"I was ill in bed," he said, "but if I could have been carried here
in my bed I would have asked some kind friend to lay my on this
floor, so that I might have spoken against it. It is a subject of
greater importance than ever engaged the attention of this House;
that subject always excepted, when nearly a century ago it was the
question whether you yourselves were to be bond or free."
Pitt was thinking of the time when Englishmen strove with Charles
I. He gloried in British liberty, and he could not bear to think
of Britons oppressing Britons. "Who that has an English heart," he
once said, "can ever be weary of asserting liberty?"
"I rejoice that America has resisted," he said later.
There were many against Pitt, but he won the day, and the Stamp
Act was repealed.
There was great rejoicing in America, and the matter seemed at an
end. But the very next year a new bill for taxing the Americans was
brought into Parliament. This time the tax was to be paid on tea,
glass, lead and a few other things brought into the country.
Once again the colonies were ablaze, and they refused to pay this
duty just as they had refused to pay the Stamp Tax. Everywhere
there were indignation meetings. But Boston seemed to be the heart
of the storm, and to Boston British troops were sent to keep order.
The soldiers had nothing to do, but the very sight of their red
coats made the colonists angry.
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