of, and had there been no deeper cause of discontent the American Revolution would never have taken place. And through this long experience of self-government by the people of the colonies was acquired an extended knowledge of the principles of government, and a vigorous democratic sentiment, which rendered the form of government adopted by independent America an inevitable necessity of the situation, while the political ability displayed by its founders was the resultant of a long experience in self-rule, and no original outburst of legislative genius, as is so generally supposed.

The causes of the discontent which we have now to consider were industrial and executive, not legislative, and consisted of those stringent commercial and manufacturing regulations, and the claim of the crown to unrestricted powers of taxation, which had for a long period been resisted by the colonies. In their earlier and weaker days these evils were of secondary importance, but with every step of growth in population, and of development of the resources of America, the right to trade with whom they pleased and to manufacture what they pleased became of greater importance to the colonists, until finally the restrictions in these respects grew insupportable. In regard to the question of taxation, the people of Massachusetts at an early date strongly disputed the right of taxation without representation. As time went on, this sentiment spread to the other colonies, and had become vigorously implanted in the minds of all Americans by the era immediately preceding the Revolution. That principle which had been long fought for and eventually gained in the home country, that the people, through their representatives, alone had the power to lay taxes, was naturally claimed in America as an essential requisite of a representative government; and it was mainly to the effort of

the English authorities to deprive the colonists of this right that the American Revolution was due.

ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES.

MARY HOWITT.

[From the gracefully-written work of an English author we select a description of the condition of the colonies, and their relations to the mother-country, in the period immediately succeeding the French and Indian War, extending the review to the date of the passage of the Stamp Act. The most important event of the period, outside of the political difficulties, was that known as Pontiac's Conspiracy, an Indian war of extended proportions and, for a time, of phenomenal success. Pontiac, a Shawnee chief, in the year 1763, organized a scheme of attack upon the frontier forts and settlements, the details of which were arranged with the utmost craft and secrecy. The Cherokees, and the Six Nations with the exception of the Senecas, kept out of the conspiracy, but the tribes of the Ohio, and most of those on the eastern side of the Mississippi, and in the vicinity of Detroit, were included, the leading tribes being the Shawnees and Delawares.

At the appointed time the warriors fell furiously upon the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Great numbers of the settlers were massacred, though many took the alarm in time to escape. For twenty miles inland the settlements were ruined. The traders among the Indians were murdered and their effects seized by the savages. But the most important result of the outbreak, from a military point of view, was the capture of several of the frontier forts. A number of the smaller forts-Le Boeuf, Venango, Presque Isle, Michilimackinac, and others were taken by the savages, and the garrisons generally massacred. The large and important forts of Detroit, Niagara, and Pittsburg were fiercely assailed. Amherst quickly sent detachments to relieve these forts. That sent to Detroit, after reinforcing the garrison, fell into an ambuscade of the enemy, and

met with heavy loss. The remainder took refuge in the fort, from which the besiegers soon after retired.

The fort of Pittsburg was assailed with unusual skill and obstinacy for Indian combatants. The post was ill prepared for a siege, and was maintained with difficulty against the furious assault. An expedition under Colonel Bouquet, sent to its relief, was ambuscaded on the march, and furiously assailed. The assault was one of the most persistent and skilfully conducted ever made by Indians, and only the steady discipline of the English and the skill of their leader saved them from destruction. For seven hours the battle continued, and it was renewed the next day with undiminished fury. The English were worn out by the repeated assaults of the ferocious enemy, who displayed a combined caution and intrepidity which were gradually wasting away the troops. Advance and retreat became alike impossible, and complete destruction seemed inevitable. At this crisis Colonel Bouquet essayed a manœuvre which fortunately proved successful. Part of the troops retired as if in flight, while the others seemed endeavoring to cover the flight. On perceiving this, the savages abandoned their cautious tactics, and, emerging from their covers, rushed in rage and triumph on the seemingly flying army. This was what Bouquet had desired, and, the English turning on them with the skill and vigor of disciplined troops, they were routed with immense slaughter. Several of their ablest chiefs fell, and, despairing of success, they fled in terror. Four days afterwards, Bouquet reached the fort, from which the besiegers at once withdrew. An assault was now made on the fort at Niagara. The same tactics were applied here. A convoy of provisions was assailed and captured; and a lake-fight took place between canoes and a provisionschooner, in which the savages were repulsed. Finally the fort was relieved; but the Indians continued a predatory warfare until the following spring and summer, when they were assailed with such spirit and success that they were forced to sue for peace. The articles of the treaty were very stringent, and greatly increased the strength of the English hold on the Western country.

One unfortunate result of this war was the inflaming of the passions of the settlers to deeds of unprovoked murder. A society of peaceful Indians, converted to Christianity by the Moravian missionaries, residing in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, were attacked and indiscriminately butchered by a party of settlers from the neighboring township of Paxton. These "Paxton Boys" even broke open

the jail at Lancaster, and murdered the Indians who had been placed there as a measure of safety. The proclamations of the governor against these outrages were disdained, and the sanguinary mob marched upon Philadelphia, with the purpose of slaughtering the Indians who had been taken thither. There was much sympathy with the murderers in the city; but a body of the more respectable inhabitants, including many young Quakers, armed in defence of the refugees. The Paxton Boys advanced to Germantown, the governor fled in dismay, and the province seemed on the brink of civil war. Franklin and some others, however, expostulated with the insurgents, and finally prevailed on them to give up their purpose and return home. The accompanying account of political events we extract from Mary Howitt's "History of the United States."]

THE war between England and France, though at an end on the continent of America, was still continued among the West India islands, France in this case also being the loser. Martinique, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent's, every island, in fact, which France possessed among the Caribbees,- passed into the hands of the English. Besides which, being at the same time at war with Spain, England took possession of Havana, the key to the whole trade of the Gulf of Mexico.

In November, 1763, a treaty of peace was signed at Paris, which led to further changes, all being favorable to Britain; whilst Martinique, Guadeloupe, and St. Lucia were restored to France, England took possession of St. Vincent's, Dominica, and Tobago islands, which had hitherto been considered neutral. By the same treaty all the vast territory east of the Mississippi, from its source to the Gulf of Mexico, with the exception of the island of New Orleans, was yielded up to the British; and Spain, in return for Havana, ceded her possession of Florida. Thus, says Hildreth, was vested in the British crown, as far as the consent of rival European claimants could give it, the sovereignty of the whole eastern half of North

America, from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson's Bay and the Polar Ocean. By the same treaty the navigation of the Mississippi was free to both nations. France at the same time gave to Spain, as a compensation for her losses in the war, all Louisiana west of the Mississippi, which contained at that time about ten thousand inhabitants, to whom this transfer was very unsatisfactory.

The conquest of Canada and the subjection of the Eastern Indians giving security to the colonists of Maine, that province began to expand and flourish. The counties of Cumberland and Lincoln were added to the former single county of York, and settlers began to occupy the lower Kennebec and to extend themselves along the coast towards the Penobscot. Nor was this northern expansion confined alone to Maine; settlers began to occupy both sides of the upper Connecticut, and to advance into new regions beyond the Green Mountains towards Lake Champlain, a beautiful and fertile country which had first become known to the colonists in the late war. Homes were growing up in Vermont. In the same manner population extended westward beyond the Alleghanies as soon as the Indian disturbances were allayed in that direction. The go-ahead principle was ever active in British America. The population of Georgia was beginning to increase greatly, and in 1763 the first newspaper of that colony was published, called the "Georgia Gazette." A vital principle was operating also in the new province of East Florida, now that she ranked among the British possessions. In ten years more was done for the colony than had been done through the whole period of the Spanish occupation. A colony of Greeks settled about this time on the inlet still known as New Smyrna; and a body of settlers from the banks of the Roanoke planted themselves in West Florida, near Baton Rouge.