"They must pay one tax to know we keep the right to tax,"
said the King. It was as if the King's followers had winked slyly at one
another and said: "We shall see--we shall see! Those colonists must have
their tea to drink, and a little matter of threepence a pound they will
overlook."
It would have been much better for England if she had taken off all the
taxes and made friends with the colonists. Many leaders in that country
said so, but the stubborn King was bent upon having his own way. "I will
be King," he said. "They shall do as I say."
Then he and his followers worked up what seemed to them a clever scheme
for hoodwinking the colonists. "We will make the tea cheaper in America
than in England," they said. "Such a bargain! How can the simple colonists
resist it?" Great faith was put in this foolish plan.
But they were soon to find out that those simple colonists were only
Englishmen across the sea, that they too had strong wills, and that they
did not care half so much about buying cheap tea as they did about giving
up a principle and paying a tax, however small, which they had no part in
levying.
King George went straight ahead to carry out his plan.
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