correspofident, appreciating more truly the cha racter of his countrymen, replied, that other lights" were more to be apprehended, all bus The heavy tidings announcing the bill were

received in America with feeling billed

of amazement. Had its authority and operation come close upon the announcement, there is no calculating what wonder and terror may do. But, by a provision important to liberty, the first of November was to be the date whence it would take effect. The intervening time was auspicious for consideration and discussion; and soon and surely did they work. On the 28th of May Patrick Henry, c , one of the most successful and distinguished men in the New World, introduced a series of resolutions in the Assembly of Virginia, one of which resolved "That his Majesty's liege people, the inhabitants of this colony, are not bound to yield obedience to any law or ordinance other than the laws and ordinances of the General Assembly." The next was to the effect that he who contradicted this principle by speech of writing was an enemy to the colony. Thel timid shuddered at the echo of what soundeda startling and treasonable; but Henry was inflex ible, and his eloquence, far the highest of his country, and perhaps his age, kindled an enthu-T siasm in the Assembly, which did not subside with the cheers that hailed the adoption of hisa resolutions, but diffused itself through the landŢ awaking everywhere the same dissatisfaction and) the same determination.And through that

*

* Ramsay, p. 52! [ bz geams+lIdem, p. 53.

land was raised many a firm voice, not idly denouncing the power of England, but calmly urging that the loss of liberty was worse than death. The vessel that bore the stamp papers— strange instruments of subjection was welbolcomed in Philadelphia by the muffled ringing of bells, and the hushed but deep anger of troubled crowds. Whenever opportunities offered, the yassemblies of other colonies adopted the example and language of Virginia. At elections the stamp act was denounced. In the letters and instructions of constituencies, the representatives were exhorted to exert every effort of mind and body in constitutional resistance to a measure so odious and oppressive. The stamp distributors-the new placemen, whose pliancy was calculated on to enslave the country-were surrounded, besought, and menaced, where need was.

And resistance, rising above safe control, displayed itself in acts of violence. In such scenes Boston was foremost. Early one morning a

the

***Venerable tree was found by the passers-by ornamented with two effigies-one the Stamp-master, the other a jack-boot. A crowd gathered round them all day, and towards evening the limb of tree that bore them was cut down and dragged in triumph through the streets, amidst sounds and shouts of scorn. The Stamp-master was doomed to see this emblem of himself beheaded before his own door. These and similar excesses were repeated from day to day. They were imitated and exceeded elsewhere. At Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, MaryTand, popular indignation found vent in acts of

lawlessness in the wreck of houses, furniture, and other property.

On November day, when indignation might be supposed to have reached the excitement of madness, many American towns presented sad but singular scenes. Funeral peals sounded mournfully from every church steeple; long, silent, and objectless processions darkened the streets, as if journeying to the grave of Liberty. Anon a merry peal is heard-gladness lights up the public face, and they go away rejoicing ;they discover that unless they make the grave in their own hearts, Liberty is not to be buried. The next morning rose upon a determined people. Up to this, there was vagueness; then came a palpable thing. Sober history finds the change startling. He who followed one of those mourning trains, so suddenly changed to merrymaking, would find it wise to say, "These are a people fit to be oppressed-they meet the blow with idle mummery."

They were, however, another people when came the day to act. The court, the mart, the exchange these destined scenes for the operation of the Stamp Act-remained unaltered. Learned judges eluded the talisman without which there was to be no validity in their decrees. Merchants exchanged their wares for unrecognised security; even an insolvent's word would be preferred to the most binding instrument upon which the English Parliament had set its magic impress. In every town, in every district, some man rose above the crowd, to stamp the earnestness of talent on the public resolution. And it was sin

D

gular what a host of men, unheard ofs before, answered the requirement of a great cause and a great country. The Press, that weapon which truth never wields in vain, was then, happily for America, fresh and untrammelled. The passions of faction, more dangerous to free opinion than the tyrant's frown or chain, had not learned to prostitute it to a depraved taste or the thirst for gain. Parliament decreed newspapers should thenceforth be stamped, but they appeared and were read though nowhere bearing the mark of legality.

TWO Long ere the law was to take effect, a congress, consisting of delegates from several of the colonial assemblies, met in New York. Loudly and unanimously they condemned the billy Their memorials to the throne and parliament embodied their denunciation, and the principles on which it was founded. They said with one voice: This act is a violation of our most sacred liberties, and if it be not repealed, there is no place for us between slavery and resistance t the latter we abhor, but the former we will not endure. ob eft vods

The same language and feeling could be elsewhere read. Manufactures suddenly sprung sup to supply the British-made cloths and other arti cles, which, by common consent, it was resolved not to import. Men and women, too, preferred, home fabrics, though coarser and dearer, to the productions of the land that they felt oppressed them.They took honourable pride in clumsyt apparel and frugal tables. All English luxuries disappeared. doidw yd „miels viqme edt bedoof

T

England saw with alarm these bold prepara tions. Her industry felt their reaction; and she tasted in her empty and silent workshops the worst dregs of her own styranny. The Amerio cans found earnest allies where they little hoped, whose interests sincerely seconded the voice of remonstrance. The pride of England, however, was aroused. To repeal the law would be bitter humiliation, and to enforce it instant danger? She bethought her of an expedient: she pre pared to give up the substance for the name of power. The same ministry and the same men proposed the repeal of the Stamp Act, ere it had lived a year, but not ere it had sown the seeds! of revolution. Baffled omnipotence settled the question thus with its consciences resolus tion was adopted, concomitant with the repeal, "that the Parliament had, and of right ought to have, powers to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever." This was at once the revenue and the memento of the Stamp Act. Retiring from the colonies, it seemed like an evil spirit driven! from a haunted dwelling and writing its name above the door. .9ba9

ソ

-9The promoters of the Stamp Act maintained that it was judicious as well as just. Its repeat by themselves after a short abortive life, answers them on one point for ever, and the resolution by which that repeal was accompanied re-asserts the other to be solved by the disruption of an empire.9°England and America, blind to the future, made common joy when the stamp act was repealed. The latter disregarded or overs looked the empty claim, by which the former