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

[84] king's instructions on that subject.¹ In ‘the dan-

chap. IV.} 1751.

gerous precedent,’ Bollan, the agent for Massachusetts, discerned the latent purpose of introducing by degrees the same authority to control other articles. He argued, moreover, that ‘the province had a natural and lawful right to make use of its credit for its defence and preservation.’² New York also urged ‘the benefit of a paper credit.’ Before the bill was engrossed, the obnoxious clause was abandoned.³ Yet there seemed to exist in the minds of ‘some persons of consequence,’ a fixed design of getting a parliamentary sanction of some kind or other to the king's instructions; and the scheme was conducted with great perseverance and art.⁴

Meantime, parliament, by its sovereign act, on the motion of Lord Chesterfield, changed the commencement of the year, and regulated the calendar for all the British dominions. As the earth and the moon, in their annual rounds, differed by eleven days from the English reckoning of time, and would not delay their return, the legislature of a Protestant kingdom, after centuries of obstinacy, submitted to be taught by the heavens, and conquering a prejudice, adopted the calendar as amended by a pope of Rome.

The Board of Trade was all the while maturing its scheme for an American civil list.⁵ The royal prerogative