George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 6, 10th edition.

[183] Grafton; and Camden answered, ‘Indeed, my dear

Chap. XXXV.} 1768. Sept.

Lord, I do not know. The Parliament cannot repeal the Act in question, because that would admit the American principle to be right, and their own doctrine erroneous. Therefore it must execute the law. How to execute it, I am at a loss. Boston is the ringleading Province; and if any country is to be chastised, the punishment ought to be levelled there.’¹

But the system which made government subordinate to the gains of patronage, was every where producing its natural results. In South Carolina, the profits of the place of Provost-Marshal were enjoyed under a patent as a sinecure by a resident in England,² whose deputy had the monopoly of serving processes throughout the Province, and yet was bound to attend courts nowhere but at Charleston. As a consequence the herdsmen near the frontier adjudicated their own disputes and regulated their own police, even at the risk of a civil war.³

The blood of ‘rebels’ against oppression was first shed among the settlers on the branches of the Cape Fear River. The emigrants to the upland glades of North Carolina, though occupying rich lands, had little coin or currency; yet as the revenue of the Province was raised by a poll-tax,⁴ the poorest laborer among them must contribute towards it as much as the richest merchant. The