easure to his friends, and did
honor to his country."

After great agitation and many and stormy debates, the haughty
government was compelled to yield to the demands of the industrial
classes. Indeed, with those in England, who cried most loudly for the
repeal of the stamp act, there were comparatively few who were
influenced by any sympathy for the Americans, or by any appreciation
of the justice of their cause. The loss of the American trade was
impoverishing them. Selfish considerations alone,--their own personal
interests--moved them to action.

There were individuals, in and out of Parliament, who recognized the
rights of Englishmen, and regarding the Americans as Englishmen, and
America as a portion of the British empire, were in heart and with all
their energies, in sympathy with the Americans in their struggle for
their rights. When the despotism of the British court led that court
to the infamous measure of sending fleets and armies, to compel the
Americans to submission, and the feeble colonists, less than three
millions in number, performing the boldest and most heroic deeds ever
yet recorded in history, grasped their arms in self-defence, thus to
wage war against the most powerful naval and military empire upon this
globe, Lord Chatham, with moral courage rarely surpassed, boldly
exclaimed in the House of Lords, "Were I an American, as I am an
Englishman, I would never lay down my arms, never, _never_, NEVER."

In all England, there was no man more determined in his resolve to
bring the Americans to servile obedience, than the stubborn king,
George III. The repeal gave him intense offence. The equally
unprincipled, but more intelligent, ministers were compelled to the
measure, as they saw clearly that England was menaced with civil war,
which would array the industrial classes generally against the
aristocracy. In such a conflict it was far from improbable that the
aristocracy would be brought to grief. Horace Walpole wrote,

"It was the clamor of trade, of merchants, and of
manufacturing towns, that had borne down all opposition. A
general insurrection was apprehended, as the immediate
consequence of upholding the bill. The revolt of America,
and the destruction of trade, was the prospect in future."

Still the question of the repeal was carried in the House but by a
majority of one hundred and eight votes. Of course Franklin now
solicited permission to return home. The