enditure in their unsuccessful expedition against
Crown Point, they stated their services and prayed to be relieved from
the burden incurred by means of them. They pleaded the precedent of the
Cape Breton invasion (for expenses incurred in which, in 1745, the
British Parliament had granted them compensation), and prayed that his
Majesty would give orders for the support of such forts and garrisons as
they hoped to establish, and aid them in the further execution of their
designs. And in another address, adopted in October of the same year,
the Massachusetts Court said that the design of securing his Majesty's
territories against the invasions of the French was what his Majesty
alone was equal to project and execute, and the nation to support; and
that unless they could obtain the relief which they were soliciting from
the royal bounty, they should be so far from being able to remove
encroachments that they would be unable to defend themselves.[252]

Massachusetts having succeeded, with the other colonies, to "drag," as
Mr. Bancroft expresses it, "England into a war with France," was thus
importunate in soliciting aid and compensation from England for her
self-originated expenses, and was so successful in her applications as
to make the war a pecuniary benefit as well as a means of securing and
enlarging her boundaries; for, in the words of the historian quoted
above, in a previous page, "The generous compensations which had been
made every year by Parliament not only alleviated the burden of taxes,
which otherwise would have been heavy, but, by the importation of such
large sums of specie, increased commerce; and it was the opinion of some
that the war added to the wealth of the province, though the
compensation did not amount to half the charges of the government."[253]

The monies raised by the colonies were expended in them and upon their
own citizens--monies passing from hand to hand, and for provisions
provided and works done in the colonies; but the large sums appropriated
by Parliament for the war in the colonies was so much money abstracted
from England, sent across the Atlantic, and added to the resources and
wealth of the colonies.

After the close of the war, in 1763, Massachusetts acknowledged her
obligations to England for her protection and safety. In an address of
both Houses of her Legislature to the Governor that year, they
acknowledge that "the evident design of the French to surround the
colonies wa