Outline for the Study of Burke's Speech On Conciliation
I. Preparation
This work is usually found to be the most difficult book of the course in English; yet in the opinion of many the results of its study are most valuable. The fact that it is difficult leads the teacher to exercise great care in planning his work, especially in the matters that he presents to his class in preparation for the actual reading. The first difficulty lies in the fact that pupils are only vaguely acquainted with the conditions to which Burke constantly refers. The long story of the quarrel between the Colonies and the Mother Country is known to them in a superficial way. Any exhaustive study of the history of the time is out of the question; so, unless the class have been studying history recently enough to make a rapid review profitable, the best plan seems to be to assign definite topics for individual study and class report.
The following is a suitable list for this purpose:
The Navigation Acts—what they were, their purpose, and the ways in which they were violated.
Renewed attempt, after the Treaty of Paris, to regulate colonial commerce.
Grenville's New Act of Trade, Stamp Act, and Quartering Act.
The Stamp Act Congress in New York in 1765.
The Townshend Acts.
Opposition of the colonies led by Massachusetts, to Parliament's right to tax them.