The colonists had cheerfully borne their part in the great achievement, and, if properly appealed to, would have discharged as cheerfully their share of the resulting indebtedness. But the British government had grown weary of submitting to the caprices of the colonial assemblies inthe matter of money grants, and, in looking to America after the close of the war for financial assistance on a substantial scale, resolved to make that necessity the occasion of some decided changes in the former order of things. The changes determined upon were, in their essential details, startling innovations. The assemblies were required to abandon their old practice of limiting, in amount or as to time, the supplies demanded by the governors, and to obediently vote them without discussion. They were to vote the civil list first of all and without question, which meant that all the royal officers were to be made independent of any disfavor conceived toward them by the popular assemblies; and, as a logical sequel to this, tenure of office was to be in future at the royal pleasure, without reference to "good behavior." In order that the operation of these and other plans might not be interfered with by possibly conflicting provisions in existing colonial charters, all such charters were put to an end. The drastic navigation laws, which had always been a crying grievance, were to be rigidly enforced. Finally, the colonies were to be taxed directly by parliament, through the medium of stamped paper, whose use was to be obligatory in all mercantile transactions, and even for marriage licenses. And as a means for compelling acquiescence in the new regulations a standing army of ten thousand men Avas to be sent over and quartered on the Americans, who were required to pay toward its maintenance some £100,000 annually, or one-third of the entire cost.