66 THE SEA. 



the restraints of the ordinary Custom House officials, for whatever wrong- they might 

 commit, no nearer redress was open to the sufferer than an appeal to the Admiralty or 

 Treasury of England. Many cargoes were unjustly confiscated, and a number of others 

 unreasonably detained, to the great detriment of the owners ; " and in several instances 

 these violations of justice were ascribed rather to eager cupidity and confidence of 

 impunity than to involuntary error." In other words, the legitimate merchant was often 

 put in the same box as though he had been a pirate or smuggler. A traffic had long 

 sprung up between the British and Spanish colonies of North and South America, 

 advantageous to both. The same existed, in a lesser degree, between America and the 

 French West India Islands. These new auxiliaries of the Custom House now and again 

 seized indiscriminately and confiscated the ships, American or foreign, engaged in this 

 trade. Meantime, the Government at home, ill-informed as it was, learned that there was 

 much discontent in America, and hastened to repair the damage by passing a special 

 Act of Parliament, declaring the legitimacy of the commerce between the American colonies 

 and those of France and Spain. Unfortunately, they at the same time loaded the more 

 valuable articles with duties which were nearly prohibitive, and must encourage smuggling. 

 Then came the passage of the Stamp Act, which was to tax every paper of a com- 

 mercial, legal, or social nature, and which was so unpopular that the merchants of New 

 York directed their correspondents in England to ship no more goods to them till it 

 should be repealed. The people very generally agreed to confine their purchases to native 

 productions. "I will wear nothing but homespun!" exclaimed one angry citizen. "I 

 will drink no wine," echoed another, angry that wine must pay a new duty. " I propose," 

 cried a third, "that we dress in sheepskins, with the wool on."* To encourage a woollen 

 manufacture in America, it was recommended to the colonists to abstain from eating the 

 flesh of lambs, and not a butcher durst afterwards expose lamb for sale. Its operations 

 were ushered in at Boston by the tolling of bells; effigies of the authors and abettors 

 were carried about the streets, and afterwards torn in pieces by the populace. At 

 Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a funeral procession was organised, and a coffin bearing 

 the inscription, " LIBERTY, AGED CXLV. YEARS," was paraded, amidst the booming of 

 minute guns, and the roll of muffled drums. An oration was made over a grave prepared 

 for its reception, at the conclusion of which some remains of life were, it was pretended, 

 discovered in the body, which was thereupon snatched from the grave. The inscription 

 was altered to " LIBERTY REVIVED," and a cheerful and hilarious procession then marched 

 off with it. In several instances the residences of the governors, officials, and lax-collectors 

 of States were burned to the ground, or greatly damaged. So strong was the current 

 of popular will that the Custom House officers did not, in a large number of cases, 

 attempt to stamp the clearances of vessels sailing. The law courts remained open, and 

 ignored the want of stamps on legal documents, and marriages were consummated simply 

 after putting up the banns, and not by stamped certificate. The almost total suspension 

 of business with English shippers and merchants alarmed them greatly, and they were 

 among the first to petition for its repeal. In Parliament, among many others, Pitt was 



* George Bancroft, "History of the United States." 



