late government (for Grenville and his colleagues, they also in turn, had been thrown out of office by the caprice of their sovereign) could not be cancelled, even yet. While he was thus employed in England his fellow-countrymen in America were denouncing him as the worst of traitors, and rioters were surrounding his house in Pennsylvania, where his good wife was for a while in a state of siege. The explanation of this curious phenomenon is simple enough. When the Stamp Act was passed Grenville had sent for the colonial agents and asked them to help him, for their country's sake as well as the King's, in a matter of some delicacy. He was unwilling to send persons from England to be collectors of the revenue arising under the Stamp Act, since the appearance of these strangers as tax-gatherers could not but be hurtful to colonial feelings. He therefore begged that the agents would give him the names of men of good repute and liking, in their several parts of the country, whom he might take steps to have appointed collectors of this revenue. For Pennsylvania, Franklin submitted the name of Mr John Hughes, but in doing so he neither signified his own approval of the Act nor his opinion that Mr Hughes would accept the post if it were offered him. Folk in America, however, gathered only that Hughes had been appointed collector under the hateful Act, and that his nomination, if not the Act itself, was Franklin's work. Hence the emotion and the riot aforesaid. The riot did no great harm to him or his, and the emotion gave place to more worthy feelings when the truth of the matter came home, as it did, by a later ship.

Meanwhile Franklin was working away, interviewing ministers and other public men-" explaining, consulting, disputing, in a continual hurry from morning till night"-during all the second half of that year and the first weeks of the

next one. The new government consisted mainly of friends of America, many of them personal friends of his. The most powerful friend of all, however, was the enormous section of the British mercantile and manufacturing class, which found itself being ruined by the sudden disappearance of America as a market for British goods. These good men passed from astonishment to dismay, and from dismay to desperation; and before the end was reached, their clamours filled the lobbies of the House of Commons. Ministers saw that there was nothing for it but to repeal the unfortunate Act, at all costs to the pride of the people, or the self-will of the King. To strengthen its hands before attempting to do so, the Ministry held a famous Enquiry at the beginning of the year 1766. A Committee of the whole House sat for many days receiving evidence from men of every class, occupation, and description, who had any, even the remotest, experience of, or connection with, America or American affairs. The Enquiry is famous, however, mainly on account of the evidence given in the course of it by one witness, whose testimony was of so remarkable a character, and covered so completely the whole ground of the Committee's reference, that it has extinguished for us, and really rendered superfluous at the time, that of all the other witnesses together. Needless to say, this witness was Benjamin Franklin. Of this celebrated "Examination of Dr Franklin before the House of Commons," it would be impossible to overstate the significance and value, whether regarded as a contribution to a great historic question, or as a revelation of the many powers of the man himself. In both respects it was surprising, and in both respects it created a profound impression both in this country and in America. In America, it put new heart and patriotism even into the most fervent ; in England, it informed those who were already

most deeply informed in American affairs; and to those who had long known and admired Franklin it revealed a compass of qualities, a faultless fulness of knowledge, and a control equally of his knowledge and his powers, which went beyond all that they expected even from him. They were men of affairs, and some of them men of talent, who examined him; and the questions were subtly and searchingly put, for the purpose of placing him in at least a momentary difficulty. Yet Edmund Burke could only compare the whole scene to that of a schoolmaster_submitting to be catechised by his pupils. When Franklin withdrew from the Bar of the House, the apologists of the Stamp Act had not a solid inch of ground to stand upon. Ministers were ready to hug themselves for joy, and him also. And indeed he had done their business for them, as all of them combined could not have done it. His examination closed on February 13. Just eight days later a Repealing Bill was introduced into Parliament, and, after a debate of which the eloquence has perished but the glory and splendour yet somehow abide, as though it had been fully reported-the bill was carried through both Houses, and on March 8 it received the royal and unwilling assent. When the good news reached America, there was such rejoicing as that side of the world had never seen, and everywhere honour and acclamation attended the name of Franklin.

ས

BUT that was a time of quick changes in the political world. They were seldom changes for the better, and that which now followed proved one of the most disastrous in English history. Within four months of its passing the Repealing Act, the Rockingham Ministry was wrecked by

Court influences. Its place was taken, after a time, by a famous cabinet, of some of the talents and all the contradictions; a cabinet which had been put together by Lord Chatham, but was never presided over by him. In the absence of any effective head of the Government, the different departments of state policy now went their different ways; and those concerned with American affairs soon took a direction as contrary to all that Lord Chatham considered wise or right as well could be. The dispute with the Colonies was wantonly revived at once, never to be quieted again till England had lost these colonies for good, and the world had thereby gained a new nation. The series of events which led to this result was initiated by the Mr Charles Townshend referred to some pages back, who had entered the new cabinet as Chancellor of the Exchequer. As such, it was his business to propose schemes of taxation; and the nature of the man himself, as well as the character of the influences continually brought to bear upon him, made it inevitable that he should use his position in order to raise again the question of getting a revenue out of America and—what was of infinitely more concern to the feelings, both of the King and People of this country-of getting it from taxation imposed upon Americans by the English Parliament. He addressed himself to this task with vigour, promptness and ingenuity. On March 13, 1767, he laid before the House of Commons a general view of extensive plans with regard to America. The nature of the policy then unfolded is sufficiently indicated by the fact that the parliamentary door-keepers had orders not to admit the colonial agents within the precincts on that day. The House approved heartily of the plans submitted to it, and directed that bills embodying them should be drafted forthwith and introduced. They were drafted, introduced, and passed, within a month;

and two months later all America was in a fer

ment.

In the banquet of discord which the obliging Mr Townshend now 66 set before the King," the Revenue Act may be considered as the grand piece of provocation, the veritable pièce de résistance. It was ingeniously concocted, but I must refer the Reader to the pages of Burke for a description of the many ingredients of contradictory motive which it embodied without managing to blend them. Three chief things are to be noted about it. It was an Act of Parliament, imposing taxation, a thing which Americans abhorred; and its preamble asserted the general principle which they had contested so famously. But then, what it imposed was a duty on imports from Britain. So, it had an affinity with the duties already being paid under the Navigation Act; the principle of which had been admitted as constitutional and just by Franklin in his examination before the House. But again, the scene of collection was now to be in America; so that there should be no question any more as to the jurisdiction of Parliament, or the validity of its Acts, in that country. The inhabitants would see the tax-gatherer in their midst, and they would know who had sent him. Further, the proceeds of the taxes were to go to form a Civil List; out of which the governors of colonies, and presently other officials, were to receive their salaries from the King. This innovation would make the relation of the people to the Governors that of a subject population in a conquered province to officials set over them by a distant despot: to whom, and to whom alone, these Governors would feel that they owed either respect or kindness. Finally, it was indicated clearly that this was not the end, but that more would follow as occasion served or the need arose.

Small wonder, then, if the resistance opposed to