Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/280

256 the ascendency, and greeted with joy the Restoration. In Massachusetts, on the other hand, the general feeling was republican; and when the local government were compelled to proclaim Charles the Second as king, they forbade, at the same time, all tumultuous assemblies, all kinds of merry-making, and even the drinking of the king's health. There was, at that time, neither the moral unity, nor the physical strength, necessary to the foundation of a state.

"After 1688, when England was finally in possession of a free government, the colonies felt but slightly its advantages. The charters, which Charles the Second and James the Second had either taken away or impaired, were but imperfectly and partially restored to them. The same confusion prevailed, the same struggles arose between the different powers. The greater part of the governors, coming from Europe, temporarily invested with the prerogatives and pretensions of royalty, displayed them with more arrogance than power, in an administration, generally speaking, inconsistent, irritating, seldom successful, frequently marked by grasping selfishness, and a postponement of the interests of the public to petty personal quarrels. Moreover, it was henceforth not the crown alone, but the crown and the mother country united, with which the colonies had to deal. Their real sovereign was no longer the king, but the king and the people of Great Britain, represented and mingled together in Parliament. And the Parliament regarded the colonies with nearly the same eyes, and held, in respect to them, nearly the same language, as had lately been used towards the Parliament itself, by those kings whom it afterwards overcame. An aristocratic senate is the most intractable of masters. Every member of it possesses the supreme power, and no one is responsible for its exercise.

"In the mean time, the colonies were rapidly increasing in population, in wealth, in strength internally, and in importance externally. Instead of a few obscure establishments, solely occupied with their own affairs, and hardly able to sustain their own existence a people was now forming itself, whose agriculture, commerce, enterprising spirit, and relative position to other states, were giving them a place and consideration among men. The mother country, unable to govern them well, had neither the leisure nor the ill will to oppress them absolutely. She vexed and annoyed them without checking their growth."

As a part of the policy of the English ministry, it was proposed to maintain in America ten thousand regular troops, as a peace establishment, for the defence of the colonies. Probably also, there was had in view the importance of such a force as this, to help to sustain the authority of the crown in the colonies. So soon as peace was established, the successors of Mr. Pitt in the ministry, in accordance with the proposal of the Board of Trade some years before, determined to try the scheme of taxation by the supreme ordinance of Parliament.

That Parliament had authority over the colonies, was admitted on all hands,