a part of the struggle between popular and autocratic principles of
government in England.


23. NEW SCHEMES OF COLONIAL CONTROL (1763).


[Sidenote: Grenville's colonial policy.]

Allusion has already been made (sec. 19) to vague schemes of colonial
control suggested during the war. More serious measures were impending.
When George Grenville became the head of the cabinet, in April, 1763, he
took up and elaborated three distinctly new lines of policy, which grew
to be the direct causes of the American Revolution. The first was the
rigid execution of the Acts of Trade; the second was the taxation of the
colonies for the partial support of British garrisons; the third was the
permanent establishment of British troops in America. What was the purpose
of each of these groups of measures?

[Sidenote: Navigation acts.]
[Sidenote: Effect of the system.]

The object of the first series was simply to secure obedience to the
Navigation Acts (Colonies, Section 44, 128),--laws long on the statute
book, and admitted by most Americans to be legal. The Acts were intended
simply to secure to the mother-country the trade of the colonies; they
were in accordance with the practice of other nations; they were far
milder than the similar systems of France and Spain, because they gave to
colonial vessels and to colonial merchants the same privileges as those
enjoyed by English ship-owners and traders. The Acts dated from 1645, but