Note 162 — Chapter VII

"Each English colony in North America is independent of the other, and each has its proper laws and coins, and may be looked upon in several lights as a state by itself. From hence it happens that, in time of war, things go on very slowly and irregularly here, for not only the sense of one province is sometimes directly opposite to that of another, but frequently the views of the governor and those of the Assembly of the same province are quite different, so that it is easy to see that, while the people are quarreling about the best and cheapest method of carrying on the war, an enemy has it in his power to take one place after another. It has commonly happened, that while some provinces were suffering from their enemies, the neighboring ones were quiet and inactive, as if it did not in the least concern them. They have frequently taken up two or three years in considering whether they should give assistance to an oppressed sister colony, and sometimes they have expressly declared themselves against it. There are instances of provinces who were not only neuter in these circumstances, but who carried on a great trade with the power which at that very time was attacking and laying waste some other provinces."—Kalm, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 461.