The Late Occurrences in North America

While William Knox, Charles Jenkinson, William Bollan and others wholly supported the principle of Parliamentary sovereignty, even while disagreeing about the propriety of the Stamp Act, others were more flexible on the issue. The anonymous author of The Late Occurences in North America, and Policy of Great Britain Considered hedged his support of parliamentary sovereignty, a principle perhaps too powerful to be denied completely, with various qualifications. Countering anti-colonial hostility triggered by the Stamp Act riots, the author urges that ‘The critical situation we are in demands deliberation and tenderness, and not rashness and violence’. He thus embarks on a long historical observation, focusing on the Revolt of the Netherlands, of how tyrannical policies destroyed Spain’s power. The Late Occurrences in North America concludes with the author’s idea of what empire ought to be about.