"to bind the colonies," as their resolve expressed it, "in
all cases whatsoever." The Americans, on the other hand, were more and
more determined to resist such a claim. Parliament adopted measures more
and more stringent every day, to compel the colonies to submit. They
passed coercive laws; they devised ingenious modes of levying taxes; they
sent out troops, and in every possible way strengthened the military
position of the government in America. The colonists, on the other hand,
began to evince the most determined spirit of hostility to the measures of
the mother country. They held great public assemblages; they passed
violent resolves; they began to form extensive and formidable combinations
for resisting or evading the laws. Thus every thing portended an
approaching conflict.

Franklin exerted all his power and influence for a long time in attempting
to heal the breach. He wrote pamphlets and articles in the newspapers in
England defending, though in a tone of great candor and moderation, the
rights of America, and urging the ministry and people of England not to
persist in their attempts at coercion. At the same time he wrote letters
to America, endeavoring to diminish the violence of the agitation there,
in hopes that by keeping back the tide of excitement and passion which was
so rapidly rising, some mode of adjustment might be found to terminate the
difficulty. All these efforts were, however, in vain. The quarrel grew
wider and more hopeless every day.

About this time the administration of the colonial affairs for the English
government was committed to a new officer, Lord Hillsborough, who was now
made Secretary of State for America; and immediately new negotiations were
entered into, and new schemes formed, for settling the dispute. Two or
three years thus passed away, but nothing was done. At length Lord
Hillsborough seems to have conceived the idea of winning over Franklin's
influence to the side of the English government by compliments and
flattering attentions. He met him one morning in Dublin, at the house of
the Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, where he paid him special civilities, and
invited him in the most cordial manner to visit him at his country mansion
at Hillsborough, in the north of England. Franklin was then contemplating
a journey northward, and in the course of this journey he stopped at
Hillsborough. He and his party were received with the greatest attention
by his lordship, and detained fou