[
243]
years, the
French of New Orleans would gladly have
exchanged the dominion of
Spain for a dependency on
England.
The
Americans, too, were every where intent on extending the boundaries of the
English empire.
A plan was formed to connect
Mobile and
Illinois.
1 Officers from
West Florida reached Fort Chartres.
2 preparatory to taking possession of the country, which was still delayed by the discontent of the Indians.
With the same object,
Croghan and a party descended the
Ohio from
Pittsburg.
The governor of
North Carolina believed that, by pushing trade up the
Missouri, a way to the great Western ocean would be discovered, and an open trade to it be established.
3 So wide was the territory—so vast the interests for which the British Parliament was legislating!
On the day after the debate on American affairs, Grenville, Lord North, and Jenkinson, with others, were ordered to bring in a Stamp-bill for America, which on the thirteenth was introduced by Grenville himself, and read the first time without a syllable of debate.4 Among the papers that were to be stamped, it contained an enumeration of the several instruments of ecclesiastical law used in the courts of episcopal jurisdiction; for Grenville reasoned, that one day such courts might be established in America.5 On the fifteenth of February, merchants trading to Jamaica presented a petition against it,
