1756. Lord Loudon took command of the English army, and the Marquis de Montcalm of the French.

Forts Ontario and Oswego taken by the French. 1757. Fort William Henry surrendered to the French. 1758. Louisburg captured by the English.

Fort Frontenac taken by the English.

Fort Duquesne surrendered to the English.

1759. General Amherst became commander of the English forces. Crown Point, Ticonderoga, and Fort Niagara taken by the English.

1760.

Quebec surrendered to Wolfe, September 18.

GEORGE III

All the other French posts surrendered.

War with the Cherokees in the Carolinas.

1763. The treaty of Paris closed the war between France and England.

Pontiac's War.

1767. The survey of Mason and Dixon's line.

PARALLEL READING

PARKMAN'S Montcalm

FISKE'S The Beginnings of New England. and Wolfe. - STORY OF THE STATES: THOMPSON's Louisiana; BROOKS's New York. -THAYER'S Farmer Boy. — OLD SOUTH LEAFLETS: Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, 1638 (9); An Account of the Late Revolution in New England; Franklin's Plan of Union; Speech of Pontiac. COOKE: Stories of the Old Dominion; Virginia (in the Commonwealth Series). EGGLESTON'S Pocahontas and Powhatan. - HAWTHORNE (in Twice-told Tales): Endicott and the Red Cross; The Gray Champion. COOPER: The Wept of Wish-ton-wish; The Last of the Mohicans. · SIMMS's The Yemassee. - LONGFELLOW's Evangeline.

III-THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

CHAPTER I

CAUSES OF THE WAR

207. Navigation and Trade Laws. (See § 64.) Long before the French war, Parliament passed laws which required the colonists to sell all their tobacco, wool, and indigo to England or to an English colony. It mattered not how high a price might be offered for tobacco or rice in other countries, no colony could send its products to any ports but those of England. This gave the English merchants the power to make their own prices, and secure all the profits. The colonists could buy only from England. Every pound of tea from China, and every yard of silk from France, had to be bought in England, and all commerce had to be carried on in English or colonial ships.

208. Manufactures prohibited. — Other laws were passed prohibiting the colonists from manufacturing the simplest articles for sale. English manufacturers who supplied the people in America and other countries with goods, said that their business would be ruined if the colonists were allowed to make and export the same articles; hence the wool and iron of America had to be sent to England to be manufactured. Not even a “nail for a horseshoe" could legally be made in this country; it had to be bought from England. To recompense the colonies for these restrictions, they were to supply Great Britain with tobacco, and no planter in England or Ireland was allowed to raise it.

209. The Parson's Cause.

An old law in Virginia required

that each clergyman's salary, which the people were taxed to pay, should be sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco, at twopence a pound, its market value at that time. The failure of the tobacco crop in 1758 caused the price to go up to sixpence a pound, and the assembly passed a law that debts should be paid in money, allowing twopence for each pound of tobacco owed. The clergymen were dissatisfied with this change, and

PATRICK HENRY

some of them appealed to the king. He annulled the "Twopenny Act" of the assembly, and several ministers attempted to enforce the payments of the amounts they claimed. In one case, the taxpayers employed a young lawyer, Patrick Henry, to defend them. In an eloquent speech, he declared that the assembly alone had the right to make laws for them, and spoke in strong terms of the king's unjust action. The jury de

cided to pay the clergyman only one penny damages. The decision rendered showed the opposition of the people to any injustice on the part of England.

value of exports in 1750 had reached eight hundred and fourteen thousand pounds sterling, and two hundred vessels were employed in carrying the freight. Since

NEW ENGLAND FISHING BOATS

this could be done only by English or colonial vessels, shipbuilding became a profitable business, and during the three years preceding the French war more than two thousand vessels were built in America. A profitable trade with the West Indies had grown out of the New England fisheries. In the ports of those islands, cargoes of fish and lumber were exchanged for sugar and molasses, which in turn were made into rum to be sold again. Some of the ships returned loaded with slaves. This large trade made the English shipbuilders feel that they needed protection, and the colonists were required to transport their goods in British ships only.

While the French were in power in America, England hesitated to press the colonies too heavily, consequently the trade laws were not rigidly enforced. The people thought them unjust, and evaded them in many ways. They were disregarded for many years, and the carrying trade between the colonies was done almost entirely by vessels built in New England. Many foreign vessels landed their cargoes without interference, and sailed away laden with American produce. This illegal trade was called "smuggling," and could have been punished by the courts.

211. Writs of Assistance. Parliament and the king, perceiving the growing spirit of independence in the colonies, determined to keep them under stronger control. 1761 In 1761, a vigorous effort was made to stop the smuggling trade, but colonial juries would not convict men whom the royal governors brought to trial. "Admiralty courts" were therefore established in which trials were made without juries, and a larger number of officers was appointed to enforce the old Navigation Acts. To these officers were given "writs of assistance" empowering them to search for smuggled goods; for, as soon as these goods were landed, they were hidden away, and the people would not betray their neighbors for engaging in a business that the community did not condemn. As these writs gave the officers the right to search any house, public or private, in which they suspected

such goods to be concealed, the people became very indignant. Meetings were held and speeches were made against the infamy of giving strangers the legal right to break into the houses of citizens. James Otis, an eloquent young lawyer of Boston, pleaded their cause in a trial in the superior court of Massachusetts. In his speech, he said that while a man was quiet in his house, he should be as well guarded as a prince in his castle.

JAMES OTIS

212. The Stamp Act. -The duty on sugar and molasses was imposed again, and this greatly affected the trade with the West Indies. In 1765 Parliament passed

1765

the "Stamp Act," by which it was ordered that "all contracts, notes, bonds, deeds, writs, and public documents" should be written on stamped paper, or, if not, should be regarded as of no value. This stamped paper was to be sold by officers appointed by the government, and the price of the stamps was from one penny to twelve pounds. A large sum was expected from their sale, as nearly every kind of business would have to stop unless they were used. The revenue thus raised was to be spent in defending the colonies against the Indians, in paying the salaries of the colonial governors, and for other colonial expenses. But the colonists knew that a large share of their earnings was continually taken from them and given to the merchants of England by the enforcement of the trade laws. They knew, too, that hundreds of years before, the people of England had made the king understand that the right to levy taxes belonged only to their own representatives. Therefore, the colonists now claimed for themselves, under their charters, this right of freeborn Englishmen- the right to refuse to be taxed except by their representatives. This is the meaning of the saying, "No taxation without representation."

Providence in

213. Independent Spirit of the Colonists. tended that the Americans should be a free people. Many of