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 American Historical Association 497 semblance of authority and stood for the greatest degree of indi- vidualism. The conflict which has prevailed in Massachusetts has made impossible the tenacity of type found in Rhode Island and Connecticut, a tenacity which has tended to prevent the develop- ment of striking personalities. For this reason the greatest literary figures of New England — Longfellow, Holmes, Whittier, Lowell, Hawthorne, Emerson — are all of Alassachusetts. Such divergences as have been noted are what has made New England as a whole a vital, animating force in the life of the nation. Next followed a paper by Mr. George L. Beer of Columbia L^ni- versity on " The Colonial Policy of Great Britain, 1 760-1 765 ". The general formula which in the eighteenth century summed up the reciprocal duties of Great Britain and the American colonies was that the former owed protection, the latter obedience. Protection, as quoted in the formula above, meant, in the main, naval defense : obedience signified, in general, conformity with those laws passed by Parliament in the interest of the empire as a whole. The course of events up to 1760 made imperative a reform in the colonial system of defense and a stricter enforcement of the laws of trade and navi- gation. The English colonial administration, therefore, directed its energies toward readjusting the laws of trade to the new conditions, toward encouraging the production in the colonies of products which Great Britain had to buy from competing European nations and, in general, toward increasing the mutual economic dependence of mother-country and colony. Measures were adopted with a view to stopping all illegal trade and to checking the purchase of French West Lidian products by continental colonies. The new policy involved a reform of the customs service, the establishment of admiralty courts, the extension of British control over the Lidian trade, and the imposition of Parliamentary taxes. This last part of the policy was carried out by enforcing, in a modified form, the molasses act of 1732, by laying duties on imports, and by passing a stamp act. By these measures enough revenue was raised to defray about one-third of the cost of the military establishment necessary for the protection of the colonies. The policy at once met with opposition, because the removal of the French from Canada had had the effect of making the colonies more independent, and this feeling became more and more apparent until the attempt on the part of the government to extend its administrative control over the colonies met with a decided check. The final session, occupied with five papers on the later periods