2; London, 1777.

"Four great wars within seventy years had overwhelmed Great Britain with
heavy debts and excessive taxation. Her recent conquests, so far from
relieving her embarrassments, had greatly increased that debt, which
amounted now to L140,000,000, near $700,000,000. Even in the midst of
the struggle, in the success of which they had so direct an interest,
the military contributions of the colonial assemblies had been sometimes
reluctant and capricious, and always irregular and unequal. They might,
perhaps, refuse to contribute at all towards a standing army in time of
peace, of which they would naturally soon become jealous. It seemed
necessary, therefore, by some exertion of metropolitan authority, to
extract from the colonies for this purpose a regular and certain
revenue." (Hildreth's History of the United States, Vol. II. Chap.
xxviii., p. 516.)

This was avowed by the great commoner, Pitt himself, the special friend
of America. "In the course of the war between France and England, some
of the colonies made exertions so far beyond their equitable quota as to
merit a reimbursement from the national treasury; but this was not
universally the case. In consequence of internal discord, together with
their greater domestic security, the necessary supplies had not been
raised in due time by others of the provincial assemblies. That a
British Minister should depend on the colonial assemblies for the
execution of his plans, did not well accord with the decisive genius of
Pitt; but it was not prudent, by any innovation, to irritate the
colonies during a war in which, from local circumstances, their
exertions were peculiarly beneficial. The advantages that would result
from an ability to draw forth the resources of the colonies, by the same
authority which commanded the wealth of the mother country, might, in
these circumstances, have suggested the idea of taxing the colonies by
authority of the British Parliament. Mr. Pitt is said to have told Dr.
Franklin that 'when the war closed, if he should be in the Ministry, he
would take measures to prevent the colonies from having a power to
refuse or delay the supplies that might be wanted for national
purposes,' but he did not mention what those measures should be."
(Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. iii., pp. 320, 321.)]

[Footnote 263: In the work mentioned in last note, "Prior Documents,"
etc., extracts of letters are given, showing the effects of the acts