In 1774, the number of Hebrew brokers was limited to twelve; and the privilege was always purchased by a liberal gratuity to the Lord Mayor. During this year, the mayoralty of Wilks, one of the privileged being at the point of death, Wilks, with characteristic boldness, openly calculated on the advantage to be attained, and was very particular in his inquiries after the sick man. The rumor, that Wilks had openly expressed a wish for the death of the Hebrew, was spread by the wags of ’Change Alley, and the son of the broker sought his Lordship to reproach him with his cupidity. “My dear fellow,” replied Wilks, with the readiness peculiar to him, “you are greatly in error. I would sooner have seen all the Jew brokers dead than your father.” “It is the nature of colonies, as of children, at a certain period in their history, to cease to be dependent upon their parents. By judicious counsel and control they may be retained, but they must eventually separate; and, with the one as with the other, the future influence of the parent depends upon that parent’s behaviour during the nonage of the child.” Such was the opinion of William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham; and it is to be lamented that the behaviour of England to her American children was not likely to be remembered with kindness, when the tie was violently broken. The story of that disastrous war, when men of the same ancestry and the same habits were arrayed in hostility, when they who spake the same tongue spake it only in unkindness, is pitiable and humiliating. From the time when the inhabitants of Boston refused to be taxed, to the signing of the treaty with the young republic on terms of equality, the measures adopted were as severe as they were injudicious; and to the obstinacy of George III. may be traced the cause and the continuation of the contest, and the increase of the national debt. The first blow was struck at Boston. On the evening of December 16th, 1773, a number of citizens, disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded the vessels containing the tea which they would not allow to be taxed, and discharged it into the water, while other cargoes were not only refused a landing, but were sent back with contempt.