The leader-enterprise. [volume] (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1912-1915, 1913-04-25

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them leave always to originate their
own legislation and their own meas
ures of finance until self-government
had become with them thing as II
Of immemorial privilege.
A Shrewd Statesman.
Sir William Keith, sometime gov
ernor of Pennsylvania, had suggested
to Sir Robert Walpole that he should
raise revenue from the colonies
WHAT exclaimed that shrewd mas
ter of men. II have Old England set
against me, and do you think l Will
have New England liIewise?"
But men had come into authority in
England now who lacked this stout
sagacity, and every clement OF sound
discretion. English arms and English
money, they could say, had swept the
French power from America in order
that the colonies might no longer suf-
fer menace or rivalry. A great debt
had been piled up in the process.
Should not the colonies, who had
reaped the chief benefit, bear part Of
the cost?
They had themselves incurred bur-
densome debts, no doubt, in the strug-
gle, and their assemblies ~'ould very
likely profess themselves willing to
vote what they could should his majes-
ty call upon them and press them.
But an adequate and orderly system
Of taxation could not be wrought out
by the separate measures Of dozen
petty legislatures; 'twere best the
taxation should be direct and by par
lament whose authority, surely, no
man outside turbulent Boston would
be mad enough seriously to question
or resist.
To Assert q Mothers Power.
It would, in any event, be whole
some, now the colonies we're likely to
grow lusty as kingdoms in their
roomy continent, to assert mothers
power to use and restraint power
by no means lost because too long IN
exercised and neglected.
1t was with such wisdom the first
step was taken. In March, 1854, par
lament voted it lust and necessary
that revenue be raised in America, !"
passed an act meant to secure duties
on wines and sugars, and took meas
ures to increase the efficiency of the
revenue service in America.
George Granville was prime minis
ter. He lacked neither official capacity
nor acquaintance with affairs. He
thought it just the colonists should
pay their quota into the national
treasury, seeing they were so served
by the national power; and he de-
clared that in the next session Of par
lament he should propose certain d.
rect taxes in addition to the indirect
already in force.
He saw no sufficient reason, to
doubt that the colonies would &C
uuiesce. If not without protest, at
least without tumult or dangerous re-
sistance.
A Serious Blunder.
1t was a sad blunder. Virginia re-
scented threat and execution alike In
such a matter as deeply as did litigi-
Gus Massachusetts.
A long generation ago, in the quiet
year 1892, when bluff Sir Robert was
prime minister, there had been an in
cident which Governor Keith, maybe,
had forgotten. The ministry had de-
manded of Massachusetts that she
should establish a fixed salary for her
governors by a standing grant; but
she had refused, and the ministers
had receded.
The affair had not been lost upon
the other colonies. That sturdy one
time royal governor, Alexander Spots
wood, in Virginia, had noted it very
particularly, and spoken Of 1t very
bluntly, diligent servant of the crown
as he was, to Col, William Byrd, when
he came his way on his progress to
the mines" He declared that if tie
assembly in New England would stand
bluff, he did not see how they could be
forced to raise money against their
will, for if they should direct it to be
done by act of parliament, which they
have threatened to do Though it be
against the right of Englishmen to be
taxed but by their representatives,,
yet they would find it no easy matter
to put such an act in execution"
No observing man could so much as
travel in Virginia without finding very
promptly what it was that gave point
and poignancy to such an opinion.
A LeveI-Headed Parson.
That quiet gentleman, Rev. Andrew
Burnaby, vicar of Greenwich, was in
Virginia in 1859, and saw plainly
enough how matters stood. 1.-THE pub
lie or nolitica1 character of tina Vir-
Ito Be Continued.)