Old Virginia and her neighbours

!382 OLD VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBOURS.would have lodged the power oftaxation, for continentalpurposes, in a federal council representingthe American people ; and it would have left withthe several states all governmental functions andprerogatives not explicitly granted to the centralgovernment. Had Franklin's plan been adoptedand proved successful in its working, the politicalseparation between English America and EnglishBritain would not have occurred when it did, andpossibly might not have occurred at all. ButFranklin's plan failed of adoption just at the momentwhen American politics were becoming morecompletely and conspicuously continental than everbefore. In the presence of a gigantic war thatextended " from the coast of Coromandel to theGreat Lakes of North America," ^ the need for acontinental government and the evils that flowedfrom the want of it were felt with increasingseverity ; the old difficulties which had beset honestSpotswood were renewed in manifold ways ; until,when the war was over. Parliament, with the bestthe stampof intentions but without due consideration, undertookin the Stamp Act to provide aSteady continental revenue for America.When the Americans refused to acceptParliament as their continental legislature, and, inalliance with Pitt and his New Whigs, won a noblevictory in the repeal of the Stamp Act, a greatAmerican question became entangled in Britishpolitics, and a situation was thus ci'eated which^ The expression is sugg'ested by a famous passage in LordMacaulay, who seems to think that it all happened inFrederick the Great might keep his hold upon Silesiaorder that