Public opinion was in this excited state when the Stamp Act of the Grenville Administration received the Royal assent on the 22nd of March, 1765, and was to come into operation on the 1st November following. A distinction was instantly drawn in the colonies between that and the preceding measure. The language of the Act was severely criticised, but the real grievances were, that Great Britain, by this Act, indiscreetly interfered with the trade and shipping of the colonies, cut off one chief source of their prosperity, and sought by a Stamp Act to collect internal duties in the colonies under the authority of the Commissioners of Stamps at home. When the stamps arrived in New York, they were, with universal consent, committed to the flames by the people, excepting one small parcel which the magistrates secured, with the reservation that they should not be made use of. From that day the transaction of business between the two countries became impracticable. The rivers and wharfs were deserted; vessels lay in the harbours with their colours hoisted half-mast high; the courts of justice were closed; and instead of a thriving maritime population in the sea-ports, all was neglect and stagnation. A general agreement was entered into by the merchants not to import any more goods from Great Britain, nor to receive any goods on commission consigned from that country after the 1st January, 1766, and as Ireland was exempted from this ban, the seeds of discord were sown among all parties. The Americans even meditated the prohibition of the export of tobacco to Great Britain, but this step would have proved even more fatal to the planters of Virginia and Maryland than to those persons against whom it had been imposed. The resistance to the authority of the mother-country was universal in New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the two Carolinas. But the provinces at the northern and southern extremities of the continent submitted to the authority of the British Crown, as did also the West India Islands, excepting those of St. Christopher and Nevis.