portant respects no one knew just what the
settlers of Virginia or Massachusetts might or might not lawfully
do.[1]

[1] Story's "Constitution of the United States."

The mother country, however, was perfectly clear on three points:

1. That the American colonies were convenient receptacles for the
surplus population, good or bad, of the British Islands.
2. That they were valuable as sources of revenue and profit,
politically and commercially.
3. That, finally, they furnished excellent opportunities for the
King's friends to get office and make fortunes.

Such had long been the feeling about India, and such too was the
feeling, modified by difference of circumstances, about America.

Politically the English colonists in America enjoyed a large measure
of liberty. So far as local legislation was concerned, they were in
most cases preactically self-governing and independent. So, too,
their personal rights were carefully safeguarded. On the other hand,
the commercial policy of England toward her colonies, though severely
restrictive, was far less so than that of Spain or France toward
theirs. The Navigation Laws (S459) compelled the Americans to confine
their trade to England alone, or to such foreign ports as she
directed. If they sent a hogshead of tobacco or a barrel of salt fish
to another country by any but an English or a colonial built bessel,
they were legally liable to forfeith their goods. On the other hand,
they enjoyed the complete monopoly of the English tobacco market, and
in certain cases they received bounties on some of their products.
Furthermore, the Navigation Laws had not been rigidly enforced for a
long time, and the New England colonists generally treated them as a
dead letter.

When George III came to the throne he resolved to revive the
enforcement of the Navigation Laws, to build up the British West
Indies, and to restrict the colonial trade with the Spanish and French
West Indies. This was done, not for the purpose of crippling American
commerce, but either to increase English revenue or to inflict injury
on foreign rivals or enemies.

Furthermore, British manufacturers had at an earlier period induced
the English Government to restrict certain American home
manufactures. In accordance with that policy, Parliament had enacted
statutes which virtually forbade the colonists making their own woolen
cloth, or their own beaver hats, except on a very limited scale. They
had a few iro