M. de Levi, the French general at Montreal, made several attempts to retake the city, but without success, and in 1760, Montreal was taken, and all its dependencies. Henceforward Canada became a British province.

The war on the continent being finished, expeditions were sent against the French possessions in the West Indies. Many troops were drawn from the colonies for this service, and Martinico, Grenada, St. Lucie, St. Vincent, and the other Caribbee Islands, were brought under the subjection of the British crown (1762). War being declared between Great Britain and Spain, early in the year, an armament was sent out by the ministers for the reduction of Havana, which was taken, after an obstinate defence. On the 10th of February,

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TREATY OF PEACE.

1763, a definitive treaty of peace was signed at Paris, and soon after ratified. Nova Scotia, Canada, Cape Breton, and the other French possessions in the north, were confirmed to Great Britain. The French were allowed to fish off the island of Newfoundland, but under the heaviest restrictions; and the small islands of St. Peter and Miquelon were confirmed to France. The boundary between the English and French possessions was fixed by a line drawn along the middle of the river Mississippi, from its source, as far as the river Iberville, and thence, by a line drawn along the middle of that river, and of the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the sea. The river and port of Mobile, and all the French possessions east of the Mississippi, were ceded to Great Britain, except the island and town of New Orleans. All the West India isles which the English had taken from the French, were confirmed to the captors, and the Havana was exchanged with the King of Spain for the Floridas. With such great natural boundaries as these, it would be difficult to find any cause for the renewal of those controversies respecting pos sessions, which were formerly so harassing to the colonists.

COMMENCEMENT OF THE REVOLUTION.

HE peace of 1763, which restored tranquillity to America, also released Europe from a long and bloody war; in the early part of which the arms of Britain had been signally unsuccessful; but, in the end, everywhere triumphant. The expulsion of the French from their possessions; the treaties made with the Indians, which, now that French intrigues were no longer in operation, the colonists hoped would be lasting; and the accession of George III. to the throne, gave the inhabitants of North America reason to expect a long season of peace, hot merely as regarded their former enemies, but that civil peace between the mother country and her offspring, for the continuance of which every true friend of both countries could not too earnestly wish. The young king was in the flower of youth, a season when the people are usually willing to cherish fond anticipations of their monarch, and to yield him a cordial

protection and support. But causes of dissatisfaction and distrust were hidden by these fair appearances.

The new king had appointed new ministers, whose political measures were likely to be unpopular. They had none of the prudence and firmness necessary for the concurrence in, and direction of the public opinion, which always gains for its possessor the confidence of the mass,-a characteristic which so highly distinguished William Pitt, and of which Lord Grenville, who now stood at the head of the ministry, appeared to be utterly destitute. Plans for taxing the colonies had been suggested to both Pitt and Walpole successively; but those wary ministers declined the experiment. Walpole said "that he would leave that measure to some of his successors who had more courage than he had, and were less friendly to commerce than he was.'

Grenville had the kind and quantity of courage, of which Walpole confessed himself destitute, and he was bold enough to hazard the experiment. The duties imposed by the ministers of George II. on rum, sugar, and molasses imported into the colonies, although they had excited considerable opposition at the time they were enacted, were yet not openly resisted, the payment of them being evaded by smuggling, which was not considered as a crime of much importance by the colonists.

This practice was regarded with great indignation by the British ministry, who hastened to adopt a system of remedial measures, not altogether judicious. They were nevertheless sternly enforced, and all the commanders and other officers stationed off the American coasts, or cruising in the seas of that country, received authority and directions from the crown to act in the capacity of officers of the customs. Unacquainted with the duties of their new offices, being required not only to guard the laws from violation, but to administer them, they rarely executed their orders with discretion and humanity. They treated their fellow-subjects much in the same manner as they had been accustomed to treat their enemies; and by the confiscation of cargoes, and unreasonable

STAMP ACT PASSED.

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detention of ships, to the great detriment of their owners, they excited much irritation in the minds of the colonists, and materially alienated their affections from the British govern

ment.

In the spring of 1763, a bill was carried through parliament, imposing certain duties on indigo, coffee, silk, French lawns, and many other articles imported into the colonies from the West Indian isles. The duties were so great as almost to amount to a prohibition of fair trade, and they were to be paid in gold and silver. In the same session of parliament, a bill was passed declaring the paper money which had been issued by the colonial legislatures, to support the expenses of the war, not to be a legal tender in payment of debts.

The popular discontent now broke forth to an alarming degree in America, more especially when the news was received of a resolution introduced into parliament by the ministry and passed, declaring "that toward further defraying the expense of protecting and securing the colonies, it may be proper to charge certain STAMP DUTIES on the colonies." Petitions and remonstrances were sent from all parts of the colonies, deprecating the passage of the odious act; but Grenville was too unwise to let the matter drop when he saw how the news of its probable passage was received in America. Wilfully blind to its consequences, he introduced the act into parliament on the 29th of January, 1765, in the shape of fifty-five resolutions for imposing stamp duties on certain papers and documents used in the colonies: and a bill founded on those resolutions, was soon after debated, and after a vigorous opposition, finally passed, March 22d.

The colonists were led, from the universal detestation of the proposed act displayed by the different assemblies, to expect a totally different result. In Massachusetts, so quiet was the populace on receiving the intelligence, that the governor wrote to England that the inhabitants appeared to have been awed into submission. This was, however, but the calm which precedes the storm. In Pennsylvania, previous to the passage of the act, the assembly was distinguished, says a late