r the use of the King had always been raised by taxes
imposed by the legislatures of the colonies. The moment, therefore, the
people heard that this money was to be raised in future by parliamentary
taxation, they became much alarmed, and the legislatures instructed
their business agents in London to protest.

This the agents did in February, 1765. But Grenville, the Prime
Minister, was not to be persuaded, and on March 22, 1765, Parliament
passed the Stamp Act[1].

[Footnote 1: The exact text of the Stamp Act has been reprinted in
_American History Leaflets_, No. 21. For an excellent account of the
causes and consequences of the Stamp Act, read Lecky's _England in the
Eighteenth Century_, Vol. III., Chap. 12; Frothingham's _Rise of the
Republic of the United States_, Chap. 5; Channing's _The United States
of America, 1765-1865_, pp. 41-50.]

%110. The Stamp Distributors.%--That the collection of the new duty
might give as little offense to the colonists as possible, Grenville
desired that the stamps and the stamped paper should be sold by
Americans, and invited the agents of the colonies to name men to be
"stamp distributors" in their colonies. The law was to go into effect on
the 1st of November, 1765. After that day every piece of vellum, every
piece of paper, on which was written any legal document for use in any
court, was to be charged with a stamp duty of from three pence to ten
pounds sterling. After that day, every license, bond, deed, warrant,
bill of lading, indenture, every pamphlet, almanac, newspaper, pack of
cards, must be written or printed on stamped paper to be made in England
and sold at prices fixed by law. If any dispute arose under the law, the
case might be tried in the vice-admiralty courts without a jury.[2]

[Footnote: The stamps were not the adhesive kind we are now accustomed
to fasten on letters. Those used for newspapers and pamphlets and
printed documents consisted of a crown surmounting a circle in which
were the words, "One Penny Sheet" or "Nine Pence per Quire," and were
stamped on each sheet in red ink by a hand stamp not unlike those used
at the present day to cancel stamps on letters. Others, used on vellum
and parchment, consisted of a square piece of blue paper, glued on the
parchment, and fastened by a little piece of brass. A design was then
impressed on the blue paper by means of a little machine like that used
by magistrates and notaries public to impress their seals on lega