No. 133.J 187 



driven " as he adds, "from tho Western Ci. iiUnent, and forbidden 

 to violate a second time the happy l)orders of the land of liberty." 

 '^The time," he sneeriugly contiaiies, '' is now perhaps at hand 

 which Sir Thomas Browne predicted, between jest and earnest — 



*' When America shall no more send outiior treafiarc, 

 Bat £p«ad it at home in American ploaaure." 



" If," he adds, with a sarcastic irony, the point of which has 

 been turned by the result in a direction, quite diiferent from that 

 intended, " we are allowed upon our defeat to stipulate conditions, 

 I hope the treaty of Boston will permit us to import into the con- 

 federated Cantons such products as they do not raise, and such 

 manufactures as they do not make, and cannot buy cheaper from 

 other nations." 



It is thus evident that in 1775, the great point of advantage to 

 be gained by subjecting the Colonies was supremacy in commerce 

 tmd manufactures. In the preceding year, 1774, an act had been 

 parsed which bore the following significant title, «An act to pre- 

 vent the exportation to foreign parts, of utensils made use of in 

 the Cotton, Linen, Woolen and Silk manufactories of this King- 

 dom," in which it was provided that after the first day of July, 

 1774, only two years before our Declaration of Independence, no 

 Buch utensils sliould be exported to the Colonies, under penalty 

 of a forfeiture of the utensils and the sura of X200 sterling. Even 

 Lord Chatham, though, a firm friend of tho Colonies, supported the 

 bill, and declared he " would not willingly permit the manufac- 

 ture of a hob-nail among them." 



The war soon commenced. During it.s continuance, the great 

 want of the army was clothing. Manufactures were in so feeble 

 Q condition, though we had a population of nearly three millions, 

 that it was extremely difficult to supply the wants -of the troops 

 in this respect, and their sufferings in consequence were extreme. 

 Ytt ihe commercial non-intercourse, occasioned by the war, fur- 

 nished H degree of protection under which manufactures might 

 have been expected to spring up. But a great obstacle was found 

 to exist in the want of utensils, occasioned in part by th»? act of 

 Parliament to which I have alluded. The manufsicti'.rcs aimed 

 At in this acl were exactly those in which we were deficient. 



