| Western expansion was one issue, and I do not think it the most important. The most important, as I read the Declaration, is the undermining of colonial government to the detriment of the common good. However, granting that it made a difference, the situation of the French and their Indian allies was approximately that of a miser who neither puts his vast wealth to use, nor shares it with anyone else. Vast tracts of arable land were sitting there to little purpose, when they could have provided livings for the surplus population of Europe, and bettered the lot of thousands, or perhaps millions. It was an intolerable situation to forbid colonial expansion on any reasonable terms, merely to hold territory for the glory of the crown, or to preserve indiscriminately the pristine woodland for nomadic tribes. Expansion was practically inevitable, and part of the colonies' taking their fates into their own hands. Was the Crown oppressive in trying in restraining its colonials? In a situation where the colonials have no representation in Parliament, and feel the arbitrary nature of colonial rule in other departments, perhaps it was....... |
