of great and unexpected misfortunes to Great-Britain. Engaged with the combined powers of France and Spain, during several years, her exertions were furprizing, and her expenfe immenfe. To difcharge the debts of the nation, the parliament was obliged to have recourfe to new expedients for raising money. Previous to the last treaty in 1763, the Parliament had been fatisfied to raife a revenue from the American Colonies by a monopoly of their trade.

It will be proper here to obferve that there were three kinds of government eftablished in the British American Colonies. The firft was. a charter government, by which the powers of legiflation were vefted in a governor, council, and affembly, chofen by the people. Of this kind were the governments of Connecticut and Rhode-Ifland. The fecond was a

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General Prideaux was killed by the burfling of a mortar, before the furrender of the French.

proprietary

proprietary government, in which the proprietor of the province was governor; although he generally refided abroad, and administered the government by a deputy of his own appointment; the affembly only being chofen by the people. Such were the governments of Pennsylvania and Maryland; and originally of New-Jersey and Carolina. The third kind was that of royal government, where the governor and council were appointed by the crown, and the affembly by the people. Of this kind were the governments of New-Hampshire, Maffachusetts, New-York, New-Jerfey, after the year 1702; Virginia, the Carolinas, after the refignation of the proprietors in 1728; and Georgia. This variety of governments created different degrees of dependence on the crown. Το render laws valid, it was conftitutionally required that they should be ratified by the king; but this formality was often difpenfed with, efpecially in the charter governments.

At the beginning of the laft war with France, commiffioners from many of the colonies had affembled at Albany, and proposed that a great council fhould be formed by deputies from the feveral colonies, which, with a general governor to be appointed by the crown, fhould be empowered to take measures for the common fafety, and to raise money for the execution of their defigns. This propofal was not relished by the British ministry; but in place of this plan, it was propofed, that the governors of the colonies, with the affiftance of one or two of their council, fhould affemble and concert measures for the general defence; ere&t forts, levy troops, and draw on the treafury of England for monies that should be wanted; but the treasury to be reimbursed by a tax on the colonies, to be laid by the English parliament. To this plan, which would imply an avowal of the right of parliament to tax the colonies, the provincial affemblies objected with unfhaken firmness. It seems therefore that the British parliament, before the war, had it in contemplation to exercise the right they claimed of taxing the colonies at pleafure, without permitting them to be reprefented. Indeed it is obvious that they laid hold of the alarming fituation of the colonies about the year 1754 and 1755, to force them into an acknowledgment of the right, or to the adoption of measures that might afterwards be drawn into precedent. The colonies, however, with an uncommon forefight and firmness, defeated all their attempts. The war was carried on by requifitions on the colonies for fupplies of men and money, or by voluntary contributions.

But no fooner was peace concluded, than the English parliament refumed the plan of taxing the colonies; and to justify their attempts, faid, that the money to be raised, was to be appropriated to defray the expence of them in the late war.

The firft attempt to raise a revenue in America appeared in the memorable ftamp act paffed March 22, 1765; by which it was enacted, that certain inftruments of writing, as bills, bonds, &c. fhould not be valid in law, unless drawn on ftamped paper, on which a duty was laid. No fooner was this act published in America, than it raised a general alarm. The people were filled with apprehenfions at an act which they fuppofed an attack on their conftitutional rights. The colonies petitioned the king and parliament for redress of the grievance, and formed affociations for the purpose of preventing the importation and ufe of British manufactures, until the act fhould be repealed. This fpirited and unanimous

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oppofition

oppofition of the Americans produced the defired effect, and on the 18th of March, 1766, the ftamp-act was repealed. The news of the repeal was received in the colonies with univerfal joy, and the trade between them and Great-Britain was renewed on the most liberal footing.

The parliament, by repealing this act, fo obnoxious to their American brethren, did not intend to lay aside the scheme of raising a revenue in the colonies, but merely to change the mode. Accordingly the next year they paffed an act, laying a certain duty on glass, tea, paper and painters colours; articles which were much wanted, and not manufactured, in America. This act kindled the refentment of the Americans, and excited a general oppofition to the measure; fo that parliament thought proper, in 1770, to take off these duties, except three-pence a pound on tea. Yet this duty, however trifling, kept alive the jealousy of the colonists, and their oppofition to parliamentary taxation continued and increased.

But it must be remembered, that the inconvenience of paying the duty was not the fole nor principal caufe of the opposition; it was the principle, which, once admitted, would have fubjected the colonies to unlimitted parliamentary taxation, without the privilege of being reprefented. The right, abftractly confidered, was denied; and the smalleft attempt to establish the claim by precedent, was uniformly refifted. The Americans could not be deceived as to the views of parliament; for the repeal of the stamp-act was accompanied with an unequivocal declaration,• that the parliament had a right to make laws of fufficient validity to bind the colonies in all cafes what foever.'

The colonies therefore entered into measures to encourage their own manufactures, and home productions, and to retrench the ufe of foreign fuperfluities; while the importation of tea was prohibited. In the royal and proprietary governments, the governors and people were in a state of continual warfare. Affemblies were repeatedly called, and fuddenly diffolved. While fitting, the affemblies employed the time in ftating grievances and framing remonftrances. To inflame thefe difcontents, an act of parliament was paffed, ordaining that the governors and judges fhould receive their falaries of the crown; thus making them independent of the provincial affemblies, and removeable only at the pleasure of the king.

Thefe arbitrary proceedings, with many others not here mentioned *, could not fail of producing a rupture. The firft act of violence, was the maffacre at Bofton, on the evening of the fifth of March, 1770. A body of British troops had been ftationed in Bofton to awe the inhabitants, and inforce the measures of parliament. On the fatal day, when blood was to be fhed, as a prelude to more tragic fcenes, a riot was raised among fome foldiers and boys; the former aggreffing by throwing fnow-balls at the latter. The bickerings and jealoufies between the inhabitants and foldiers, which had been frequent before, now became ferious. A multitude was foon collected, and the controversy became fo warm, that to disperse the people, the troops were embodied

* See an enumeration of grievances in the act of independence,' and in a variety of petitions to the king and parliament.

and

and ordered to fire upon the inhabitants. This fatal order was executed, and several persons fell a facrifice. The people reftrained their vengeance at the time; but this wanton act of cruelty and military defpotifin fanned the flame of lberty; a flame that was not to be extinguished but by a total feparation of the Colonies from their oppreffive and hostile parent.

In 1773 the fpirit of the Americans broke out into open violence. The Gafpee, an armed schooner belonging to his Britannic Majefty, had been stationed at Providence in Rhode-Ifland, to prevent fmuggling. The vigilance of the commander irritated the inhabitants to that degree, that about two hundred armed men entered the vessel at night, compelled the officers and men to go afhore, and fet fire to the fchooner. A reward of five hundred pounds, offered by government for apprehending any of the perfons concerned in this daring act, produced no effectual difcovery.

About this time, the discovery and publication of fome private confidential letters, written by the royal officers in Boston, to persons in office in England, ferved to confirm the apprehenfions of the Americans, with respect to the defigns of the British government. It was now made obvious that more effectual measures would be taken to establish the fupremacy of the British Parliament over the Colonies. The letters recommended decifive measures, and the writers were charged, by the exafperated Americans, with betraying their truft and the people they governed.

As the refolutions of the Colonies not to import or confume tea, had, in a great measure, deprived the English government of a revenue from this quarter, the parliament formed a fcheme of introducing tea into America, under cover of the Eaft-India Company. For this purpose an act was paffed, enabling the Company to export all forts of teas, duty free, to any place whatever. The Company departed from their usual mode of bufinefs, and became their own exporters. Several fhips were freighted with teas, and fent to the American colonies, and factors were appointed to receive and dispose of their cargoes

The Americans, determined to oppofe the revenue-fyftem of the English parliament in every poffible fhape, confidered the attempt of the EaftIndia Company to evade the refolutions of the colonies, and dispose of teas in America, as an indirect mode of taxation, fanctioned by the auhority of Parliament. The people affembled in various places, and in the large commercial towns took measures to prevent the landing of the teas. Committees were appointed, and armed with extenfive powers to infpect merchants books, to propose tests, and make use of other expedients to fruftrate the defigns of the Eaft-India Company. The fame fpirit pervaded the people from New-Hampfhire to Georgia. In fome places, the confignees of the teas were intimidated fo far as to relinquish their appointments, or to enter into engagements not to act in that capacity. The cargo fent to South-Carolina was ftored, the confignees being restrained from offering the tea for fale. In other provinces, the fhips were fent back without discharging their cargoes.

But in Boston the tea fhared a more violent fate. Senfible that no legal measures could prevent being landed, and that if once landed, it would be difpofed of; a number of men in difguife, on the 18th of December 1773, entered the ships, and threw overboard three hundred and forty chefts of it, which was the proportion belonging to the Eaft-India Company.

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Company. No fooner did the news of this deftruction of the tea reach Great-Britain, than the parliament determined to punish that devoted town. On the king's laying the American papers before them, a bill was brought in and paffed, to discontinue the landing and discharging, lading and fhipping of goods, wares and merchandizes at the town of Bofton, or within the harbour.'

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This act, paffed March 25, 1774, called the Boston Port Bill, threw the inhabitants of Maffachusetts into the greatest confternation. The town of Boston paffed a resolution, expreffing their sense of this oppreffive measure, and a defire that all the colonies would concur to ftop all importation from Great-Britain. Moft of the colonies entered into fpirited refolutions, on this occafion, to unite with Massachusetts in a firm oppofition to the unconftitutional measures of the parliament. The first of June, the day on which the Port Bill was to take place, was appointed to be kept as a day of humiliation, fafting and prayer throughout the colonies, to feek the divine direction and aid, in that critical and gloomy juncture of affairs.

It ought here to be obferved, that this rational and pious cuftom of obferving fafts in times of diftrefs and impending danger, and of celebrating days of public thanksgiving, after having received fpecial tokens of divine favour, has ever prevailed in New-England fince its firft fettlement, and in fome parts of other ftates. Thefe public fupplications and acknowledgments to heaven, at the commencement of hostilities, and during the whole progress of the war, were more frequent than ufual, and were attended with uncommon fervour and folemnity. They were confidered by the people, as an humble appeal to heaven for the juftness of their caufe, and defigned to manifeft their dependence on the GOD OF HOSTS for aid and fuccefs in maintaining it againft their hostile brethren. The prayers and public difcourfes of the Clergy who were friends to their fuffering country (and there were very few who were not) breathed the fpirit of patriotifm; and as their piety and integrity had generally fecured to them the confidence of the people they had great influence and fuccefs in encouraging them to engage in its defence. In this way, that venerable clafs of citizens aided the caufe of their country; and to their pious exertions, under the GREAT ARBITER of human affairs, has been juftly afcribed no inconfiderable share of the success and victory that crowned the American arms.

During the height of the confternation and confufion which the Bofton Port Bill occafioned; at the very time when a town-meeting was fitting to confider of it, General Gage, who had been appointed to the government of Maffachusetts, arrived in the harbour. His arrival however did

- not allay the popular ferment, or check the progrefs of the measures then taking, to unite the Colonies in oppofition to the oppreffive act of parliament.

But the Port Bill was not the only act that alarmed the apprehenfions of the Americans. Determined to compel the province of Maffachusetts to fubmit to their laws, parliament paffed an act for the better regulating government in the province of Maffachusetts Bay.' The object of this act was to alter the government, as it ftood on the charter of King William, to take the appointment of the executive out of the hands of the

people,

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