Of General Oglethorpe, it may be added that he lived to reach his ninety-eighth year. It was said of him that he was the handsomest old man in London, and people often stopped on the streets to look at and admire him. He always had a warm regard for the American colonies. Indeed, it was this marked friendship for them which prevented his appointment as commander-in-chief of the British forces during the Revolution.
GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES.
It will thus be seen that, beginning with Virginia, in 1607, the American colonies had grown in a little more than a century and a quarter to thirteen. These were strung along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida, and in 1750 their population was about 1,260,000. This was vigorous growth. All the colonists, although born on this side of the Atlantic, considered themselves Englishmen, and were proud of their king, three thousand miles away across the ocean. With such loyal subjects, the English crown had the best opportunity in the world to become the most powerful of all the nations.
A COMFORTIER,
OR CHAFING-DISH.
(New York State Cabinet of
Natural History, Albany.)
But Great Britain was not free from misgiving over the rapid growth of her American colonies. Nothing looked more probable than that before many years they would unite in one government of their own and declare their independence of the British crown. Then was the time for the display of wise statesmanship, but unhappily for England and happily for the colonies, such wise statesmanship proved to be lacking on the other side of the water. The colonies displayed great industry. They grew tobacco, rice, indigo, and many other products which were eagerly welcomed by the British merchants, who exported their own manufactures in exchange for them. The inevitable result was that England and the American colonies increased their wealth by this means. Not only that, but the colonies voted ships, men, and money to help the mother country in the wars in which she was often involved.
As early as 1651, Parliament passed the first of the oppressive Navigation Acts, which forbade the colonies to trade with any other country than England, or to receive foreign ships into their ports. This act was so harsh and unjust that it was never generally enforced, until the attempt, more than a century later, when it became one of the leading causes of the American Revolution.
