and that of Townshend from office. Lord Shelburne succeeded Townshend at
the Board of Trade, and young as he was, Shelburne was too sound a
statesman to suffer these plans to be revived. But the resignation of
Shelburne in 1763, after the failure of Pitt to form a united ministry,
again reopened the question. Grenville had fully concurred in a part at
least of Bute's designs; and now that he found himself at the head of a
strong administration he again turned his attention to the Colonies. On
one important side his policy wholly differed from that of Townshend or
Bute. With Bute as with the king the question of deriving a revenue from
America was chiefly important as one which would bring the claims of
independent taxation and legislation put forward by the colonies to an
issue, and in the end--as it was hoped--bring about a reconstruction of
their democratic institutions and a closer union of the colonies under
British rule. Grenville's aim was strictly financial. His conservative
and constitutional temper made him averse from any sweeping changes in
the institutions of the Colonies. He put aside as roughly as Shelburne
the projects which had been suggested for the suppression of colonial
charters, the giving power in the Colonies to military officers, or the
payment of Crown officers in America by the English treasury. All he
desired was that the colonies should contribute what he looked on as
their just share towards the relief of the burthens left by the war; and
it was with a view to this that he proceeded to carry out the financial
plans which had been devised for the purpose of raising both an external
and an internal revenue from America.

[Sidenote: The Colonies and the Stamp Act.]

If such a policy was more honest, it was at the same time more absurd
than that of Bute. Bute had at any rate aimed at a great revolution in
the whole system of colonial government. Grenville aimed simply at
collecting a couple of hundred thousand pounds, and he knew that even
this wretched sum must be immensely lessened unless his plans were
cordially accepted by the colonists. He knew too that there was small
hope of such an acceptance. On the contrary, they at once met with a
dogged opposition; and though the shape which that opposition took was a
legal and technical one, it really opened up the whole question of the
relation of the Colonies to the mother country. Proud as England was of
her imperial position, she had as yet fai