The session of 1766 was one of the longest, most momentous, and stirring within living memory. It had begun, as we have said, with sharp distress at home, and that distress had been aggravated by the disturbances in America; for the colonists, incensed by the Stamp Act, refused to pay for English goods (to the value of several millions) with which their shops and warehouses were stocked. No wonder, then, that in all parts of the realm traders and manufacturers did their best to persuade the Rockingham ministry to adopt conciliatory measures. Parliament was besieged by petitions from the merchants of London, Bristol, Lancaster, Liverpool, Hull, Glasgow, and most of the trading and manufacturing towns in the kingdom, setting forth the great damage done to their trade by the new laws and regulations made for America. They pointed out that the Stamp Act and other harassing legislation had not only sown a crop of discontent in the colonies, but had already produced many bankruptcies at home and were rapidly leading to widespread distress. A contemporary writer of great power tells us that no matter of debate was ever more ably or learnedly handled in both Houses than the colonial policy which Lord Rockingham and his colleagues laid before Parliament. Those who denied the right of taxing the colonies cited Locke and Selden, Harrington and Puffendorf, to show that the very foundation and ultimate point in view of all government is the good of the society. They inferred from the Magna Charta and Bill of Rights, and from the whole history of our constitution, that no British subject can be taxed save by himself or his own representative; and they further quoted in support of their argument the constitutions of the Tyrian colonies in Africa, and of the Greek colonies in Asia. On this last head the supporters of the Stamp Act (Charles Townshend’s fatal measure) observed, sensibly enough, that arguments about the British colonies drawn from the colonies of antiquity were a mere useless display of learning, for the Tyrian and Greek colonies were planned on a totally different system. Besides, they said, the Romans were the first to form a regular colonial system, and Rome’s jurisdiction over her colonies was “boundless and uncontrollable.” As for Locke, Selden, and Puffendorf, they were only _natural_ lawyers, and their refinements were little to the purpose in arguing the law and practice of a particular constitution.