DISCOVERY 



53 



Mother-Country was to make a pecuniary profit." 

 But recent historians have taken a much more favour- 

 able view of Mother-Countries in general, and of Great 

 Britain in particular. Thus Mr. G. L. Beer, the 

 American historian, has put for^vard a good case in his 

 attempt to show that the primary object of the British 

 colonial system was to develop the wealth and power 

 of the Empire as a whole, and to make it self-sulficing. 

 The system was based on mutual reciprocity ; it was, as 

 the French called it, " Le Facte Colonial." It was, 

 for instance, a grievance, perhaps, to the American 

 Colonies that they were only allowed to send their 

 tobacco to England. But, on the other hand, Enghsh- 

 men were only allowed to smoke Virginian tobacco ; 

 and when in 1661 Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford- 

 shire tried to grow tobacco plants of their own, British 

 troops were sent to destroy them. Perhaps England 

 in the various arrangements was a little selfish and got 

 rather the better of it. The making of hats in America, 

 for instance, was forbidden owing to the Company of 

 Hatters in London getting the Government to act ; 

 and great care was taken to prevent competition in the 

 Colonies with the woollen exports that came from 

 England. And it was certainly an aggravation that all 

 goods from Europe to America had to go via England. 

 But, at any rate, the Enghsh system was more liberal 

 than that of any country. Moreover, the Colonies 

 seem to have acquiesced in the system, though of 

 course there was grumbling on particular points. 

 Finally the Colonies evaded certain of the regulations 

 by systematic smuggling ; and you never could get a 

 Colonial jury to convict a smuggler any more than you 

 could in Sussex or in Scotland.' Both in the trade 

 regulations however, and in their evasion, dangers 

 lurked of which we shall say something later. 



Then with regard to the Government. The details 

 varied in each Colony. But, speaking generally, we 

 may say that each Colony had a Governor, either aj)- 

 pointed or approved by the Crown. The Governor 

 was supposed to carry on the administration ; he 

 possessed a veto on legislation as did also the Crown 

 at home — a right which the Crown seems to have 

 used, not indeed imfairly but freely, as a total of 400 

 laws disallowed in 100 years indicates. Each Colony 

 had a Council, a sort of Upper House nominated 

 or approved by the Crown ; and an elected Assembly 

 with power of taxation. Now between 1700 and 1750 a 

 remarkable transformation had occurred in the govern- 

 ment of the Colonies. If the first half of the seventeenth 

 century saw the successful fight for self-government in 

 England, the first half of the eighteenth century saw 



' A man was charged with smuggling soap from Ireland direct 

 to Jamaica ; and the jury decided it was a foodstuff, and hence 

 legal, because one witness said a man could live on soap for a 

 month ! 



[Cotttinued on p, 54 



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