[Pamphlets. American history]

29
is possible, beyond a certain point, to retain a distant colonial dependency. The experiment is now making in
the English colonies on the broadest scale. The grievances which brought on the American revolution have
long since been redressed; all thought of colonial taxation, in aid of the revenues of the mother country, has
been abandoned; to the colonies, whose social condition
is supposed to be sufficiently mature, responsible governments have been granted, administered on the principle
of entire non-interference on the part of the crown, except in matters which affect the interest of the whole
empire; and within the past year, by the repeal of the
navigation act, the last pillar of the ancient system has
been thrown down and the commerce of the world opened on equal terms to the colonies. Whether these liberal concessions will be found to give permanence to what
remains of the colonial system, or whether the much that
has been yielded will create a necessity for the abandonment of the little that is retained, are mysteries of state
which this is not the time nor the place to attempt to
discuss.
The navigation act, which confined the commerce of
the colonies to the mother country, never effectually
executed, though always peremptorily asserted, was a
standing colonial grievance, and not the less severely
felt because the right of parliament to enforce it was
conceded. In the infancy of the colonies it was comparatively of little consequence, but, as they grew in
numbers and wealth, and in aptitude for commerce,
it was an unavowed source of abiding irritation. In