shabbily to the troops sent to defend them, but Pontiac's war proved
that in times of pressing danger their safety might depend upon the
presence of a British force. Was it right or just that the colonies
should be defended by England and should contribute nothing towards the
cost of their defence? Grenville thought that it was not. On March 10,
1764, he laid before parliament a list of port dues; some of them were
higher than before, and to counterbalance the increase he proposed to
give several new advantages to colonial trade. Payment was no longer to
be evaded so easily as in past times, and smuggling would be attended
with greater risk. The money was to be paid into the English treasury
and was to be used only for colonial defence. More would be wanted for
that purpose, and he proposed to raise it by an act requiring that all
legal documents should bear stamps. This measure he deferred for a year
in order to ascertain the feeling of the colonies and to give them an
opportunity of raising the money in some other way if they preferred it.
The force to be kept in America was twenty regiments, or about 10,000
men, which, with the maintenance of fortifications, would cost L350,000
a year. Of this sum the proposed stamp act would, it was calculated,
bring in about L100,000. The bill passed without remark.

In an interview with the agents of the colonies Grenville pointed out
that the tax was reasonable, and was an easy and equitable way of
raising the required money, but promised that if the colonies disliked
it, and would raise the money themselves in some other way, he would be
content. Before the year was out they met him again and, acting on
instructions from their colonies, tried to dissuade him from his
purpose. Chief among them was Benjamin Franklin, then agent for
Pennsylvania, a New Englander by birth, not a puritan either in religion
or morals, a wise politician, shrewd, public-spirited, inventive, and
full of schemes of practical usefulness. He proposed that the money
should be voted by the provincial assemblies, but could not say that the
colonies would agree as to the amount which each should contribute. On
that of course the whole matter depended. When Grenville brought in his
stamp bill the debate, Burke says, was extremely languid. Parliament had
no idea that the act would lead to serious consequences. Nor were the
American agents much better informed, for Franklin, who considered that
a small standing arm