n, and of their own free will. To this the perverse old mother
would not listen for a moment; and, without pausing to reflect what
might be the consequences, took an AEtna or a Sinai from the load on
her own shoulders, and clapped it on those of her children, who sat
down under it plump, and sturdily refused to budge until they should
be allowed to put it there themselves. Whereupon, this stiff-necked,
wrong-headed old Britannia (for such was her Christian name) was
exceeding wroth, made an outlandish noise among the nations, and even
went so far (you will be shocked to hear) as to swear a little. Seeing
there was no help for it but to remove this AEtna, she did so with as
good a grace as could be expected in a family-quarrel; but was so
indiscreet and short-sighted as still to leave a very small burden,--a
mere hillock indeed,--just by way, as she said, of showing that she
had the right to load and unload them when and how it suited her
sovereign pleasure best.

Now, be it known, it was not the burden they had to carry of which
these generous and high-spirited Colonies complained so bitterly; but
that they should be denied the right of freely judging when and how
and wherefore they were to be taxed,--a right that had been the pride
and boast of Englishmen time out of mind. As for the matter of the
burden, had that been all, they could have danced, ay, and blithely
too, under AEtna and Sinai both, had the load but been of their own
choosing, of their own putting-on, and of their own adjusting.

To add to their distress and humiliation, this hardest and
unnaturalest of mothers now set over them judges, who were strangers
to them, and loved them not; who were to hold their places, not, as
theretofore, during good behavior, but at her will and pleasure.
Another right, as dear to Englishmen as life itself, was taken from
them,--to wit, the right of trial by jury; which gave every person,
great or small, suspected or known to be guilty of any crime against
the laws of the land, the privilege of a speedy trial, in open court,
in the place where the crime may have been committed, and by a jury of
honest and impartial men. Instead of this, the person accused was to
be taken aboard some ship-of-war, likely as not a thousand miles from
Christian land, and there tried by some authorities of the navy, who
would know but little, and must needs care still less, concerning the
person under trial, or his offence.

Under these and ma