28 AhIERICAN REVOLUTION.

moderate, but not less regardless of their privileges. Many of them, it is true, particularly the descendants of the felons sent from England, were men of a licentious, audacious spirit, which was not to be awed by the deference due to civil authority; but a great number also, especially in Virginia and Maryland, were men of respectable rank and character, hitherto of a loyal turn, and warmly attached to the mother country.

In fact, the colonies were chiefly peopled with spirited, intelligent, and enterprising individuals, of all denominations, who, at the peace of 1763, were flushed with uncommon prosperity in their commer- cial pursuits, and by the brilliancy of their military transactions.* Their disposition prepared them for great undertakings; and it was difficult to limit their hopes and expectations. It must, at the same time, be remembered, that they used all the means that ingenuity, guided by interest, could suggest, in their remonstrances to the ruling powers, and in their peti- tions to the king and Parliament, before they assumed the language of defiance, or set up the standard of revolt.

But ministers disregarded their representations, and treated their petitions with disdain ; and a recon:- ciliation was only at last seriously attempted, when the colonists had gained such extraordinary advan- tages as ensured their independence.

The debates in both Houses of Parliament on the

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*Note D. . ,4"