...Parliament ', he writes to his father in February 1766, lasting BO long on the Stamp Act determined me to return to my business ere it was terminated....how ignorant some of them are of trade and America. . . , We have proved the debt from the Continent of America to England is five millions sterling. ....

...happening in their own colonies. An English correspondent in 1776 wrote of the members of parliament, "it is surprising how ignorant some of them are of trade and America." The secretary of state, who should have found time for a careful and intelligent consideration of colonial...