The impression was made upon dark blue paper, similar in appearance to that commonly known as tobacco paper, to which was attached a narrow strip of tin foil, represented by the light oblong in the engraving. The ends of the foil were passed through the parchment or paper to which the stamp was to be attached, flattened on the opposite side, and a piece of paper, with the rough device and number of the stamp, seen in the following cut, pasted over it to secure it.

The device of the stamp was a double Tudor rose, inclosed by the Royal Garter. Above this was a crown, and below was named the money value of the stamp. The specimen here given was a shilling stamp.

The idea of producing a revenue by the sale of stamps and stamped paper in America was promulgated almost forty years before its final development in legislative enactment in 1765. Sir William Keith advised the policy as early as 1728. In 1739 the London merchants advised the ministry to adopt the measure, and public writers from time to time suggested various schemes predicated upon the same idea. In 1750, Douglas, in his work on British America, recommended the levying of a stamp duty upon all legal writings and instruments. Dr. Franklin regarded the plan favorably; and Governor Sharpe, of Maryland, was confident, in 1754, that Parliament would speedily make a statue for raising money by means of stamp duties. Lieutenant-governor Delancey spoke in favor of it in the New York Assembly in 1755, and the following year, Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, urged Parliament to adopt a Stamp Tax. The British press urged the measure in 1757, and it was confidently stated that at least three hundred thousand dollars annually might thus be drawn from the colonies, without the tax being sensibly felt. But William Pitt would not listen to the recommendation, for, like Walpole twenty-five years before, he preferred to draw money into the treasury by the exercise of a liberal commercial policy toward the Americans. Notwithstanding public opinion in England appeared to be decidedly favorable to the measure, it was not proposed by the ministry until 1764. It became a law in 1765, and was repealed in 1766. Had not ministers been deceived by the representations of the stupid and selfish royal governors in America, it probably would never have been enacted. Those men were frequently too indolent or indifferent to make themselves acquainted with the real temper of the people. Regarding the mass as equally servile as their flatterers, they readily commended that fatal measure which proved the spark that lighted the flames of Revolution, and severed forever the political connection between Great Britain and thirteen of her American colonies.

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