ng of the Peace of Paris
on February 10, 1763, came to Virginia, the Virginia regiment was
disbanded.

May 28, 1763. The defeat of the French in America introduced new
stresses and strains in the British Empire. Differences between the
colonies and Mother Country began to appear immediately and with
increasing frequency and intensity. The Bland Report of 1763 made to the
House of Burgesses revealed one point of conflict between the two.
Virginia had in part financed her contribution to the recent war by
issuing paper money backed by taxation. The British merchants, creditors
of the colonial planters, feared inflation and were bitterly attacking
the policy of printing paper money in the colonies. Defending Virginia's
actions, the Bland Report presented the American argument for paper
money. The British merchants carried the day to their own hurt by
securing an Act of Parliament in 1764 forbidding the future issue of
paper currency in the colonies.

October 7, 1763. Another cause for colonial resentment at war's
end was the King's proclamation closing the trans-Allegheny west to
settlement.

December, 1763. One consequence of the Parsons' Causes was the
sudden emergence of young Patrick Henry on the political scene. When the
court of Hanover county decided in favor of Reverend James Maury, the
defendants called on Henry to plead their cause before the jury which was
to fix the amount of damages. By appealing to the anti-clerical and even
lawless instincts of the jury and by doing it with unmatched oratorical
skill, Patrick Henry won the jury to his side and made himself a popular
hero in upcountry Virginia.

October 30, 1764. Many Burgesses arrived early for the October
December session of the General Assembly "in a flame" over the Act of
Parliament proposing a Stamp tax on the American colonists. The committee
of correspondence had been busy during the summer communicating with the
agent in London, and the Burgesses were ready to take action against the
proposed tax.

December 17, 1764. The House of Burgesses and the Council agreed
upon an address to the Crown and upon memorials to the House of Commons
and to the House of Lords. The three petitions stressed the sufferings
such a tax would cause war-weary Virginians and also opposed the levy on
constitutional grounds. They argued that the colonial charters and long
usage gave the Virginia House of Burgesses the sole right to tax
Virginians and that the fundamental