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ance of the object of the grant. The clearest heads recognised that what was required was a law for a militia, "which shall oblige all to serve who can, and those that cannot to contribute a due proportion to the expense." Speaking generally, the Pennsylvania Assembly yielded to none of the others in its pretensions, whilst between it and the proprietor there was the added bitterness which arose from a cash nexus.

ments.

Inasmuch, however, as the affairs of the proprietary govern- Influence of example ments did not come in so direct a way before the Board of of ProTrade, it is unnecessary to dwell further on these contro- prietary versies. We may note in passing, however, how the continued Governexistence of provinces, wherein the Governors became more and more ex necessitate rerum the creatures of the Assembly, tended to foster a spirit of independence in the other Colonies, which at least nominally were in more direct subjection to the Crown.

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In Virginia, the accession of William and Mary caused Virginia. little change. The corrupt and Papist Lord Howard of Effingham was, in fact, suffered to remain as Governor. The Order restricting the franchise to freeholders was formally re-enacted. Means were taken to secure that the Home Government should be kept in touch with what was happening in the Colony, and the power of suspending Councillors was carefully restricted. Mr Doyle1 sees in the clear recognition by the Crown of the right of taxation as vested in the Assembly, an acknowledgment of those rights for which the Virginians did battle eighty years later." But surely it is one thing to admit that the Colony had right of taxation, and another to maintain that there was not at the same time a concurrent jurisdiction in the English Parliament. The Instructions of Governors were concerned with the case as it affected the Crown, and not as it affected Parliament. The mischief of Howard's appointment was minimised by his receiving leave of absence: the government being carried on by the able and industrious Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson. In his despatches he advocates a union of the

1 Virg., etc., p. 353.

Maryland.

Colonies for military purposes under the headship of the loyal Colony of Virginia, whilst he did all in his power to suggest efficient measures to the local authorities of the other Colonies.

Already in the Instructions to Howard, in 1685, the English Government had abandoned its long settled practice of enjoining the culture of a variety of products,1 and now we find Nicholson urging that the whole energies of the Colony should be concentrated on the staple product, tobacco. To allow of this, however, it would be necessary that exports from England of all necessary articles should be carefully kept up; as otherwise, the Colony would be driven to manufacture in self-defence. In 1696 Nicholson received the just reward of his labours by at last being appointed Governor. The difficulty in Virginia lay not as elsewhere in the democratic instincts of the people, but in the haughty arrogance of the ruling oligarchy, who, looking at the other Colonies, did not care that others should outdo them in pretensions. It was jealousy of New England in the main which provoked the Virginian Assembly "to claim all the rights and privileges of an English Parliament." The natural disposition of the people was to be "quiet and easy," but here, too, in addition to the emulation of the other Colonies, the same motive was at work, the desire of the deputies to recommend themselves to the people by opposing everything that required expense.

In Maryland the chief result of the Revolution was to deprive Lord Baltimore of his political authority on the ground of his being a Roman Catholic. This course was taken through an exercise of the prerogative sanctioned, though not advised, by a legal opinion of C. J. Holt. At the same time, Baltimore's pecuniary rights as proprietor were carefully preserved. Henceforth, although in 1715 the proprietorship was nominally restored, the fourth Lord Baltimore being a Protestant, Maryland became for all practical purposes a Colony under the direct administration of the Crown. 1 Bruce, Vol. II., Econ. Hist. of Virg. etc.

2 MSS. in R. O. Gov. Spottiswood in 1696.

Somewhat strangely, in a Colony which had been in its origin Roman Catholic and the favourite resort of Quakers and dissenters of all denominations, we find the Church of England established by law. An Act to this effect was passed in 1692, and it was made operative in 1700, through the imposition of a Church rate by means of a duty on tobacco. The latter measure had been passed in 1698, but for two years was vetoed by the Crown, the measure having tacked to it a wholly irrelevant clause declaring that the Colonies should henceforth be governed according to the fundamental laws and statutes of England. In Maryland the same cause which has already been adverted upon, viz.: the scandalous manner in which Colonial appointments were too often made, brought about the same result. The Colony which, according to Quarry,1 had been the freest from all factions and parties of any of the Colonies, "is now, by the illconduct of the late Governor, run into as great extrava- 1709. gancy as any of the rest."

with

C. II.

An event happened in the reign of Queen Anne, fraught Union with important consequences for British colonization. In Scotland. 1707 the Act of Union with Scotland was passed, which 6 Ann., threw open to the Scotch the commercial privileges hitherto jealously reserved to England. Historians are agreed that the profound disappointment with the failure of the ill-fated Darien colonization scheme and the recognition that Scotland was not strong enough to stand alone in commercial matters, were the prevailing motives which reconciled the Scotch to a measure at first sight so much opposed to their patriotic instincts. Hitherto the Scotch, except by an exercise of the Royal prerogative or by sufferance, had had no part or parcel in English Empire. This work deals with British Colonial policy, but hitherto that policy had been strictly English. And yet it was already recognised that the Scotch made the most admirable colonists. An early petition 2 from Barbados speaks of them "as the general travailers and soldiers in most foreign parts." And as a curious commentary on this, we find Long, writing about a hundred years later,3 saying that in

1

1 MSS. in R. O. 2 Sainsbury, Cal., 1660-1668. 3 Hist. of Jamaica.

Minor statutes.

1762 about one-third of the European inhabitants of Jamaica were either Scotch by birth or by descent. In this connection we may note the expectation expressed by Logan1 to Penn that the passing of the Union would double the value of land in Pennsylvania.

Enough has already been said about the Navigation Act passed in the reign of William and Mary. Some minor 3 and 4 Acts of the reign of Anne may here be noticed. In 1705 Ann., c. rice and molasses became enumerated articles. By an Act 3 and 4 passed in the same year "for encouraging the importa10 (con- tion of naval stores," a bounty was given on their importatinued by tion into England from the American plantations. A few

5, sec. 14.

Ann., c.

12 Ann.,

c. 9.

Ann.,

See years later an Act was passed which exempted mariners also 8 trading to America from being impressed by English naval c. 14). officers and suspended during the continuance of the war, 6 Ann., the rule that three-fourths of the crew of vessels must be c. 64, secs. 9 and 19. English, substituting the proportion of one-fourth in its

stead. In 1708 an attempt was made to settle the difficult question of the value and kinds of money in the Colonies 6 Ann., by the passing of an Act "for ascertaining the rates of c. 57. foreign coins in Her Majesty's plantations in America.” As an example of the truth that statutes, no less than books, 9 Ann., habent sua fata, we may note that a statute passed in 1710, c. II, establishing a general post-office for the Colonies, and de

claring that any surplus should be expended on colonial defence, passed without any protest from the colonial legislatures.

1 Logan Corr.

CHAPTER V

Britain

Colonies

1756.

THE long period which elapsed between the signing of the Great
Treaty of Utrecht and the outbreak of the Seven Years' War and the
was, so far as Colonial policy was concerned, singularly dull American
and uneventful. The old controversies remained, and new between
ones were added to their number. But no permanent solu- 1713 and
tion of difficulties was in any way arrived at. It is true that,
regarded through the moonlight of memory, the time ap-
peared to the next generation of colonists as one of unbroken
contentment and calm; and so high an authority as Mr
Lecky has stated1 that while "for some years before the
English Revolution, and for several years after the accession
of William, the relations of the Colonies to England had
been extremely tense . . . in the long period of unbroken
Whig rule which followed, most of the elements of discontent
had subsided." But an inspection of what actually occurred
hardly bears out this statement. It is true, of course, that
colonial questions were more and more shirked by the Home
Government. For twenty-four years in succession the Duke
of Newcastle was Secretary of State for the Southern De-
partment, which dealt with the Colonies; and Newcastle's
ignorance and incapacity became a bye-word among men.
Annapolis, Annapolis! Oh, yes! Annapolis must be de-
fended," he is reported to have said. "To be sure, Annapolis
should be defended. Where is Annapolis?" It was said
of him that he always appeared to have lost half an hour in
the morning, and to be running after it all the rest of the
day. But, with regard to colonial matters, he did not even
try to overtake the past. Inasmuch as he discouraged all
measures that might arouse opposition, he might, in a sense,
be described as a safe Colonial Minister. But his procrastina-

1 Hist. of England in the Eighteenth Cent., Vol. IV. p. 8. 1892 ed.
2 H. Walpole, Memoirs of the last ten years of George II.

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