istered policy. The English Government would
doubtless have been content to leave the management of defense in the
hands of the colonists had they shown a disposition to undertake it in a
systematic manner. After the Albany Plan was rejected by the assemblies,
the Board of Trade recommended a scheme by which commissioners,
appointed in each colony by the assembly and approved by the governor,
should determine the military establishment necessary in time of peace,
and apportion the expense for maintaining it among the several provinces
on the basis of wealth and population. Shirley and Franklin were
heartily in favor of such a plan. But there is no reason to think that a
single assembly could have been got to agree to it, or to any measure of
a like nature. "Everybody cries, a union is absolutely necessary," said
Franklin in amused disgust, "but when it comes to the manner and form of
the union, their weak noddles are perfectly distracted." The colonies
being thus unwilling to cooeperate in the management of their own
defense, the Board of Trade could see no alternative but an
"interposition of the authority of Parliament." This alternative the
Government therefore adopted; and the permanent establishment of British
troops in America to overawe the Indians and maintain the conquest of
Canada, already proposed by Townshend, was now determined upon by
Grenville. It was the opinion of Grenville, as well as of most men in
England and of many in America, that the colonies might rightly be
expected to contribute something to the support of such troops. The
Mutiny Act, requiring the assemblies to furnish certain utensils and
provisions to soldiers in barracks, was now first extended to the
colonies; and for raising in America a portion of the general
maintenance fund, the ministry, with some reluctance on the part of
Grenville, proposed a stamp tax as the most equitable and the easiest to
be levied and collected. "I am, however, not set upon this tax," said
Grenville. "If the Americans dislike it, and prefer any other method of
raising the money themselves, I shall be content." It was soon apparent
that the Americans did dislike it; and in February, 1765, Franklin,
speaking for the colonial agents then in England, urged that the money
be raised in "the old constitutional way," by requisitions upon the
several assemblies. "Can you agree on the proportions each colony should
raise?" inquired the minister. Franklin admitted that it