bec a feeling of security
which was a good background for {145} independence, if their manhood
required its assertion. They were Anglo-Saxons, and perfectly
understood the long struggle for civil rights which lay behind them.
So when in 1765 they were told that they must bear their share of the
burden of National Debt which had been increased by wars in their
behalf, and to that end a "Stamp Act" had been passed, they very
carefully looked into the demand. This Act required that every legal
document drawn in the Colonies, will, deed, note, draft, receipt, etc.,
be written upon paper bearing an expensive Government stamp.

[Illustration: Nelson's Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805. From
the painting by Stanfield in the National Gallery, London.]

The thirteen Colonies, utterly at variance upon most subjects, were
upon this agreed: _They would not submit to the tax_. They had read
the Magna Charta, they knew that the Stamp Act violated its most vital
principle. This tax had been framed to extort money from men who had
no representation in Parliament, hence without their consent.

Pitt vehemently declared that the Act was a tyranny, Burke and Fox
protested against it, the brain and the heart of England compelled the
repeal of the Act; Pitt {146} declaring that the spirit shown in
America was the same that in England had withstood the Stuarts, and
refused "Ship Money." There was rejoicing and ringing of bells over
the repeal, but before the echoes had died away another plan was
forming in the narrow recesses of the King's brain.

George III. had read English History. He remembered that if
Parliaments grow obstructive, the way is not to fight them but to pack
them with the right kind of material. Tampering with the boroughs, had
so filled the House of Commons with Tories that it had almost ceased to
be a representative body, and if Pitt would not bow to his wishes, he
would find a Minister who would. Another tax was devised.

Threepence a pound upon tea, shipped direct to America from India,
would save the impost to England, bring tea at a cheaper rate to the
Colonies (even with the added tax), and at the same time yield a
handsome revenue to the Government.

The Colonists were not at all moved by the idea of getting cheaper tea.
They had {147} taken their stand in this matter of taxation without
representation; they would never move from it one inch. When the cargo
of tea arrived in Boston harbor, it w