The interesting and important events of this war must be merely alluded to; the result was victory for the English, the treaty of peace being signed in Paris, February 10th, 1763. By its terms, Canada, Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton were to belong to England; France relinquished all claim to the territory east of the Mississippi, and was confirmed in her title to the country west; Spain ceded to Great Britain Florida and all its title to country east of the Mississippi River. The most important result of the war was felt in the colonies, rather than in England. It educated a nation of soldiers; it taught the Americans how strong they really were, and how little they need depend on Great Britain for defense. The hard feeling engendered by the superiority assumed by the English officers and the enforced subordination of the Americans was the beginning of a breach which was destined never to be healed. A vast amount of debt is always a result of war. The colonies had lost above thirty thousand men, and their debt amounted to nearly four million pounds. Massachusetts alone had been reimbursed by Parliament. England herself was smothered in debts--she had been through four wars in seventy years--and her indebtedness reached the appalling sum of one hundred and forty million pounds. The scheme of colonial taxation to provide a certain and a regular revenue began to be agitated. But the colonies already had a heavy burden of taxation. They were in no mood to receive patiently any further encroachments on their civil rights. Many of the old laws of restriction on commerce--the duties on sugar and molasses, for example--had long been openly evaded. Until the accession of George III the authorities made no resistance to this opposition, but in 1761, when the third George came to the throne--that “very obstinate young man,” as Charles Townshend described him--determined to enforce the law, and “writs of assistance”--that is, search warrants--were issued, by which custom-house officers were empowered to search for goods which had avoided the payment of duty. The people of Boston resented these measures vigorously, and in spite of official vigilance smuggling increased, while the colonial trade with the West Indies was well-nigh destroyed. In 1764 the sugar duties were reduced, but new duties were imposed on articles hitherto imported free. At the same time Lord Grenville proposed the stamp tax. All pamphlets, newspapers, almanacs, all bonds, leases, notes, insurance policies--in a word, all papers used for legal purposes--in order to be valid, were to be drawn up on stamped paper, purchasable only from King’s officers appointed for the purpose. The plan met with the entire approval of the British Parliament, but its enactment was deferred until the next year, in order that the colonies might have an opportunity to express their feelings on the subject.