ccurred in the court-room. In each
case the representatives of the crown had the letter of the law on their
side, but the principles of the only sound public policy, by which a
Revolution could be avoided, were those that were defended by the
advocates of the people. At each successive move on the part of the
British government which looked like an encroachment upon the rights of
Americans, the sympathy between these two leading colonies now grew
stronger and stronger.

It was in 1763 that George Grenville became prime minister, a man of
whom Macaulay says that he knew of "no national interests except those
which are expressed by pounds, shillings, and pence." Grenville
proceeded to introduce into Parliament two measures which had
consequences of which, he little dreamed. The first of these measures
was the Molasses Act, the second was the Stamp Act.

[Sidenote: The Molasses Act.]

Properly speaking, the Molasses Act was an old law which Grenville now
made up his mind to revive and enforce. The commercial wealth of the New
England colonies depended largely upon their trade with the fish which
their fishermen caught along the coast and as far out as the banks of
Newfoundland. The finest fish could be sold in Europe, but the poorer
sort found their chief market in the French West Indies. The French
government, in order to ensure a market for the molasses raised in these
islands, would not allow the planters to give anything else in exchange
for fish. Great quantities of molasses were therefore carried to New
England, and what was not needed there for domestic use was distilled
into rum, part of which was consumed at home, and the rest carried
chiefly to Africa wherewith to buy slaves to be sold to the southern
colonies. All this trade required many ships, and thus kept up a lively
demand for New England lumber, besides finding employment for thousands
of sailors and shipwrights. Now in 1733 the British government took it
into its head to "protect" its sugar planters in the English West Indies
by compelling the New England merchants to buy all their molasses from
them; and with this end in view it forthwith laid upon all sugar and
molasses imported into North America from the French islands a duty so
heavy that, if it had been enforced, it would have stopped all such
importation. It is very doubtful if this measure would have attained the
end which the British government had in view. Probably it would not have
made