which their own ancestors had often fought, and which they had more
than once succeeded in wresting from the grasp of arbitrary and
tyrannical sovereigns.

Their difficulty seems to have been that they looked upon the Americans,
not as equals, but as inferiors, as their subjects, and as having no
rights that an Englishman was bound to respect. Even the celebrated
moralist, Dr. Johnson, could say of the Americans, "They are a race of
convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of
hanging." King George III., that obstinate but well-meaning monarch, and
his ministers, no doubt honestly believed that the republican tendencies
of the colonists endangered British supremacy. Perhaps they were right
in this, for it was the kind and degree of supremacy that was really in
question. But in entertaining the belief that these tendencies could be
eradicated at a blow, they were, as the event proved, grievously
mistaken.

Another moving cause for the new policy toward the colonies was the
heavy taxation at home,--a result of the late war. Some of this burden
they hoped to transfer from their own shoulders to those of their
transatlantic brethren.

* * * * *

The stamp act of 1765, repealed in the year following, was in 1767,
succeeded by Charles Townshend's revenue acts, imposing duties on paper,
painters' colors, glass and tea. The Americans opposed this measure with
the only weapon at their command--the policy of non-importation. This
policy, while causing much inconvenience to themselves, yet helped them
materially in two ways. In the first place it stimulated home
manufactures, and accustomed the people to do without luxuries, and in
the second place by distressing British merchants and manufacturers, it
brought the united influence of these two powerful bodies to bear upon
parliament for a change in its policy.

The people of the colonies everywhere seconded the non-importation
movement, entering at once upon a course of rigid self-denial, and their
legislatures commended the scheme. An agreement, presented in the
Virginia House of Burgesses, by Washington, was signed by every member.
For more than a year, this powerful engine of retaliation waged war upon
British commerce, in a constitutional way, before ministers would listen
to petitions and remonstrances; and it was not until virtual rebellion
in the British capital, born of commercial distress, menaced the
ministry