"when i know that the colonies in general owe little or nothing to any care of ours, and that they are not squeezed into this happy form by the constraints of watchful and suspicious government, but that, through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take her own way to perfection; when i reflect upon these effects, when i see how profitable they have been to us, i feel all the pride of power sink, and all presumption in the wisdom of human contrivances melt and die away within me." - edmund burke in a speech before the house of commons, march 22, 1775

1) this speech would be most important in understanding a) the american victory at lexington and concord. b) the treaty of paris that ended the american revolution. c) the british insistence that the colonies should remain part of britain d) the feeling that led people in the american colonists to want independence.