ects of which will long
be felt by the whole human race. We speak of the act for imposing stamp
duties on the North American colonies. The plan was eminently
characteristic of its author. Every feature of the parent was found in
the child. A timid statesman would have shrunk from a step, of which
Walpole, at a time when the colonies were far less powerful, had said:
"He who shall propose it will be a much bolder man than I." But the
nature of Grenville was insensible to fear. A statesman of large views
would have felt that to lay taxes at Westminster on New England and New
York was a course opposed, not indeed to the letter of the Statute Book,
or to any decision contained in the Term Reports, but to the principles
of good government, and to the spirit of the constitution. A statesman
of large views would also have felt that ten times the estimated produce
of the American stamps would have been dearly purchased by even a
transient quarrel between the mother country and the colonies. But
Grenville knew of no spirit of the constitution distinct from the letter
of the law, and of no national interests except those which are
expressed by pounds, shillings, and pence. That his policy might give
birth to deep discontents in all the provinces, from the shore of the
Great Lakes to the Mexican sea; that France and Spain might seize the
opportunity of revenge; that the empire might be dismembered; that the
debt--that debt with the amount of which he perpetually reproached
Pitt--might, in consequence of his own policy, be doubled; these were
possibilities which never occurred to that small, sharp mind.

The Stamp Act will be remembered as long as the globe lasts. But, at the
time, it attracted much less notice in this country than another Act
which is now almost utterly forgotten. The King fell ill, and was
thought to be in a dangerous state. His complaint, we believe, was the
same which, at a later period, repeatedly incapacitated him for the
performance of his regal functions. The heir apparent was only two years
old. It was clearly proper to make provision for the administration of
the government, in case of a minority. The discussions on this point
brought the quarrel between the court and the ministry to a crisis. The
King wished to be entrusted with the power of naming a regent by will.
The ministers feared, or affected to fear, that, if this power were
conceded to him, he would name the Princess Mother, nay, possibly the
Ea