<P> Salutary neglect is an American history term that refers to the seventeenth - and eighteenth - century British Crown policy of avoiding strict enforcement of parliamentary laws meant to keep American colonies obedient to England . The term comes from Edmund Burke's "Speech on Conciliation with America" given in the House of Commons March 22, 1775 . </P> <Dl> <Dd> That 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 . (Burke p. 186) </Dd> </Dl>

What was the british policy of not enforcing laws in the colonies