184 THE DEEPER SIGNIFICANCE 
shall be dismissed for my pains!” Doubtless he never 
could have got it through the House without the aid 
of the rotten boroughs, and his victory was one of the 
first evil symptoms of the growing power of what we 
may call the royal machine. No doubt Townshend 
looked forward to some fine sport when once the king 
and the Americans were set by the ears; but he had 
no sooner carried his measures than sudden death 
removed him from the scene, and Lord North took his 
place. 
There never existed a self-respecting people that 
would not have resented and resisted such an outra- 
geous measure as this pretended Revenue Act. Yet 
there was not much disturbance of the peace in Amer- 
ica. All the ordinary machinery of argument and peti- 
tion was used tono purpose. The measure of resistance 
in which all the colonies united in 1768 was an agree- 
ment to cease all commercial intercourse with Great 
Britain until the Revenue Act should be repealed. 
This agreement was to some extent evaded by traders 
more intent upon private gain than public policy, but 
on the whole it was remarkably well kept until the war 
came. Doubtless it seriously damaged and weakened 
the colonies, but it seemed the only kind of peaceful 
resistance that could be made. 
Smuggling of course went on, and the seizure of 
one of John Hancock’s ships for a false entry caused 
a riot in Boston in which one of the collector’s boats 
was burned. This affair led the king to the dangerous 
step of sending troops to Boston, and the sacking of 
Hutchinson’s house three years before was quoted to 
silence those members of Parliament who opposed this 
step. The troops stayed in Boston seventeen months, 
