CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



supplanted by one in which Mr Pitt, now created 

 Earl of Chatham, held a conspicuous place. 



At the suggestion of Mr Charles Townshend, a 

 member of this cabinet, it was resolved, in 1767, 

 to impose taxes on the Americans in a new 

 shape namely, upon British goods imported into 

 the colonies, for which there was some show of 

 precedent An act for imposing duties on tea, 

 glass, and colours was accordingly passed with 

 little opposition. Soon after this, Mr Townshend 

 died, and the Earl of Chatham, who had been 

 prevented by illness from taking any share in the 

 business, resigned. The Americans met the new 

 burdens with the same violent opposition as 

 formerly. 



JUNIUS MINISTRY OF LORD NORTH. 



At this time (1769), an unknown writer, styling 

 himself Junius, commenced a series of letters in 

 the Public Advertiser newspaper, animadverting 

 in the most powerful manner on both the men and 

 measures of the government, and particularly on 

 the prime minister, the Duke of Grafton, who had 

 succeeded Lord Chatham. The publisher of the 

 newspaper was prosecuted for publishing these 

 letters ; but the author remained concealed, and 

 his name, though still an object of curiosity, has 

 never been discovered. The general belief is now 

 that Sir Philip Francis, a keen politician of the 

 time, was the author of the letters. 



The Duke of Grafton having retired from the 

 cabinet, his place was supplied by Lord North, 

 son of the Earl of Guildford. This was the 

 beginning of a series of Tory administrations 

 which, with few and short intervals, conducted 

 the affairs of the nation down to the close of the 

 reign of George IV. 



THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 



Meanwhile, the remonstrances of the American 

 colonists had induced the ministry to give up all 

 the new taxes, with the exception of that on tea, 

 which it was determined to keep up, as an asser- 

 tion of the right of parliament to tax the colonies. 

 In America, this remaining tax continued to excite 

 as much discontent as the whole had formerly 

 done, for it was the principle of a right to impose 

 taxes which they found fault with, and not the 

 amount of the tax itself. Matters reached a crisis 

 m J 773> when a number of men, disguised as 

 Indians, boarded three ships which, laden with 

 tea, had arrived in Boston harbour, and threw the 

 cargoes into the sea. This act of violence was 

 resented by the passing of a bill in parliament for 

 interdicting all commercial intercourse with the 

 port of Boston, and another for taking away the 

 legislative assembly of the state of Massachusetts. 

 The former measure was easily obviated by local 

 arrangements; and in reference to the latter, a 

 Congress of representatives from the various 

 States met at Philadelphia, in September 1774, 

 when it was asserted that the exclusive power of 

 legislation, in all cases of taxation and internal 

 policy, resided in the provincial legislatures. The 

 colonists still avowed a desire to be reconciled, on 

 the condition of a repeal of the obnoxious statutes. 

 But the government had now resolved to attempt 

 the reduction of the colonists by force of arms. 

 Henceforth, every proposal from America was 

 treated with a haughty silence on the part of the 



152 



British monarch and his advisers, although the 

 ablest men in parliament, such as Chatham, Bute, 

 and Fox, then rising into fame, supported the 

 colonists. 



The war opened in the summer of 1775, by 

 skirmishes between the British troops and armed 

 provincials, for the possession of certain maga- 

 zines. At the beginning, there seemed no hope 

 of the contest being protracted beyond one cam- 

 paign. The population of the colonies was at this 

 time under three millions, and they were greatly 

 inferior in discipline and appointments to the 

 British troops. They possessed, however, an in- 

 domitable zeal for the cause they had agreed to 

 defend, and in George Washington, whom the 

 congress at Philadelphia had appointed com- 

 mander-in-chief, they obtained a chief of not less 

 military capacity than patriotism and probitv. At 

 Bunker's Hill, near Boston (June 17, I775) they 

 had the superiority in a well-contested fight with 

 the British troops, of whom between two and three 

 hundred were killed. 



On the 4th of July 1776, the American congress 

 took the decisive step of declaring their inde- 

 pendence. 



The first serious alarm for the success of the 

 contest in America, was communicated in De- 

 cember 1777, by intelligence of the surrender of 

 an army under General Burgoyne at Saratoga. 

 This disaster, followed by the acknowledgment of 

 the States by France, led to deep dejection in the 

 country ; and yet, when Mr Fox, now leader of the 

 Opposition, made a motion for the discontinuance 

 of the war, it was lost by 165 to 259. 



In 1778, the government found it necessary, in 

 order to appease the popular discontent, to send 

 out commissioners, almost for the purpose of 

 begging a peace. As if to avenge themselves 

 for the indignities of 1775, the Americans received 

 these commissioners with much haughtiness ; 

 and, being convinced that they could secure their 

 independence, would listen to no proposals in 

 which the acknowledgment of that independence, 

 and the withdrawal of the British troops, did not 

 occupy the first place. The ministry, still unwilling 

 to submit to such terms, resolved to continue the 

 war. The distress of Britain in this contest led to 

 her various enemies and rivals in Europe declar- 

 ing against her. Spain followed the example of 

 France, and declared war; and in 1780, Holland 

 was added to the number of her enemies. Russia 

 then put herself at the head of what was called an 

 Armed Neutrality, embracing Sweden and Den- 

 mark, the object of which was indirectly hostile to 

 Britain. The Opposition in parliament now 

 began, however, to gain in strength. After some 

 votes, in which the ministerial majorities appeared 

 to be gradually lessening, Mr Dunning, on the 

 6th of April 1780, carried, by a majority of 

 eighteen, a motion, 'that the influence of the 

 crown had increased, was increasing, and ought 

 to be diminished.' This was looked upon as a 

 severe censure of the government. 



In the year 1778, an act had been passed re- 

 lieving the Roman Catholics in England from 

 some of the severe penal statutes enacted against 

 them during the reign of William III. The ap- 

 prehension of a similar act for Scotland caused 

 the people of that country to form an immense 

 number of associations, with a view to opposing 

 it ; and in the early part of 1779, the popular 



