to augment the public
revenues, to unite the interests of the most distant possessions of his
Crown, and to encourage and secure their commerce with Great
Britain.'"[262]

Though the Bill and regulations referred to legalized in a manner the
heretofore illicit trade between the colonies and the French and Spanish
West India islands, they practically ruined the trade by the burden of
duties imposed, and thus distressed and ruined many who were engaged in
it.[263] It is not surprising that such a policy of restricting both
the import and export trade of the colonies to England, apart from the
methods of enforcing it, should produce general dissatisfaction in the
colonies, and prompt to combinations against such extortion, and for the
supply of their own wants, as far as possible independent of English
manufactures. Popular meetings were held, and associations were formed
in several provinces, pledging their members against purchasing or
wearing clothing of English manufacture, and to set about manufacturing
woollens, cottons, etc., for themselves, the materials for which they
had in great abundance of their own production. Ladies and gentlemen of
the wealthiest and most fashionable classes of society appeared in
homespun; and merchants pledged themselves to order no more goods from
England, and to countermand the orders they had previously given.[264]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 256: History of the United States, Vol. V., Chap. v., p. 78.

"The Spaniards having taken part in the war, were, at the termination of
it, induced to relinquish to the same Power both East and West Florida
(in exchange for Cuba). This peace gave Great Britain possession of an
extent of country equal in dimensions to several of the kingdoms of
Europe." (Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. iii., p. 391.)]

[Footnote 257: Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. V., Chap.
v., pp. 321, 322.]

[Footnote 258: "From the first settlement of English America till the
close of the war of 1755, the general conduct of Great Britain towards
her colonies affords a useful lesson to those who are disposed to
colonization. From that era, it is equally worthy of the attention of
those who wish for the reduction of great empires to small ones. In the
first period, Great Britain regarded the provinces as instruments of
commerce. Without the care of their internal police, or seeking a
revenue from them, she contented herself with the monopoly of their
tr