consequent on the separation. Great Britain as other countries affected by the English navigation laws, and thereby excluded them from the ports of the British Colonies, a result deeply prejudicial to the shipping interests of Boston, as their cheap ships could no longer trade with the West India Islands.[1] The high differential duties on rice, oil, and tobacco which had been enforced against them, regulations combined with the fishery, led to retaliatory measures being resorted to by the people of Massachussets; hence, after the 1st of August, 1785, the exportation of American produce and manufactures was altogether prohibited, and vessels owned by British subjects prohibited from entering the ports of that State. A proviso was indeed added to meet the case when the governor of any British settlement might be willing to rescind the proclamations against American vessels. In fact a new warfare of prohibitions and restrictions, with retaliatory and conciliatory measures to counteract or aid the contending parties as the case might be, was commenced by various States, the end of which was not foreseen upon either side the water. Unfortunately the States of the North of the Union had commercial interests antagonistic to those of the South, and hence arose a complex system which on all sides greatly increased the difficulties of the
- ↑ The story of the early life of Lord Nelson well illustrates the difficulties between the colonists, the Americans, and the English government. In 1784 Captain Nelson found himself, as commanding the Boreas frigate, the senior captain on the West India Station, under a general who hesitated about his duties, and was more than half inclined to support the enemies of England, and an admiral who candidly admitted he had not read the instructions from home under which he was bound to act. How Nelson solved the difficulty by simply enforcing the Acts of Parliament, and how Collingwood, in the Mediator, stood firmly by him, is well told by Southey in his 'Life of Lord Nelson,' pp. 54-60 (Bohn's ed.).
