She needed larger revenues, and being now swayed by Imperialism, she easily found reasons for taxing the Colonies.

In 1765 she passed the Stamp Act which caused so much bad feeling that in less than a year she decided to repeal it, but new duties on paper, glass, tea, and other commodities were imposed instead.

In the North, Massachusetts took the lead in opposing what the Colonists regarded as the unconstitutional acts of the Crown.

The patriotic lawyer of Boston, James Otis, shook the Colony with his eloquence against the illegal encroachments and actual tyranny of the English.

Other popular orators of equal eminence, John and Samuel Adams and Josiah Quincy, fanned the flames of discontent.