which they imposed on
the colonies. On the contrary, their property would have been exempted
in exact proportion to the burdens laid on the colonies. Taxes without
reason or necessity, and oppressions without end, would have ensued from
submitting to the usurpation.[533:A]

After war had raged for nearly eight years, peace was concluded at
Paris, in February, 1763, by which France ceded Canada, and Spain the
Floridas, to Great Britain. On this occasion the territory of Virginia
was again reduced in extent. The conquests, and the culminating power,
and the arrogant pretensions of the proud island of Great Britain
excited the jealousy and the fears of Europe; while in England the
administration had engendered a formidable opposition at home. In the
year 1763 the national debt had accumulated to an enormous amount; for
which an annual interest of twenty-two millions of dollars was paid. The
minister proposed to levy upon the colonies part of this sum, alleging
that as the recent war had been waged partly on their account, it was
but fair that they should contribute a share of the expense; and the
right was claimed for parliament, according to the British constitution,
to tax every portion of the empire. The absolute right of legislating
for the colonies had long, if not always, been claimed, theoretically,
by England; but she had never exerted it in practice to any sensible
extent in the essential article of taxation. The inhabitants of the
colonies admitted their obligation to share the expense of the war, but
insisted that the necessary revenue could be legitimately levied only by
their own legislatures; that taxation and representation were
inseparable; and that remote colonies not represented in parliament were
entitled to tax themselves. The justice of parliament would prove a
feeble barrier against the demands of avarice; and as in England the
privilege of granting money was the palladium of the people's liberty
against the encroachment of the crown, so the same right was the proper
safeguard of the colonies against the tyranny of the imperial
government. Such were the views of American patriots; yet it was a
subject on which wise and good men might differ in Great Britain and in
America.

Upon the death of the Rev. William Yates, in 1764, the Rev. James
Horrocks succeeded him as President of the College of William and Mary.
About the same time the Rev. William Robinson, commissary, dying, Mr.
Horrocks succeeded hi