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defended him against any charge, even of neglect, on this dreadful occasion; but blame was attached, at the time, both to him and his officers, and there was accordingly kindled throughout the colonies a deep thirst for vengeance.

Hitherto this war had been an almost continued series of disaster and disgrace; and in Europe similar results were seen to follow the feeble measures of the cabinet. But the spirit of the nation, being now aroused, forced into power William Pitt, perhaps the most energetic war minister who has ever swayed the British councils. Adverse to military operations in Germany, he turned his main attention to the North American colonies, and by vigorously announcing his resolution, drew forth from themselves strenuous exertions. Lord Loudon was superseded by Amherst, a more able commander; while the most active part was assigned to Wolfe, a young officer, in whom the discerning eye of Pitt discovered a rising military genius. It being determined to strike the first blow against Louisburg, considered the centre of French power in that quarter, an expedition sailed against it in May, 1757, and by the end of July, chiefly through his exertions, it was compelled to surrender. This success was followed up next year by a more formidable attempt, under the same commander, against Quebec, capital of New France. On the 13th September, 1759, a splendid victory, dearly purchased indeed by the death of that gallant officer, placed the city in the undisputed possession of Britain.

After this triumph, France could with difficulty maintain her posts in the interior. In 1758, General Abercromby, with 16,000 regulars and provincials, marched against Crown Point and Ticonderoga. The first skirmish was marked by the fall of Lord Howe, a young officer of high promise, and much beloved in America. The commander, having soon after made a premature assault on the last-mentioned fort, was repulsed with considerable loss, when he raised the siege and precipitately retreated. Colonel Bradstreet, however, at the head of a detachment, captured Fort Frontignac, a post of some consequence on Lake Ontario.

Meantime the Virginians, notwithstanding their most earnest wishes, had in vain attempted to renew the expedition against Fort Duquesne; having placed under the command of Washington a force barely sufficient to check the incursions of the French and Indians. In 1758, however, under the auspices of Pitt, General Forbes arrived with a body of troops, which the provincials soon raised to 6,000; but, contrary to the urgent advice of the American, instead of pushing on by a track already formed, he undertook to cut a new one through forests almost impracticable. He accordingly failed to reach the scene of action till November, when the season was too late for active operations, and the provisions were nearly exhausted. A party under Major Grant, having rashly advanced, were defeated with great loss. The situation of the army appeared very serious, when news arrived that the garrison, reduced to 500, and discouraged probably by the fall of Louisburg and the dangers menacing Canada, had set fire to the fort, and retreated in boats down the river. The Indians, who had already abandoned their cause, readily entered into terms with the British, and tranquillity was established along the whole line of the back settlements. By the peace of Paris, France ceded it and all the adjacent countries. Spain was also obliged to yield Florida; and Britain acquired a vast, compact, and flourishing empire, reaching from the arctic zone to the Gulf of Mexico. It would have been satisfactory could we have added a particular view of the progress made during this period by the colonies, in population, industry, and wealth. Their advance was certainly most rapid; yet the details are scanty, and in many cases doubtful. They were favored by a combination of circumstances almost unprecedented. An industrious race, skilled in agriculture, were transported to a country where land to any extent could be easily obtained.

The abundance of the necessaries of life thus produced, removed all check to marriage and the rearing of children; while the same circumstances invited a continual iuflux of emigrants from Europe. Hence arose a rapid increase of population, of which the modern world at least had never seen any example; doubling, it was supposed, in twenty-five or even twenty years.

The commercial progress of the colonies was equally rapid, and excited a still greater interest. Their exports consisted almost exclusively of the rude productions of land; a circumstance most grateful to the English people, since it naturally led to the desire to take their commodities in exchange. Their progress in agriculture, by absorbing at once their capital and their labor, prevented them from making any attempt to manufacture goods for themselves; while, by increasing their wealth, it induced them to prefer the fabrics of Britain to the rude home-made stuffs with which they had been at first contented. There was, however, a difficulty in finding articles, such as the rich products of the West Indies, which would obtain a place in the market of Europe. Silk and wine, the early objects of hope and pride, never succeeded; and though, in 1731, there were exported from Virginia three hundred weight of the former, their expectations from this source proved ultimately fallacious. What they vainly sought, however, came upon them from unexpected quarters; and we have seen how tobacco forced itself into the place of a leading export. During the present period, Virginia and Maryland became the chief sources whence all Europe was supplied. In 1744 and the two succeeding years, Britain imported 40,000,000 pounds, whereof 30,000 were re-exported. Rice also was accidentally introduced in the manner already mentioned; and so congenial was the swampy soil of Carolina to its culture, that nearly the whole quantity consumed in Europe was raised in that plantation. The productions of the northern colonies being nearly the same with those of Britain, met with no demand from our merchants; but the surplus of grain found a market in Spain and Portugal; provisions and timber were sent to the West Indies; and thence they obtained the means to pay for foreign manufactures. To New England again, the fisheries and shipbuilding were a continual source of ever-increasing wealth. The following exhibits a view of the progressive increase of imports and exports from 1700 to 1763:

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Carolina.

235,738 199,683 346,823 150,931 508,939
16,973 13,908 151,739 64,785 191,607

349,419

642,294 555,391

Georgia....

133,037 282,366 250,132 1,942 2,125 14,469 44,908 309,134 343,826||572,585 536,860||814,768|1,313,083||1,106,160 1,631,997

In 1769, a merchant, under the title of The American Traveller (4to, London, 1769), published a very detailed statement of the commerce of the colonies, on an average of the preceding three years; and as this does not seem to be generally known, we here present a summary, which may interest some classes of readers :

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THE

AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

CHAPTER 1.

THE triumphant issue of the contest with France seemed to have placed the British empire in America on a foundation at once solid and permanent. The possession of the whole eastern coast, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic ocean, secured it almost completely against any other European power, without whose support the natives could make only a very feeble and desultory resist ance. The population, the wealth, and advancing commerce of these colonies, inspired sanguine and indeed chimerical hopes of future advantage. They had co-operated most cordially, by strenuous efforts and great sacrifices, in the arduous contest waged on their soil by Britain and her powerful rival; and the exultation of common success cemented still more closely the mutual ties. The most friendly feelings appeared to be mutually cherished; and nothing indicated the approach of that fatal crisis which was to rend the empire asunder, and to begin the separation between the Old and the New Worlds.

There were not wanting, indeed, circumstances secretly tending toward this result. The colonies had always professed a firm and zealous allegiance to the king; and even Mr. Marshall admits, that to the very latest period they did not generally dispute the supreme legislative power of parliament: yet they had at the same time shown an extreme anxiety to manage their affairs in their own way; and during their silent growth, when communication was tedious and unfrequent, they generally attained this object. Occasionally the monarchs were seized with jealous feelings, and sent out strict and imperious mandates; but the planters, by delay, coupled with firm and respectful remonstrance, usually contrived to evade their execution. The discouragement to their manufactures, though unfair, was of little consequence, when such branches of industry would at all events have been premature. The monopoly of their commerce, though a more serious evil, was so accordant with the contracted views of the age, that they never thought of disputing the right, or expecting it not to be enforced. It was, besides, executed with so much laxness, that the most lucrative dealings were carried on clandestinely with very little interruption. On this point British jealousy was at length roused; customhouses were erected, and cruisers stationed along the coast.

In Great Britain, meanwhile, the light under which the colonies were viewed underwent a material alteration. Free nations, it has been often observed, are peculiarly apt to domineer over subject states. The people regarded with the highest complacency their sway over a vast transatlantic empire: according to Lord Chatham, even the chimney-sweepers on the streets talked boastingly of

their subjects in America. The entire subservience of the settlers, the power of parliament to impose upon them both laws and taxes, had always at home been held undisputed. In their infant state, however, when struggling with poverty and danger, there had been neither motive nor disposition to enforce these claims; and the occasional attempts to subvert their privileges, having been made in a violent manner by arbitrary and unpopular monarchs, had excited sympathy among the great body of the nation. The case was altered, when they had attained a degree of prosperity which enabled them undoubtedly to make a certain contribution toward the general interests of the empire; and some benefit might reasonably be expected from the vast exertions made in order to promote their security. The effect of these, indeed appeared in a serious derangement of the national finances. The budget of 1764 exhibited an expenditure hitherto unprecedented, leaving a deficiency of about three millions, which was with difficulty supplied by temporary resources and by encroachment on the sinking fund. Successive changes in the ministry had raised to its head George Grenville, an honest statesman, of great political knowledge and indefatigable application; but his mind, according to the able view of his character drawn by Burke, could not extend beyond the circle of official routine, and was unable to estimate the result of untried measures. He saw only the emptiness of the British exchequer, the capability of the Americans to pay a certain revenue, and the supposed unquestionable right to levy it.

Under these views, the minister, on the 10th March, 1764, introduced a series of resolutions, asserting the right and expediency of requiring America to contribute to the general exigencies of the empire, and specifying a stamp-duty as an eligible mode. These formidable propositions, which were to shake Europe and America to their foundations, were passed by parliament in the most thoughtless and careless manner. There is no record of speech or vote against them in either house. Mr. Grenville proceeded, on the 5th May, with as little opposition as before, to bring in an act imposing the intended duty. He showed considerable indulgence toward the colonies, having, on the first moving of the resolutions, sent for their agents, and stated his intention not to push the measure through that session, but to give them an opportunity of passing it themselves, or of raising in any other manner the required sum of £100,000.

These resolutions, being transmitted to America, excited the strongest and most hostile feeling; and the colonial assemblies almost unanimously advanced the claim of having the sole right of imposing taxes on their fellow-citizens. They maintained that recent duties on imported goods had materially encroached on this right, which the proposed act would entirely extinguish, and thus reduce them completely to the condition of slaves. The assembly of Massachusetts, however, after passing resolutions to the full extent of this principle, were induced by Mr. Hutchinson so to modify them as to rest their opposition solely on the ground of expediency. The other states, particularly Virginia and New York, took also a decided part, and petitions of the same tenor were forwarded from many of them to Great Britian. Dr. Franklin, already a highly distinguished person, appeared in London as agent for Pennsylvania. He and the others endeavored to impress strongly upon the minister the hopelessness of the Americans ever submitting to this arbitrary mode of taxation.

Mr. Grenville, early in February, 1765, brought his Stamp Act again before parliament. Voices, few indeed, but loud, were now raised against it. General Conway and Alderman Beckford denied the right of taxing America: Colonel Barré, with others, condemned it only as highly inexpedient, and even unjust, while the monopoly of her trade was retained. The latter gentleman began a course of most energetic and persevering opposition to the measure. pelled the alleged obligations of the colonies to the mother country, describing

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