George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

[58] Royalty would have in-New York but

chap. III.} 1749.

‘the outward appearance’ of authority, till a governor and ‘proper judges’ should receive ‘independent salaries.’ ‘I do not imagine,’ he wrote in November, 1749, ‘that any assembly will be induced to give up the power, of which they are all so fond, by granting duties for any number of years. The authority of parliament must be made use of, and the duties on wine and West India commodities be made general for all North America.’ ‘The ministry,’ he added, ‘are not aware of the number of men in North America able to bear arms, and daily in the use of them. It becomes necessary that the colonies be early looked into, in time of peace, and regulated.’¹ As a source of revenue, William Douglas in Boston, a Scottish physician, publicly proposed ‘a stamp duty upon all instruments used in law affairs.’² But the suggestion had nothing of novelty. In 1728, Sir William Keith had advised extending, ‘by act of parliament, the duties upon parchment and stamps, to America,’³ and eleven years later the advice had been repeated by merchants in London, with solicitations⁴ that won for the proposition the consideration of the ministry.

Thus had the future colonial policy of England been shadowed forth to statesmen, who were very willing to adopt it. Morris, the chief justice of New Jersey,⁵ interested in lands in that province, and trained by his father to a hatred of popular power, was much listened to; and the indefatigable Shirley