ABSTRACT
The revdt of the American colonies discredited the old commercial policy of restriction; but it also upset the old policy of political freedom. The surviving continental colonies had never been accustomed to free government. The change in political policy is significantly indicated by the change in the method of administration. As long as commercial restrictions alone were enforced, and there was no interference with the internal affairs of the colonies, a board of trade and plantations was sufficient. So the new colonial to policy granted commercial concessions to the colonies, in order to create a class whose interests should be bound up in the maintenance of the political system. The commercial preference in the English market survived the system of political restraint; the burden survived the reason for it; and the reformers who had been most active in securing political freedom for the colonies became the Little Englanders at whom it is the fashion to lift up our reproach.
