periority of Great Britain was received with jealousy
by her neighbours. They were in general disposed to favour any
convulsion which promised a diminution of her overgrown power."[257]

This great increase of the naval and territorial power of Great Britain
excited apprehension at home as well as jealousies abroad. Some of her
own statesmen and philanthropists entertained doubts as to whether the
extent and diversity of her vast territorial acquisitions would add to
the strength or happiness of the mother country; and the policy of
centralization and uniformity decided upon, created the discord and
hastened the disintegration which reflective minds had apprehended.

II. The position of the American Colonies in regard to England and other
nations clearly signalized a system of government which the English
statesmen of the times failed to appreciate. The maxim of the King was
not merely to reign, but to rule; and the policy of his Ministers, of
successive Administrations, was to enfeeble what was colonial and to
strengthen what was imperial; whereas the extension of colonial
territory had brought a large accession of colonial experience and
intelligence, which required to be entwined around the throne by the
silken cords of kindness and interest, instead of being bandaged to
England by 29 Acts of Parliament, every one of which indicated the loss
of some sacred birthright or privilege of Englishmen and their posterity
as soon as they emigrated from the eastern to the western shores of the
Atlantic. Those who emigrated to or were born in America were no less
Englishmen than those who remained or were born in England, and were
entitled to all the rights and privileges of Englishmen; among which is
the election of representatives who make laws and provide means for
their government. The original design of colonization by the British
Government was doubtless the extension of its power; the design of
English merchants and manufacturers in promoting colonization was
obviously the extension of their trade, and therefore their own
enrichment; while the design of the colonists themselves, in leaving
their native land and becoming adventurers and settlers in new
countries, was as manifestly the improvement of their own condition and
that of their posterity. As long as the threefold design of these three
parties to colonization harmonized, there could be no cause or occasion
of collision between them, and they would cordially co-ope