s the immediate and just cause of the war; that without the
protection afforded them during the war, they must have been a prey to
the power of France; that without the compensation made them by
Parliament, the burden of the expense of the war must have been
insupportable." In their address to the King they make the same
acknowledgments, and at the conclusion promise to evidence their
gratitude by every expression of duty and loyalty in their power.[254]

Mr. Otis, afterwards the most eloquent agitator against England, and
advocate of independence, at the first town meeting of Boston after the
peace, having been chosen chairman, addressed the inhabitants in the
following words, which he caused to be printed in the newspapers:

"We in America have certainly abundant reasons to rejoice. The heathen
are not only driven out, but the Canadians, much more formidable
enemies, are conquered and become our fellow-subjects. The British
dominion and power may be said literally to extend from sea to sea, and
from the great river to the ends of the earth. And we may safely
conclude, from his Majesty's wise administration hitherto, that liberty
and knowledge, civil and religious, will be co-extended, improved, and
preserved to the latest posterity. No other constitution of civil
government has yet appeared in the world so admirably adapted to these
great purposes as that of Great Britain. Every British subject in
America is of common right, by Act of Parliament, and by the laws of God
and nature, entitled to all the essential privileges of Britons. By
particular Charters, there are peculiar privileges granted, as in
justice they might and ought, in consideration of the arduous
undertaking to begin so glorious an empire as British America is rising
to. Those jealousies that some weak and wicked minds have endeavoured to
infuse with regard to the colonies, had their birth in the blackness of
darkness, and it is a great pity they had not remained there for ever.
The true interests of Great Britain and her plantations are mutual; and
what God in His providence has united, let no man dare attempt to pull
asunder."[255]

Such were the official acknowledgments and professed feelings of
Massachusetts herself in regard to the conduct of England towards her at
the close of the seven years' war with France, which was ratified by the
Peace of Paris, 1763, and which secured the American colonies from the
hostilities of the French and their Indi