f Trade, who in their
turn influenced those who were responsible for the conduct of the
King's Government. Thus a vicious system, acting in a vicious circle,
kept alive an irritation and fostered a friction that only increased
with the increasing years. It had always been the worst feature of
England's colonial policy that she was ever ready to accept with too
little question the animadversions of the governors upon the governed.
The Lords of Trade accepted the communications of the colonial
governors as gospel truth, and as gospel truth it was taken in its turn
by the ministers to whom it was transmitted and by the monarch to whom
they carried it. The general public were as ignorant of and as
indifferent to the American colonies as if they were situated in the
mountains of the moon. The major part of the small minority that
really did seek or desire information about America gained it from the
same poisonous sources that inspired the Government, and based their
theories of colonial reform upon the peevish epistles, often mendacious
and always one-sided, which fed the intelligences of the Lords of
Trade. The few who were really well informed, who had something like
as accurate an appreciation of the colony of Massachusetts as they had
of the county of Middlesex, were powerless to counteract the general
ignorance and the more particular misconception. It was the cherished
dream of authority in England to bring the colonies into one common
rule under one head in such a way as to strengthen their military force
while it lessened their legislative independence. It now seemed as if
with the right King and the right Ministry {82} this dream might become
a reality. In George the Third and in George Grenville prerogative
seemed to have found the needed instruments to subjugate the American
colonies.

[Sidenote: 1765--Trade restrictions upon the colonies]

Many of the grievances of the colonies were grave enough. If some of
the injuries that England inflicted upon her great dependency seem
petty in the enumeration, a number of small causes of irritation are no
less dangerous to peace between nations than some great injustice. But
lest the small stings should not be enough, the Government was resolved
that the great injustice should not be wanting. The colonists resented
the intermittent tyranny and the persistent truculence of the most part
of the royal governors. The colonists resented the enforced
transportation