THIRD PERIOD.

The Revolution.

CHAPTER XV.

Causes of the Revolution--The Act of Navigation--Acts of Trade--Odious
Customs Laws--English Jealousy of New England--Effect of Restrictions on
Colonial Trade--Du Chatelet Foresees Rebellion and Independence--The
Revolution a Struggle for More Than Political Freedom.

It was not for the sake of the colonists that England had assisted them
in driving the French from America, but with the wholly selfish aim of
building up the trade and commerce of Great Britain. European nations
looked upon their American colonies simply as resources from which the
mother country might become enriched, and in this respect the policy of
England was not different from that of Spain, described in the beginning
of this volume. As early as 1625 an English author (Hagthorne) wrote that
even in time of peace it was the purpose and aim of England to undermine
and beat the Dutch and Spaniards out of their trades, "which may not
improperly be called a war, for the deprivation and cutting off the
trades of a kingdom may be to some prince more loss if his revenues
depend thereon than the killing of his armies." The wars against Holland,
which resulted in the subjection to the British crown of the colonial
possessions of that industrious people, and which compelled the fleets of
the United Provinces to acknowledge British supremacy on the high seas,
were in the line of commercial aggrandizement, and the Navigation Act
transferred to England a large share of the Dutch carrying trade, and
enriched English shipowners with an utterly selfish indifference to the
welfare of English colonies.

When the colonists, their western bounds no longer threatened by
civilized foes, their plantations flourishing and their seaport towns
wealthy with the profits of a commerce carried on in contempt of imperial
restrictions, began to feel and to assert that they were entitled to all
the rights of freeborn Englishmen, and to the same commercial and
industrial independence enjoyed by loyal subjects in England, they were
surprised to learn that Parliament and the English people regarded them
not as freemen, but as tributaries. The colonists were themselves loyal,
even up to the hour when they were compelled by stubborn tyranny to
assert the right of revolution, for, to quote the language of John Adams,
"it is true there always existed in the colonies a desire of independence
of Parliament in the articles of int