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the closest inspection. The numbering of the paragraphs is an innovation about which tastes will differ; it has convenience of reference in its favour, but on the other hand it may be thought to break the continuity of perusal, and mar the beauty of the page.

The organism of the speech has been displayed somewhat more clearly than hitherto, and in a manner which shows the applicability to the oration of rhetorical principles with which Burke must have been conversant, and which had been observed by one of his great models, Cicero. The mode adopted has been the insertion of subheadings in brackets, wherever an important member of the speech-Exordium, Proof, etc.-begins.

In conclusion, I desire to express, for the publishers and for myself, our sense of the courtesy with which permission has been accorded by various authors and publishers to use extracts from copyright works.

YALE UNIVERSITY, June, 1896.

A. S. C.

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INTRODUCTION

I.

CIRCUMSTANCES LEADING UP TO THE SPEECH

ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA.

HENRY MORLEY'S HISTORICAL SUMMARY.

Introduction to Morley's Universal Library, No. 38.

THERE had been indirect taxation since the days of our English Commonwealth, when the Navigation Act of 1651 required all colonial exports to England to be shipped only in American or English vessels. After the Restoration, a second Navigation Act, in 1660, ordered that most of the exports from the colonies should be shipped only to England or to an English colony, and in American or English vessels. In 1663 a third Navigation Act required that most of the imports into the colonies should be shipped only from England or an English colony, and in American or English vessels. In 1672 there were added duties upon certain enumerated articles, in passing from one colony to another. This involved the establishment of royal custom-houses and revenue officers in service of the Crown. In Massachusetts these changes were opposed; the General Court of the colony resolved "that the Acts of Navigation are an invasion of the rights and privileges of the subjects of his Majesty in this colony, they not being represented in the Parliament." In 1680 a notice of the appointment of a collector of the royal customs for New England was torn down at Boston by order of the colonial magistrates. The opposition was not effectual, and the number of revenue officers increased.

In 1696 a Board of Trade was established, consisting of a President and seven members, entitled the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations. Among other duties this

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