14. South Carolina, which had continued to advance in growth, notwithstanding the pressure of the war, reaped an ample and immediate share of the advantages resulting from the peace of Paris. In consequence of an act of its Assembly, which appropriated a large fund to the payment of bounties to industrious laborers from Great Britain and Ireland, and to all foreign Protestants resorting to the province within three years and forming settlements in its interior districts, vast numbers of emigrants from Germany, England, Scotland, and especially Ireland, eagerly embraced the prospect and became citizens of the New World in South Carolina. . In 1765, the province contained one hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants, of whom ninety thousand were slaves.

15. In none of the British colonies were the advantages attendant on the treaty of Paris more speedily or strikingly manifested than in Georgia. This young provincial community, destitute of commercial credit, and peculiarly exposed to hostile molestation, had hitherto experienced but a feeble and languid progress; but from the present period it advanced, with sudden and surprising rapidity, in wealth and population. The British merchants, considering the colony securely established and likely to attain a flourishing estate, were no longer backward in extending credit to its planters, and freely supplied them with negroes, and with the produce of the manufactures of Britain.

16. In 1763, the exports of Georgia consisted of 7,500 barrels of rice, 9,633 pounds of indigo, and 1,250 bushels of Indian corn, which, together with silk,* deer and beaver skins, naval stores, provisions, and timber, amounted in value to £27,021 sterling; while in 1773, the province exported staple commodities to the value of £124,677 sterling. The valuable plant, sago, whose nutritious and antiscorbutic properties had been remarked by Bowen, a traveller in China, was, by the same enterprising observer, discovered in Georgia, whence he imported it into Britain, and introduced its use about the year 1766.— Colonial History of the United States.

In 1759, upward of 10,000 lbs. weight of raw silk was stored in Savannah for exportation.

SECTION IV.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

Causes.-The expenses which Great Britain had incurred in the French and Indian War greatly increased her national debt; and the British ministry, asserting that this had been done in defending their American possessions, proposed to lessen the burden by taxing the colonies. In pursuance of this proposition, the Stamp Act was passed in 1765; the effect of which was to excite a great storm of indignation throughout the colonies, the people of which opposed all measures of taxation, on the ground that they had no representatives in the British Parliament.

The Stamp Act.—Grimshaw.

1. AT the time of that disastrous warfare, in which Washington rose upon the ruins of the incautious Braddock, resolutions had passed the British Parliament for laying a stampduty in America; but they were not followed immediately by any legislative act. The declaratory opinion of that body met with no opposition on either side of the Atlantic; because the "omnipotence of Parliament" was then a familiar phrase; but, afterward, when the measure was examined, it was better understood, and constitutional objections were urged by many sagacious statesmen, both in England and America.

2. But, notwithstanding the powerful reasons offered against this unjust and hazardous experiment, George Grenville, impelled by a partiality for a long-cherished scheme, in the following year, 1765, again brought into the House of Commons this unpopular bill, and succeeded in its enactment. By this, the instruments of writing in daily use amongst a commercial people were to be null and void, unless executed on paper or parchment stamped with a specific duty. Law documents and leases, articles of apprenticeship and contracts, protests and bills of sale, newspapers and advertisements, almanacs and pamphlets,—all must contribute to the British treasury.

3. When the measure was examined, Charles Townshend delivered a speech in its favor, in concluding which, he said, "Will these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence, till they are grown up to a degree of strength and opulence, and protected by our arms;-will they grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the weight of that heavy burden under which we lie?"

<

4. "They, planted by your care!" replied Colonel Barrè: "No; they were planted by your oppressions. They fled from tyranny to an uncultivated, inhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to all the hardships to which human nature is liable; and, amongst others, to the cruelty of a savage foe the most subtle, and, I will take it upon me to say, the most formidable, people on the face of this earth. And yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all hardships with pleasure, compared with what they had suffered in their own country, from the hands of those that should have been their friends.

5. "They, nourished by your indulgence! They grew up by your neglect. As soon as you began to extend your care, that care was displayed in sending persons to rule them, in one department and another, who were, perhaps, the deputies of deputies to some members of the house; sent to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon their substance; men whose behavior, on many occasions, has caused the blood of those sons of freedom to recoil within them: men promoted to the highest seats of justice--some, who, to my knowledge, were glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape their being brought to the bar of a court of justice in their own.

6. "They, protected by your arms! They have nobly taken up arms in your defense, have exerted a valor amidst their constant laborious industry, for the defense of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood, while its interior yielded all its little savings to your emolument. And, believe me, that the same spirit of freedom which actuated these people at first will accompany them still:-but, prudence forbids me to explain myself further.

7. "God knows, I do not, at this time, speak from any motives of party heat. I deliver the genuine sentiments of my heart. However superior to me, in general knowledge and experience, the respectable body of this house may be, yet, I claim to know more of America than most of you; having seen that country, and been conversant with its people. They are, I believe, as truly royal as any subjects the king has; but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them, if ever they should be violated. But the subject is too delicate: I will say no more."

8. The night after the bill passed, Dr. Franklin wrote to Mr. Charles Thomson, "The sun of liberty is set; you must light up the candles of industry and economy."--Mr. Thomson answered: "I was apprehensive that other lights would be the consequence, and I foresee the opposition that will be made."History of England.

Effect of its Passage.—The first burst of opposition appeared in the Legislature of Virginia, where Patrick Henry* distinguished himself by his bold eloquence. Afterward, a more formidable opposition was shown, when, upon the recommendation of the Massachusetts Assembly, a Colonial Congress, in which nine colonies were represented, was held in New York. Of this Congress, Timothy Ruggles, of Massachusetts, was elected President; and, after mature deliberation, a Declaration of Rights, a Petition to the King, and a Memorial to Parliament, were adopted.

When the day came on which the Stamp Act was to go into effect, there were no officials courageous enough to carry it into execution; and, besides, all the stamps had been concealed or destroyed. Business continued to be conducted without stamps, and the colonial merchants agreed to import no more goods while the obnoxious measure remained a law. A change in the British ministry occurring, the act was repealed in 1766.

Other Measures of Taxation.-The next year the attempt to tax the colonies was renewed, by the passage of an act levying duties on glass, paper, tea, etc. This measure met with decided opposition from the colonists, particularly in Boston, to which General Gaget ordered two regiments, to over

*Patrick Henry was born in Virginia in 1736, and died there in 1799, the year of Washington's death. His early life was not promising, but after his admission to the bar (1760), he became in a short time wonderfully successful as a pleader, and was soon regarded as the most gifted orator and political thinker in America. He was, in succession, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, delegate to the "First Continental Congress," colonel of a Virginia regiment, and governor of Virginia during a large part of the Revolution, and again after its close.

+ Thomas Gage was the last royal governor of Massachusetts. He was an active officer during the French and Indian War and served with Washington during Braddock's campaign.

awe the inhabitants (1770). This greatly exasperated the people, and led to the affray called the "Boston Massacre," in which the soldiers fired upon the populace, Killing three men, and wounding others (1770).

The Boston Massacre.—Hawthorne.

1. It was now the 3d of March, 1770. The sunset music of the British regiments was heard, as usual, throughout the town. The shrill fife and rattling drum awoke the echoes in Kingstreet, while the last ray of sunshine was lingering on the cupola of the town-house. And now all the sentinels were posted. One of them marched up and down before the custom-house, treading a short path through the snow, and longing for the time when he would be dismissed to the warm fireside of the guard-room.

2. In the course of the evening there were two or three slight commotions, which seemed to indicate that trouble was at hand. Small parties of young men stood at the corners of the streets, or walked along the narrow pavements. Squads of soldiers, who were dismissed from duty, passed by them, shoulder to shoulder, with the regular step which they had learned at the drill. Whenever these encounters took place, it appeared to be the object of the young men to treat the soldiers with as much incivility as possible.

3. "Turn out, you lobster-backs!" one would say. "Crowd them off the sidewalks!" another would cry. "A red-coat has no right in Boston streets." "Oh, you rebel rascals!" perhaps the soldiers would reply, glaring fiercely at the young men, "Some day or other we'll make our way through Boston streets at the point of the bayonet!"

4. Once or twice such disputes as these brought on a scuffle; which passed off, however, without attracting much notice. About eight o'clock, for some unknown cause, an alarm-bell rang loudly and hurriedly. At the sound, many people ran out of their houses, supposing it to be an alarm of fire. But there were no flames to be seen, nor was there any smell of smoke in the clear, frosty air; so that most of the townsmen went back to their own firesides. Others, who were younger and less prudent, remained in the streets.