ny to which they were continually exposed from the agents of the English government, were readily persuaded to credit their narrations, and thus give additional strength to their own causes of enmity.

It is likewise worthy of remark, that a voyage to England, from the American Colonies, was not then regarded, as it now is, a mere tour of pleasure, to be made with every change of season-but as something of which the traveller might boast to his descendants. To have seen his most gracious Majesty; to have heard the noble lords in Parliament; or to have visited the Tower, was then a matter of so much importance, that it was deemed worthy to be commemorated in our family journals, as a grand epoch in the life of the Colonist. The first settlers of the country, engaged as they were in reducing a wilderness to cultivation and civilization, and in resisting the hostile incursions of their savage neighbours, knew but little of England, except what they were made to learn in the severe discipline of gubernatorial tyranny. They saw her only in the exaggerated tales of discontented emigrants, and felt her influence only in the oppressions of his Majesty's arrogant representatives. The popular and royal branches of the Colonial governments, were at eternal variance; and each had their separate agents, spies, and informers, near the court of St. James. Thus, England was as ignorant of the true state of her American Colonies, as the Colonies themselves were of the machinery of her government. The English Parliament was, as it were, disciplined to the belief, that the American Colonies comprehended the most factious and discontented spirits, under the dominion of their royal master; and the Colonies, on the other hand, seemed to think that Parliament had little

else to do, than to listen to the representations of their Governours, careless and indifferent to every remonstrance of the people. The ignorance of the English Ministry with regard to the political interests and geographical situation of this country, may be abundantly seen in many of the royal charters-the alteration or abrogation of which, at their own pleasure, produced disquietudes, traces of which may be found even at the present day. The same tracts of land were often granted to several individuals-rivers, mountains, and other prominent land-marks, were sometimes named in the charter, which were no where to be found except in the charter itself; and contending parties, deriving their titles from equal authority, the same royal graut, either spent their lives in litigation, or succeeded against each other only by superiority of artifice and cunning. It is not our business to inquire into the validity of any of these royal grants, or we might here take occasion to smile at the ridiculous arrogance, and ostentatious liberality, with which a crowned head could give away, what belonged to him by no right, divine or human-this is the province of the general historian; and to him we leave the task of defending the right, by which the peaceable and unoffending natives of this western Continent, were driven from the soil which God had given them, by the fiat of an earthly sovereign.

Bred up, as our ancestors were, to a free interchange of opinion on these apparently trifling subjects of discontent, they acquired a habit of minute investigation, which 'ultimately led them to an equality with the greatest statesmen of Europe. Every subject of real or imaginary grievance, was examined to the bottom-the constitutional right of Parliament to im

pose certain obnoxious and oppressive measures, was brought into question, and the negative stoutly maintained and having once ventured to dispute the omnipotence of Parliament, they were not long in denying altogether their right to interfere in the local concerns of this Country. It was allowed to possess a general, supervisory jurisdiction, by some writers; but it was held, that for all local, interior, subordinate purposes, our own Legislatures were alone competent to legislate. It was maintained, that Representatives, chosen from the body of the people, acting under the eye of their constituents, responsible to them for their conduct, and participating in all their interests, were incomparably better judges, both of the evil and of the remedy, than a Legislature at the distance of three thousand miles, who had no common feeling or sympathy with the people, over whom they claimed a right to legislate. Inquiries were made as to the extent of this Parliamentary claim-Writers who touched on these delicate and dangerous subjects, acquired a sort of popularity, which was probably the motive that induced them to employ their pens upon such topics. They were in the outset, perhaps, hardly serious themselves, when they pressed home upon their readers, points of such momentous concerns. As they, however, became, from the boldness of their speculations, popular favourites, they dared to enlarge the questions and to take stronger positions. In the mean time it must not be supposed, that the creatures of the English Ministry were idle. They looked with jealousy and alarm at the introduction of such new doctrines-they introduced persecutions and indictments; but this only augmented the evil for which they attempted to furnish a remedy. The case was

to be submitted to the decision of a Jury of our own countrymen, who inherited all the political prejudices of the writer, and who would rejoice in an opportunity to sanction by their verdict the legality of such speculations. From this moment, the writer became a man of political importance-he was then represented as the champion of our Colonial rights, a man whose abilities and integrity had alarmed the sycophants of the Court, and whom they endeavoured to offer up as a victim to Ministerial injustice. These ideas and opinions were every day gaining ground, and they harmonized so well with all the prejudices of our countrymen against Parliament, that it is not a matter of astonishment that they should find supporters and defenders.

While matters were taking a course so dangerous at home, Parliament were urging unusual and unprecedented claims-They asserted rights of sovereignty still more large and undefined, more alarming and revolting to the jealous mind of the Colonies. These pretensions were again canvassed and discussed; they were compared with those rights which were reserved to the Colonies and sanctioned by the royal charter, and were often found utterly at variance. Here was new cause for disquietude and alarm, and for the writers on this side of the Atlantick to push their speculations further than they had originally gone. Fortified and encouraged by popular confidence, and braying all the consequences, they did not hesitate, in some instances, to call in question the right of Parliament to legislate for them in any case whatever. In England, the Party in opposition to the Government, were not backward in ascribing all these trans-Atlantick commotions to the conduct of his Majesty's Ministers.

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This Party were, perhaps, themselves not conscious of the extent of the mischief that they were doing. They probably thought, that it would be in the power of Parliament, at any time, to impose a check upon such licentious doctrines, before they extended themselves beyond mere speculation, and that, in the mean time, they might appropriate to themselves all the benefits resulting from such ministerial embarrassments. They would therefore appear on the floor of Parliament, as the defenders and apologists of the Colonies. The Colonies on their part, when they found that they were sanctioned by such high authority, were little disposed passively to surrender any of their controverted claims; but on the contrary urged them with still more boldness and perseverance. These Parliamentary champions shortly became the idols of the Colonies-they were selected to present remonstrances and addresses, and were toasted on this side of the Atlantick, as the defenders of American liberty.

Thus from the operation of causes partly natural and partly artificial, permanent impressions of hostility to England, were made upon the minds of the Colonists. In our plain, simple, republican habits, every thing appertaining to royalty and aristocracy, to the pomp and splendour of a Court, was regarded with a jealous and a suspicious eye; fortunes were here made by self-denial, and the slow and tedious process of laborious industry. Children were brought up heirs to little more than the industry of their parents-they were always accustomed to habits of parsimony and self-denial, while their rulers across the Atlantick were born to power and eminence. All the splendour by which these rulers were invested, all the rank, titles,