port of Monte Cristi. This town was in Santo Domingo, just over the border from Haiti, and although its political connections were all Spanish, its economic and commercial connections were entirely French. All the exports from Monte Cristi were French, all the imports destined for the French. Down to 1761, Monte Cristi imported, from British North America, grain, meat, fish, horses, lumber, British manufactured goods, and even war supplies. On one day, February 5, 1759, there were twenty-eight vessels in Monte Cristi harbor: seven from New York, eight from Rhode Island, eight from Massachusetts, four from Connecticut, and one from Virginia. During one week in 1760, an average of fifty vessels a day put in to that port, almost all of which came from the British North American colonies. Occasionally there were as many as a hundred vessels, all from the same ports, in the harbor in one day. Merchants from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island were the most active in that highly profitable branch of commerce.

The results of the trade were clearly evident. The regular sale of provisions, in large quantities, drained the colonies so that the English armies operating there had to be supplied in part from England, so adding considerably to the difficulty and the expense of prosecuting the war. Provisions were actually more plentiful in the French West Indies than in the English islands.

With this help secured from the American merchants, the French could keep their privateers well supplied, and they were a constant menace to English commerce. Not only were the French West Indies enabled to hold out, but according to no less an authority than Pitt himself, the war lasted three years longer than necessary, primarily because American merchants frustrated the work of the British navy.

Some of the colonies were therefore in the anomalous position of fighting the French with one hand in Canada, and feeding them with the other in the West Indies. All this was borne in upon the minds of the British officials with an intense and painful realization of its meaning. It was clear that in a war which, if successful, would benefit the colonies far more than it would England, the Americans were not only indifferent in the matter of furnishing help, but actually a serious source of danger because of their commercial interests. The fundamental weakness of the British system, as demonstrated by the Seven Years' War, was the lack not so much of an adequate

means of defense, but of any spirit of loyalty to the empire. The Cabinet could not possibly refrain from making an effort to obviate the danger for the future.

WRITS OF ASSISTANCE

Even during the war itself, the British authorities tried to put a stop to intercourse with the French, and by so doing they furnished the occasion for an interesting contest between local and imperial officials, a contest that is generally described as one of the preliminary steps of the Revolution. In addition to using the navy in an effort to break up the illegal trade with the French, Pitt suggested the enforcement of the Molasses Act of 1733, long a dead letter. This levied a prohibitory duty on foreign molasses, and the collection of the tax was certain to be opposed by the American merchants. Acting under orders from the Customs Board in England, the American Customs officers began to enforce the law, with a certain amount of success, as the treasury records show. In their search for smuggled goods, they resorted to the use of so-called "Writs of Assistance," more properly general search warrants. The ordinary warrant was worthless, because it had to specify both the place to be searched, and the goods supposed to be there. By the time the officials succeeded in getting in, the place would be empty. With a Writ of Assistance, they could go anywhere. Modern lawyers agree that the use of these writs was legal. In 1759 and 1760, the Boston merchants tried to have the Superior Court of Massachusetts declare them illegal. Their real objection was that they were too effective. Two Boston lawyers, Oxenbridge Thacher and James Otis, argued the case for the merchants. Otis made a vivid appeal to the emotions of his hearers, but in spite of that he lost his case, and the Writs of Assistance were used down to the Revolution. However, even though Otis failed in this appeal, he made such a reputation for himself that he was chosen as one of the four representatives of Boston in the General Court.

This dispute between the Customs officers and the merchants lasted throughout the war, and various schemes were used to undermine the service. Frequently merchants who were convicted in the Admiralty courts of smuggling would bring damage suits against the Customs officials in the common-law courts, and the local juries would regularly bring in verdicts for the merchants.

Contests of this sort showed how the colonists felt about any British attempts to tighten up the loose joints of the imperial system. In commercial matters at least the Americans preferred to do as they pleased, regardless of the interests of the empire as a whole, and any general revision would lead to trouble.

THE WEST

Important as these matters of colonial government and colonial commerce were in their influence upon the course of the war and subsequent British policy, they were really less difficult as problems in administration and statesmanship than was the great question of the West. While the elimination of the French settled one difficulty, it raised a whole series of new ones, or perhaps one all-inclusive large one: that of imperial organization. The issues involved in this were complex enough and important enough to tax the abilities of men considerably more brilliant than those who were then in charge of British destinies.

Once the Treaty of Paris was definitely signed, the Cabinet turned its attention to the new imperial issues. In part the question was constitutional; some sort of government had to be worked out for Canada, with its eight thousand French population, and for East and West Florida with their Spanish population. If that had been all, no serious difficulties need have arisen.

Along with these matters of government was the question of the West, the whole block of territory south of Canada, north of Florida, between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi. Several of the older colonies had overlapping claims in this region, especially in that part of it north of the Ohio River. The Virginians were there, actually at work before 1755, and in 1763 they proceeded to pick up the threads of their interests which the war had compelled them to drop. First of all the Virginia troops to whom Governor Dinwiddie had promised land grants in the Ohio valley united to promote their claims, and in this work they had all the energetic support which George Washington was capable of giving. Under his leadership they sent a petition to the king, which the Board of Trade began to consider in March, 1763. The Ohio Company then sent a special agent to London, to follow up their grant. Next, in June, 1763, the Mississippi Company was founded. This included promoters from Virginia and Maryland, prominent among whom were George Washington, the Virginia Lees,

Fitzhughs, and others. This new concern sought to obtain from the Crown a grant of two million five hundred thousand acres on the Mississippi river, of which each one of the adventurers was to get fifty thousand acres for himself. In September, 1763, this company sent a memorial to the king.

These lively efforts of the Virginians and others to begin the exploitation of the coveted region were observed with considerable concern in England. Official opinion, and that part of public opinion which was at all interested, was divided. One group, including the influential Hudson Bay Company, advocated a policy somewhat like that of the French, that is, development of the fur-trade. To this end they opposed settlements beyond the Alleghenies. Another group urged the promotion of populous colonies, to serve as markets for British manufactures. But, while this second group was interested in developing the new regions, the Englishmen in it were opposed to letting the Americans get all the profit from land sales. If exploitation was to take place, let it be under the auspices of the whole empire, rather than of one or two especially favored colonies. The imperial government was the proper organization to promote new plantations.

PONTIAC'S CONSPIRACY

Unfortunately, these important questions could not be considered solely on their own merits. In England there were political entanglements which stood in the way of an impartial solution, while in America the whole question of policy was bound up with the puzzling Indian problem. The Indians realized that English control of the Ohio valley would mean something very different from the easy French fur-trading system. It was the custom of the English to stay, to cut up the country into farms, and to drive out the game, the furbearing animals, and the Indians too. Beside this fundamental source of friction, there was the attitude of the British traders. They were not unwilling to fleece the Indians, and of course that made for anything but cordiality. Then, incidentally, the French were constantly encouraging the Indians in their hostile attitude, by reports that the English could not hope to hold the land more than a short time, and that the restoration of French control would speedily come about.

It might have been good sense for the English to make at least a

show of conciliating the natives, but instead of doing that, the military men in charge adopted the opposite policy. General Amherst had no faith in any scheme of paying the Indians to remain quiet, so he proceeded to cut off the presents which they had been receiving. At the same time he prevented them from getting supplies of powder and lead, and he tried to make it impossible for them to get any rum. Ordinarily a humane and respectable gentleman, Amherst seems to have lost his perspective in dealing with the Indians. As one possible way of getting rid of the whole question, he expressed approval of a plan to supply them with blankets which had been used by small pox patients. Such policies as these of Amherst's were certainly responsible, at least in part, for the cordial hatred of the Indians for their new guardians.

In the presence of this situation, the Indians became thoroughly discontented, and it took comparatively little to stir them up to the pitch of war. The final impetus was given by the chief Pontiac, who possessed the traits of a revolutionary organizer. On May 7, 1763, the Indians started the uprising known as Pontiac's Conspiracy. They had planned a surprise attack on Detroit, but this failed, because the English got warning in time. But once on the war path, the Indians captured and massacred all the other garrisons west of Niagara, and during the summer of 1763 the whole Northwest was in an uproar. It appeared for a time that neither the American colonists nor the English government would have in their hands the disposal of the region. But then, as always, superior resources began to tell, and in October Pontiac asked for terms. Peace was restored in the following spring.

This Indian war, which threatened to deprive the British Empire of some of its most valuable gains under the Peace of Paris, made necessary a definite, precise statement of the western and Indian policies of the British government. As the problem was reduced to its lowest terms, two issues were revealed as needing special attention. ✔The Indian affairs had to be organized, and here again there were serious differences of opinion in the way. Some members of the Cabinet advocated the creation of a strong, independent department for the management of all Indian affairs; others preferred to leave the whole question of Indian control to the military department; a third group suggested that the British government ignore the whole Indian question, and leave it entirely to the colonists.