in cases, and
from its decisions an appeal could be made to the king-in-council.
Justices of peace were also appointed in the counties and townships,
with jurisdiction over the collection of small debts.

We must now leave the province of Nova Scotia and follow the
revolutionary movement, which commenced, soon after the signing of the
Treaty of Paris, in the old British colonies on the Atlantic seaboard,
and ended in the acknowledgement of their independence in 1783, and in
the forced migration of a large body of loyal people who found their way
to the British provinces.

CHAPTER III.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS (1763--1784).

SECTION I.--The successful Revolution of the Thirteen Colonies in
America.

When Canada was formally ceded to Great Britain the Thirteen Colonies
were relieved from the menace of the presence of France in the valleys
of the St. Lawrence, the Ohio, and the Mississippi. Nowhere were there
more rejoicings on account of this auspicious event than in the homes of
the democratic Puritans. The names of Pitt and Wolfe were honoured above
all others of their countrymen, and no one in England, certainly not
among its statesmen, imagined that in the colonies, which stretched from
the river Penobscot to the peninsula of Florida, there was latent a
spirit of independence which might at any moment threaten the rule of
Great Britain on the American continent. The great expenses of the Seven
Years' War were now pressing heavily on the British taxpayer. British
statesmen were forced to consider how best they could make the colonies
themselves contribute towards their own protection in the future, and
relieve Great Britain in some measure from the serious burden which
their defence had heretofore imposed on her. In those days colonies were
considered as so many possessions to be used for the commercial
advantage of the parent state. Their commerce and industries had been
fettered for many years by acts of parliament which were intended to
give Great Britain a monopoly of their trade and at the same time
prevent them from manufacturing any article that they could buy from the
British factories. As a matter of fact, however, these restrictive
measures of imperial protection had been for a long time practically
dead-letters. The merchants and seamen of New England carried on
smuggling with the French and Spanish Indies with impunity, and
practically traded where they pleased.