6 



ture, and the iron work necessary for building and extending 

 their settlements and plantations ; in purchasing, not dead 

 stock, but active and productive stock." Again he says, "The 

 redundancy of paper money necessarily banishes gold and 

 silver from the domestic transactions of the colonies, for the 

 same reason that it has banished those metals from the greater 

 part of the domestic transactions in Scotland ; and in both 

 countries, it is not the poverty, but the enterprising and pro- 

 jecting spirit of the people, their desire of employing all the 

 stock which they can get as active and productive stock, 

 which has occasioned this redundancy of paper money." He 

 also says, " In those branches of business which cannot be 

 transacted without gold and silver money, it appears that they 

 can always find the necessary quantity of those metals." Wealth 

 of Nations, B, v. CH. in. The "representative money" which 

 could in the Colonies be converted, at pleasure, into land, 

 labour, and produce of every kind, could, of course, as easily 

 be converted, at the market price, into gold and silver. 



Now a country prospering ', as was the case with the Ameri- 

 can Colonies, is generally well satisfied with its form of go- 

 vernment. 



In 1776, Dr. Franklin was examined before a Committee 

 of the whole House of Commons ; he was asked, "What was 

 the temper of America towards Great Britain before 1763 ?" 



He answers, " The best in the world. They submitted wil- 

 lingly to the government of the Crown, and paid in all their 

 courts obedience to Acts of Parliament. Numerous as the 

 people are in the several old provinces, they cost you nothing 

 in forts, citadels, garrisons, or armies, to keep them in sub- 

 jection. They were governed by this country at the expense 

 only of a little pen, ink, and paper. They were led by a 

 thread. They had not only a regard, but an affection for Great 

 Britain, for its laws, its customs, aud manners, and even a 

 fondness for its fashions that greatly increased its commerce. 

 Natives of Britain were always treated with particular regard ; 

 to be an Old England man was, of itself, a character of some 

 respect, and gave a kind of rank among us." 



In an evil hour, the British Government took away from 

 America its " representative money," commanded that no 

 more paper "bills of credit should be issued, that they should 



