all the West Indies,--that subterranean channel
by which the silks and teas from Vera Cruz, and Peruvian gold from
Puerto Bello, found their way into England,--which alone "preserve the
balance of trade in our favour."

If, as sometimes happened, powerful Parliamentary interests complained
of conditions in the colonies, the Government was ready to comply with
their demands. During the Walpole regime, the private smuggler in
Spanish commerce, whether Englishman or New Englander, was suppressed in
order that the South Sea Company might enjoy a monopoly of that
profitable business. When Jamaica planters, unable to sell their sugar
in Europe or Massachusetts in competition with the French islands,
clamored for relief, the famous Molasses Act of 1733 was passed, laying
prohibitive duties upon the importation of sugar, molasses, and rum into
the continental colonies. And in 1750, at the behest of the woolen and
iron interests, rapidly growing industries in New England and
Pennsylvania were restricted in order that the English landowner and
English woolen and iron manufacturers might find in America the markets
which they were losing in Europe. But in general neither the landed nor
the industrial interests pressed the Government to meddle with the
plantations; and when no one complained, ministers of the temper of
Walpole or Newcastle were not disposed to concern themselves with the
reform of the colonial system, or to inquire too curiously into the
honesty or the efficiency with which it was administered. According to
their philosophy, it mattered little whether the Governor of Virginia
was an able man, or whether he resided in London or Jamestown; what
mattered was that Newcastle should succeed, by a judicious distribution
of offices, in maintaining a Parliamentary majority for the party which
guarded the liberties of England. It mattered little whether the
admiralty courts fell under the control of the merchants and landowners
who dominated colonial assemblies; what mattered was that the colonial
merchant and landowner should be prosperous and maintain a safe credit
balance with English merchants. And therefore let the governors be
punctiliously instructed to perform their duties strictly; but let
those be recalled who irritated the best people in the colonies by too
officiously endeavoring to carry out their instructions. So long as the
colonial planter was content and the Tory squire could not complain of
high taxes or l