ed the able and patriotic statesmen who had wiped
off the disgrace inflicted on British arms and prestige during the five
years of the French and Indian war in the American colonies, and had
given America to England, and called men one after another to succeed
them, who, though in some instances they were men of ability, and in one
or two instances were men of amiable and Christian character, were upon
the whole the most unscrupulous and corrupt statesmen that ever stood at
the head of public affairs in England, and the two Parliaments elected
under their auspices were the most venal ever known in British history.
The King regarded as a personal enemy any member of Parliament who
opposed his policy, and hated any Minister of State (and dismissed him
as soon as possible) who offered advice to, instead of receiving it
from, his Royal master and implicitly obeying it; and the Ministers whom
he selected were too subservient to the despotism and caprices of the
Royal will, at the frequent sacrifice of their own convictions and the
best interests of the empire.

For more than a hundred years the colonies had provided for and
controlled their own civil, judicial, and military administration of
government; and when the King required special appropriations of money
and raising of men during the Seven Years' War, requisitions were made
by his Ministers in his name, through the Governors, to the several
Provincial Legislatures, which responded with a liberality and
patriotism that excited surprise in England at the extent of their
resources in both money and men. But this very development of colonial
power excited jealousy and apprehensions in England, instead of sympathy
and respect; and within a twelvemonth after the treaty of Paris, in
1763, the King and his Ministers determined to discourage and crush all
military spirit and organization in the colonies, to denude the Colonial
Legislatures of all the attributes of British constitutional free
government, by the British Government not only appointing the Governors
of the colonies, but by appointing the members of one branch of the
Legislature, by appointing Judges as well as other public officers to
hold office during the pleasure of the Crown, and fixing and paying
their salaries out of moneys paid by colonists, but levied not by the
Colonial Legislatures, but by Acts of the British Parliament, contrary
to the usage of more than a century; and under the pretext of
_defending_ t