are grown to a degree of strength and importance, and protected by our arms, will they grudge to contribute their mite to re lieve us from the heavy burden we lie under ?”

The honourable member had no sooner taken his seat, than Col. Barre rose, and replied : “ They planted by your care. No, your oppression planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny, to a then uncultivated and inhospitable country, where they were exposed to almost all the hardships, to which human nature is liable, and among others, to the cruelties of a

savage

foe; the most subtle, and I will take upon me to say, the most formidable, of any people upon the face of God's earth; and yet actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own country, from the hands of those who should have been their friends.

“They nourished by your indulgence! They grew by your neglect of them. As soon as you began to take care of them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule them in one department and another, who were deputies of deputies to some members of this house, sent to prey upon them; men, whose behaviour, on many occasions, has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them; men promoted to the highest seats of justice, some, to my knowledge, were glad by going to a foreign country, to escape being brought to a bar of justice in their own.

“ They protected by your arms! They have nobly taken up arms in your defence; have exerted their valour, amidst their constant and laborious industry, for the defence of a country, whose frontier was drenched in blood, while its interior parts yielded all its little savings to your emolument.

“And believe me, that same spirit offreedom which actuated that people at first, will accompany them still. But prudence forbids me to explain myself further.

“God knows, I do not, at this time, speak from party heat. However superior to me, in general knowledge and experience, the respectable body of this house may be, yet I claim to know more of America than most of you, having seen and been conversant in that country. The people, I believe, are as

truly loyal as any subjects the king has; but a people jealouis of their liberties, and who will vindicate them, if ever they should be violated—but the subject is too delicate- I will say no more.”

For this unpremeditated appeal, pronounced with an energy and an eloquence fitted to the high occasion, the house was not prepared. For some minutes, the members remained motionless, as if petrified by surprise. But the opposition at length rallied. Their pride could not allow of retreat. The measure was again urged, the question was taken, and the bill adopted.

No act of the British government could have been more im politic; and none ever excited, in the colonies, a more unj versal alarm. It gave birth to feelings, which could never be suppressed, and aroused those intestine commotions in America, which, after kindling a civil war, and involving all Europe in its calamities, terminated in the total disjunction from the British empire, of one of its fairest portions.

After the arrival of the news that the stamp act had been adopted in parliament, the first public body that met was the assembly of Virginia. Towards the close of the session, about the last of May, the following resolutions were introduced into the house of burgesses, by Patrick Henry; a lawyer, at that time a young man, but highly distinguished for the strength of his intellect, and the power of his eloquence.

Resolved, that the first adventurers and settlers of this his majesty's colony and dominions of Virginia, brought with them, and transmitted to their posterity, and all others his majesty's subjects, since inhabiting in this his majesty's colony, all the privileges and immunities that have at any time been held, enjoyed, and possessed, by the people of Great Britain.

“Resolved, that by the two royal charters granted by King James I. the colonists aforesaid are declared entitled to all privileges of faithful, liege, and natural born subjects, to all intents and purposes, as if they had been abiding and born within the realms of England.

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“Resolved, that his majesty's most liege people of this his most ancient colony, have enjoyed the right of being thus governed by their own authority, in the article of taxes and internal police, and that the same have never been forfeited, nor any other way yielded up, but have been constantly recognised by the king and people of Great Britain.

“Resolved, therefore, that the general assembly of this colony, together with his majesty, or his substitute, have, in their representative capacity, the only exclusive right and power to lay taxes and impositions upon the inhabitants of the colony; and that any attempt to vest such a power in any person or persons whatever, other than the general assembly aforesaid, is illegal, unconstitutional, and unjust; and has a manifest tendency to destroy British as well as American freedom.”

The debate on these resolutions was animated, and even violent. Nothing like them had ever transpired in America. They evinced a settled purpose of resistance; and conveyed to the ministry of Great Britain a lesson, which had they read with unprejudiced minds, might have saved them the fruitless struggle of a seven years war. There were those, in the house of burgesses, who strongly opposed the resolutions ; but the bold and powerful eloquence of Henry bore them down, and carried the resolutions through. In the heat of debate, he boldly asserted, that the king had acted the part of a tyrant ; and alluding to the fate of other tyrants, he exclaimed, “Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles I. his Cromwell, and George III.”. here pausing a moment, till the cry of “ treason, treason," resounding from several parts of the house, had ended-he added—“ may profit by their example ; if this be treason, make the most of it."

The above resolutions had no sooner passed, than they found their way into the papers of the day, and were circulated widely and rapidly through the colonies. They were received with enthusiasm ; and served to raise still higher the indignant feelings which pervaded the country.

Before these resolutions had reached Massachusetts, the house of representatives of that colony had declared the expediency of a congress, composed of commissioners from the several colonies, “to consult together on the present circumstances of the colonies ;—the acts of parliainent laying

;duties and taxes upon them ; and to consider of a general and humble address to his majesty and the parliament for relief.”

The measure thus proposed by Massachusetts, on being communicated to the several colonies, was received with cordial approbation by most of them; and on the 7th of October, 1765, commissioners from the colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina, metat New-York, on the important and responsible business assigned them.

This congress, the first that was ever held in America, published, as the result of their deliberation, a declaration of the rights and grievances of the colonists; and agreed upon a memorial to the house of lords, and a petition to the king and

commons.

In their declaration, they acknowledged their allegiance to his majesty, and their willingness to render due honour to the rightful authority of parliament; but they claimed that they had interests, rights, and liberties, as the natural born subjects of his majesty, and that, as they could not be represented in parliament, that body had no right to impose taxes upon them without their consent. They declared the stamp act, and other acts of parliament, “ to have a manifest tendency to subvert the rights and liberties of the colonists.”

The address and petition, agreed to by this congress, were at this time signed by the commissioners from six colonies only. But their proceedings were warmly approved in every quarter of the country ; and at a subsequent date, received the sanction of the assemblies, not only of South Carolina, Connecticut, and New-York, but of those colonies which had not been represented in the congress.

While the highest assemblies were thus bearing their official and solemn testimony against the oppressive and unconstitu tional acts of the British parliament; the people, in every sec

tion of the country, and especially in the principal towns, were manifesting their abhorrence of those measures, in a different, but not less decisive way.

On the morning of the 14th of August, two effigies were discovered hanging on the branch of an old elm, near the south entrance of Boston. One of these represented a stamp office: the other, a jack boot, out of which rose a horned head, which appeared to be looking round.

The singularity of this spectacle soon attracted the notice of great numbers; and before evening, the collection amounted to a multitude. The images were then taken down,placed upon a bier, and carried in procession with imposing solemnity. At a distance, in the rear, the multitude followed, shouting“ liberty and prosperity forever-no stamps !" Arriving in front of a house, owned by one Oliver, which was supposed to be a stamp office, they levelled it to the ground; and proceeding to his place of residence, they beheaded his effigy, and broke in the windows of his house. Oliver himself effected a timely escape ; but his fences, the furniture of his house, and its dependencies, were destroyed. It was midnight before the multitude dispersed.

In the morning of the next day, the people re-assembled, and were proceeding to a repetition of their excesses ; but upon hearing that Oliver had sent his resignation to England, they desisted, and repairing to the front of his house, they gave three cheers, and quietly returned to their homes.

A volume would scarcely suffice, to give a full recital of all the commotions which were excited by the stamp act, in the single province of Massachusetts. But these disorders were far from being confined to such circumscribed limits. A spirit of resistance pervaded the country. The very atmosphere seemed pregnant with revolt. Even sobriety was found off her guard, in the tumultuous crowd ; and old

age

felt something of the impulses of younger days.

On the first day of November, the stamp act was to go into operation. · As it drew near, the feelings of the colonists became more and more intense ; less popular noise and clamour were, perhaps, to be heard; but a deep and settled hos

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