CHAPTER VII
THE STAMP ACT AND ITS REPEAL
The moral of the American despatches being two-fold, the weakness of the Executive and the need of a fixed American revenue, Grenville completely disregarded the first, which was by far the more pressing of the two, and embarked with a light heart on the course, which was to end with the coming into being of a new great world State.
Before, however, entering upon this melancholy chapter of English history, we may note some other suggested solutions of the American difficulty. William Knox, who had been in America and had acted as agent for Georgia, and who, afterwards became Under Secretary of State, was convincçd that the evil arose largely from the want of balance in the American Constitution, afforded in England by the House of Lords. He desired therefore—and Governor Bernard seems to have shared the wish—the creation of an American aristocracy ; but in fact, aristocracies, like the college lawns admired by the American tourist, cannot be brought into sudden life. An aristocracy in name only is the weakest of social bulwarks, and any such attempt in America would have been almost certainly foredoomed to failure. A more dangerous suggestion must be noted. It was thought that the wings of the more unruly Colonies might be clipped by the setting up of a uniform government over the different Provinces. Any attempt to thrust, from outside, a hard and fast Constitution on all the Colonies, any scheme, which did not allow for their differences in history and character, would have aroused at least as much opposition, and been fraught with as serious consequences, as was the attempt directly to tax them. A more serious proposal deserves detailed notice. A variety of writers, from a variety of reasons, ranging from the strict Grenvillite Knox, to the liberal Pownall, and including the
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Policy of G. Grenville.