[Illustration:  A MAP OF THE BRITISH DOMINIONS IN NORTH AMERICA., ACCORDING TO THE TREATY IN 1763, By Peter Bell, Geographer, 1772.]

IV

COLONIAL UNION, 1760-1774

Books for Study and Reading

References.—­Fiske’s War of Independence, 39-86; Scudder’s George Washington; Lossing’s Field-Book of the Revolution; English History for Americans, 244-284 (English political history).

Home Readings.—­Irving’s Washington (abridged edition); Cooke’s Stories of the Old Dominion; Cooper’s Lionel Lincoln; Longfellow’s Paul Revere’s Ride.

CHAPTER 11

BRITAIN’S COLONIAL SYSTEM

[Sidenote:  England’s early liberal colonial policy.]

[Sidenote:  England’s changed colonial policy.]

103.  Early Colonial Policy.—­At the outset, England’s rulers had been very kind to Englishmen who founded colonies.  They gave them great grants of land.  They gave them rights of self-government greater than any Englishmen living in England enjoyed.  They allowed them to manage their own trade and industries as they saw fit.  They even permitted them to worship God as their consciences told them to worship him.  But, as the colonists grew in strength and in riches, Britain’s rulers tried to make their trade profitable to British merchants and interfered in their government.  On their part the colonists disobeyed the navigation laws and disputed with the royal officials.  For years Britain’s rulers allowed this to go on.  But, at length, near the close of the last French war Mr. Pitt ordered the laws to be enforced.

[Sidenote:  Difficulties in enforcing the navigation laws.]

[Sidenote:  James Otis. Eggleston, 163.  His speech against writs of assistance, 1761.]

104.  Writs of Assistance, 1761.—­It was a good deal easier to order the laws to be carried out than it was to carry them out.  It was almost impossible for the customs officers to prevent goods being landed contrary to law.  When the goods were once on shore, it was difficult to seize them.  So the officers asked the judges to give them writs of assistance.  Among the leading lawyers of Boston was James Otis.  He was the king’s law officer in the province.  But he resigned his office and opposed the granting of the writs.  He objected to the use of writs of assistance because they enabled a customs officer to become a tyrant.  Armed with one of them he could go to the house of a man he did not like and search it from attic to cellar, turn everything upside down and break open doors and trunks.  It made no difference, said Otis, whether Parliament had said that the writs were legal.  For Parliament could not make an act of tyranny legal.  To do that was beyond the power even of Parliament.

[Sidenote:  Patrick Henry. Eggleston, 162.]