6 HALVDAN KOHT. [No. 3. 



of local government in English tovvns and parishes. The English 

 colonies, then, not only had the same grievances as other colo- 

 nies, but, at the same time, were in a hetter condition to pnt their 

 grievances into acts of rehellion. 



Snch were the circumstances that formed the general back- 

 ground of the American Revoiution. It must not be supposed 

 that the English colonies were the objects of any particular kind 

 of oppression; on the contrary, they were in many respects 

 more free than others. The truth is that we find two opposite 

 economic systems which were bound to come into conflict with 

 each other, unless one of them would yield. To put it briefly: 

 it was commercial society set against agrarian society. 



This is very clearly illustrated by the course of the Revo- 

 iution. 



The open conflict between England and the Colonies began 

 in 1760, the very year vvhen the all-powertul Whig ascendency 

 was broken; but this change did not introduce any new prin- 

 ciples into the colonial policy of the country, and, in reality, it 

 was Whig ministers who took the initialive of those regulations 

 that roused the opposition of the Americans. Indeed, the very 

 man who, before long, was to be identified with the cherished 

 ideal of the Americans in their jubilant cry "Pitt and Liberty", 

 the very same man, in 1760, rigorously enjoined on them the 

 prohibition against the illicit commerce of the Colonies with the 

 French West Indies; and George Grenville, in the years 1763 

 and 1764, undertook to enforce the practical measures to stop 

 the American smuggling. As a matter of fact, it was this fight 

 of the government against smuggling that first rallied the Ame- 

 ricans to what proved to be their struggle for independence. 



A recent American historian of the highest standing, Mr. 

 Henry Adams 1 , has asserted that "Americans were the profes- 

 sional smugglers of an age when smuggling was tolerated by 

 custom". AU facts tend to confirm this statement. Even the late 

 Mr. Bancroft who could not justly be accused of tinding faults 



History of the United States of America (ed. of 1909), I. 339. 



