the expense of a detachment of five hundred and forty men, who were to proceed under the command of the confidential friend of M. Bigot, M. Pean, to the Belle Rivière, nor the wages of the workmen in digging the foundations of, and in building the forts, nor the expenses of the transport of eighteen or twenty thousand quintals of merchandize from Presqu'isle to the River-aux-Bœufs, a distance of eight leagues, which was effected on men's backs. In 1753 the same efforts were continued; and, besides a large issue of paper currency which was depreciated thirty per cent, M. Bigot drew Bills of Exchange on the French Treasury, to the amount of three millions and a half. The expenses in the years 1754 and 1755, of the French Government, in carrying on their project of aggranThe Intendant's dizement in North America, were enormous.

estimate for the French posts, on the Ohio alone, in the year 1756, amounted to between two and three millions of livres. The estimate of the same officer, transmitted from Canada to France, on the 29th August, 1758, for the following year of 1759, amounted to from thirty one to thirty three millions of livres. It appears that twenty four millions were actually drawn for, before the taking of Quebec, in September 1759.

The sacrifices made by the old English Colonists, it has already been said, were great; the taking and securing to the crown of Great Britain the island of Cape Breton and its dependencies, by the several provinces of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, cost those Provinces above £200,000 sterling, which had been raised and advanced on their public credit; and, on the 14th April, 1748, a Committee of the House of Commons came to the Resolution, that it was just and reasonable they should be reimbursed. +

+ Vide Burke's Works-Speech on Conciliation with America, Vol. 3, p. 99. When Mr. Grenville began to form his system of American Revenue, he stated that the Colonies were then in debt £2,600,000 sterling money, and was of opinion they would discharge that debt in four years. -Ib. p. 101; but it appears that this calculation was too sanguine. The reduction was not completed till some years after, and at different times in different colonies.

The whole pecuniary expenditure of the British Colonies. during six years preceding the peace of 1763, is stated by Dr. Franklin at ten millions sterling; and, during that period of time, they kept in the field, supported, clothed and fed an army of twenty five thousand men. It is said that one man out of every five capable of bearing arms in the New England colonies, had been in the field on actual service. It will be recollected that at the peace of 1763, the population of the colonies hardly reached three millions.

Although the taxes upon the colonies of France in this country, were by no means so burthensome as those in the adjoining provinces, yet there can be but little doubt, that the war pressed more heavily upon the Canadians of that day, than it did upon the British North Americans. They were much fewer in number, I think they did not exceed 60,000 souls; almost all the men capable of bearing arms, probably all who were not prevented by some bodily infirmity, had been employed in long military expeditions. The conscription was regulated by no law, it depended only on the arbitrary will of their military superiors; they suffered much from the arrogance of their military regulars; duels between the privates of the regular and of the provincial forces were frequent. The ill will between these two bodies of men will be sufficiently explained by one single fact-a serjeant of the regulars had the rank of senior captain in the militia. Their pecuniary sacrifices were also much greater than those of their then North American neighbours, not in the shape of taxation, but by having their provisions taken from them by the military authorities, at prices much below their value, paid for in depreciated paper currency, and by a large amount of that currency distributed throughout the province, never having been redeemed. With equal gallantry on both sides, there were circumstances which rendered the result of the contest which afterwards happened certain.

A variety of fortunate circumstances preserved the British colonists who had been driven from their home by religious

and political oppression, (preserved them at least to a very large extent) against the efforts made to renew the same on this side of the Atlantic. The ardent spirits, who would have disturbed the peace of the parent state if left at home, enlarged her and their dominions here. That benefit, which the patriotic and virtuous Admiral de Coligny thought he had secured to his dissenting brethren in France, by obtaining permission to transfer to the French North American colonies, with free liberty of worship, French Huguenots, was actually possessed by the British colonists; and there can be but little doubt, that if the convention of the Admiral de Coligny had been preserved, a very large portion of the wealth, enterprize and industry, which the revocation of the edict of Nantes threw into the hands of the enemies of France, would have fructified her North American possessions, and that the French language would, at this day, have been the dominant language from the gulf of St. Lawrence to the gulf of Mexico. Another cause subordinate to this was, the difference of management of the Finances of the two countries in North Amebut as this is somewhat of a digression, I return to my

rica ;

main subject.

The peace of 1763 annexed Canada to the British Empire. Soon after that event Great Britain, for the first time, set up the pretension of raising a revenue in her North American colonies for imperial purposes, and this by the authority of the Imperial Parliament. It seemed reasonable that the colonies should contribute to the expenditure thus incurred for their defence, nor does this appear to have ever been denied by the old colonists. The difficulty was as to the quantum, and as to the authority by which as well that as the mode of levying the money, should be regulated. Pretensions were then set up on the part of the parent state, precisely similar to those which Athens, between two and three thousand years before, immediately after the battle of Salamis, had made and successfully enforced, to the great prejudice of her colonies. and to the ultimate ruin of herself.

It will be seen that the Act of the Imperial Parliament, 7. Geo. III, commonly called Mr. Grenville's Act, imposing duties within the colonies to be applied to imperial purposes by the Imperial Legislature, is here referred to. It is quite plain, that if the principle of this act had been submitted to by the old colonies, they would literally have become predial slaves. If one set of men have a right to impose at pleasure pecuniary burthens on another set of men, and apply these resources as they like, then all property is extinguished or rather becomes vested exclusively in those who exercise such rights; and the nominal owners hold a precarious possession, dependent on the will of their Lords. It was this claim which excited, and rightly excited, so violent a ferment in the old colonies, and in the end produced their dismemberment from the empire.

Mr. Burke informs us, that the news of these troubles did not arrive in England until the end of the following October. Lord North and his friends were driven from power, and the new ministry under the Marquis of Rockingham, entered into office the 10th July, 1766. The principal measures in the short administration of the Marquis of Rockingham, were the repeal of the Stamp Act and the enactment of the Declaratory Act. With these two acts the second period of the history of colonial policy ended, and the third commenced; but the Marquis of Rockingham did not remain long in power, and the following year (1767) a new act was passed, imposing duties on glass, tea, paper and painter's colours imported from Great Britain into America, the object of which was rather to enforce the right of taxing the colonies than immediately to raise any revenue from the exercise of it.

The next acts of the British Parliament relating to this subject are, the 14th and 18th of the late King, and to them we shall solicit the attention of our readers in the following number.

Z

186

No. XIX.

FINANCES.

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED.

Statutes of the 14th and 18th of the King.

The statutes known in the colony by these names, are the 14th, Geo. III. c. 88, intituled "An Act to establish a fund towards further defraying the charges of the administration of justice and support of the civil government, within the Province of Quebec, in America ;" and the 18th Geo. III. c. 12, intituled "An Act for removing all doubts and apprehensions concerning taxation by the Parliament of Great Britain, in any of the colonies, provinces and plantations in North America and the West Indies; and for repealing so much of an Act made in the 7th year of the reign of his present Majesty, as imposes a duty on tea imported from Great Britain into any colony or plantation in America, or relates thereto."

So much has been said respecting these statutes, that it may be proper here to give a short history of them before proceeding to examine into what is their legal construction.

At the time of the cession of Canada to Great Britain, there were legally existing in the Province of Quebec the following duties upon wine, brandy and rum, imported into it from old France, and the other dominions of the French King, to wit, 7s. 6d. sterling per hogshead upon wine; 4d. per gallon upon brandy; and 12s. 6d. per hogshead upon rum. These, by an edict of the King of France, passed in January, 1747,