] minister, "friend
of the colonies," and idol of the cities, had lost control of the
ministry. England, too, felt the burdensome expense of war, and the
public debt had mounted to what was then the enormous sum of
L140,000,000. George III, therefore, chose for prime minister (1763-
1765) George Grenville, a representative of a faction of Whig
aristocrats, who, alarmed by the growth of the public debt, and jealous
of Pitt's power, were quite willing to favor the king's colonial
policies. Great Britain, they argued, had undergone a costly war to
defend the colonists on the Atlantic coast from French aggression. The
colonies were obviously too weak and too divided to garrison and police
the great Mississippi and St. Lawrence valleys; and yet, in order to
prevent renewed danger from French, Spaniards, or Indians, at least ten
thousand regular soldiers would be needed at an annual expense of
L300,000. What could be more natural than that the colonists, to whose
benefit the war had redounded, and to whose safety the army would add,
should pay at least a part of the expense? This idea, put forward by
certain Whig statesmen, that the colonists should bear part of the
financial burden of imperial defense, was eagerly seized upon by George
III and utilized as the cornerstone of his colonial policy.
Pages:
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710