ABSTRACT
In the time of the Stuarts, the manufacturing and trading interests, to a great extent, dictated Colonial policy; but there were special reasons why, under William, those interests should be regarded with favour. In the presence of the mutual jealousies of the American Colonies, greater statesmanship was needed to put such a scheme into practice than was at the service of the English Government. On looking back to the history of the long dispute between England and the Colonies, it will be recognised how greatly the long exercised patience of the Mother country had been rewarded. The claim asserted by the Colonies, and for the most part asserted with success, merely to vote annual grants to the Governor and other civil servants, involved far-reaching consequences. Meanwhile, the Board of Trade again and again protested. It is a strange irony which has fastened the epithet tyrannical on the conduct of England towards her Colonies.
