e imposition of taxes, was not likely to be very attentive to
the cries of oppressed liberty.

The partition is not one of those equivocal acts which seem to vibrate
between right and wrong, justice and injustice, and demand the most
accurate analysis to ascertain on which side they preponderate. Argument
is thrown away on such a subject; for to doubt about the nature of a
plain decisive act like this must necessarily proceed from something
even worse than uncertainty and scepticism concerning the simple
fundamental principles of moral action. A little reflection, however,
will not be lost on so memorable a portion of history, which opens a
wider field for instruction than the "thousand homilies" on the ambition
and glory and other commonplaces of Greek and Roman history.

Such great political crimes reveal a corresponding system of motives of
as black a hue, and even the narrowest experience teaches us that
motives are never so well traced as in their results. The corrupt
principle which prompts injustice and deceit in foreign transactions
would operate equally in domestic affairs; and the minister who uses
hypocrisy and falsehood in manifestoes and treaties would not scruple to
do the same in matters of private life. An implicit confidence in
enemies like these was one of the amiable "crimes" for which "Sarmatia
fell unwept."

THE BOSTON TEA-PARTY

A.D. 1773

GEORGE BANCROFT

One of the most famous demonstrations of the purpose of the American
colonies to resist what they regarded as the unjust taxation laid upon
them by Great Britain was this unique occurrence in Boston harbor.
Everywhere in the colonies the people had begun to go without articles
that were subject to taxes. They ceased to import goods for clothing,
and wore homespun. It was not easy to find a substitute for tea, but
various plants and leaves were used instead of it, and "store tea"
became a popular designation of real tea as distinguished from domestic
herbs. At last the English Government abandoned all taxes except that
laid on tea; this the Government insisted upon laying as strictly as
ever. Ships with cargoes of tea were sent with the expectation that the
colonists would pay the tax. What followed upon the arrival of the
tea-ships at Boston and Charlestown, and gave to American history the
"Boston Tea-party," is fully told in Bancroft's pages.

On Sunday, November 28th, the ship Dartmouth appeared in Boston harbor
with one hundr