oss of the respect and affection the people of America bear to
this country, and of all the commerce that depends on that respect and
affection."

"Do you think the people of America would submit to pay the stamp duty
if it was moderated?"

"No, never, unless compelled by force of arms."

This was stating the case without reserve; and, no doubt, it had much to
do with the repeal of the Stamp Act in March, 1766.

It should not be overlooked that the Colonies had some strong friends in
Parliament. Charles Townsend advocated the enforcement of the Stamp Act.
"Who are these Americans?" he cried. "Are they not our children, planted
by our care, nourished by our indulgence, and protected by our arms?"

The brave Colonel Barre, with cheeks all inflamed with virtuous
indignation, replied:

"They planted by your care? No, sir; your oppressions planted them in
America! They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated and
inhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to all the evils
which a wilderness, filled with blood-thirsty savages, could threaten.
And yet, actuated by true English love of liberty, they thought all
these evils light in comparison with what they suffered in their own
country, and from you, who ought to have been their friends.

"They nourished by your indulgence? No, sir; they grew by your neglect!
As soon as you began to indulge them, that boasted indulgence was to
send them hungry packs of your own creatures to spy out their liberties,
to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon their substance! Yes,
sir; you sent them men, whose behavior has often caused the blood of
those Sons of Liberty to recoil within them--men promoted by you to the
highest seats of justice in that country, who, to my knowledge, had good
cause to dread a court of justice in their own! They protected by your
arms? No, sir! They have nobly taken up arms in your defence--have
exerted a most heroic valor, amidst their daily labors, for the defence
of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood, while its interior
parts gave up all their savings to our emolument!"

These words of Barre were as just as they were heroic; for, in the
"Seven Years' War" the Americans lost about thirty thousand men; and
Massachusetts alone spent about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
in defence of the country.

The next session of the House of Burgesses occurred after a Congress of
delegates from the several Colonies met in New Yor