and in Virginia the Anglican
clergy belonged to what was essentially an established church, and the
whole social fabric of the colony rested on an aristocratic basis. No
doubt before the outbreak of the revolution there was a decided feeling
against England on account of the restrictions on the sale of tobacco;
and the quarrel, which I have just referred to, with respect to the
stipends of the clergy, which were to be paid in this staple commodity
according to its market value at the time of payment, had spread
discontent among a large body of the people. But above all such causes
of dissatisfaction was the growing belief that the political freedom of
the people, and the very existence of the colony as a self-governing
community, were jeopardised by the indiscreet acts of the imperial
authorities after 1763. It is easy then to understand that the action of
the British government in 1767 renewed the agitation, which had been
allayed for the moment by the repeal of the stamp act and the general
belief that there would be no rigid enforcement of old regulations which
meant the ruin of the most profitable trade of New England. The measures
of the ministry were violently assailed in parliament by Burke and
other eminent men who availed themselves of so excellent an opportunity
of exciting the public mind against a government which was doing so much
to irritate the colonies and injure British trade. All the political
conditions were unfavourable to a satisfactory adjustment of the
colonial difficulty. Chatham had been one of the earnest opponents of
the stamp act, but he was now buried in retirement--labouring under some
mental trouble--and Charles Townshend, the chancellor of the exchequer
in the cabinet of which Chatham was the real head, was responsible for
measures which his chief would have repudiated as most impolitic and
inexpedient in the existing temper of the colonies.

The action of the ministry was for years at once weak and irritating.
One day they asserted the supremacy of the British parliament, and on
the next yielded to the violent opposition of the colonies and the
appeals of British merchants whose interests were at stake. Nothing
remained eventually but the tea duty, and even that was so arranged that
the colonists could buy their tea at a much cheaper rate than the
British consumer. But by this time a strong anti-British party was in
course of formation throughout the colonies. Samuel Adams of
Massachuset