BRITAIN. 



639 



!ritai:i. those of America. The unfortunate disputes with 

 V- J our colonies, revived by the imposition of the port- 

 >nar III- duties in 1767, had suffered no abatement, though 

 177;!. kept out of view by domestic bickerings of infinite- 

 ly less importance. The non importation agreement 

 entered into by the colonies has already been noticed ; 

 but though the Americans confined their practical 

 opposition to commercial combinations, they began 

 to indulge a boundless licence of speculative dis- 

 cussion, on the nature and extent of parliamentary 

 power. Nor was the tax upon tea the only cause of 

 disaffection. The dependence of the governors and 

 judges in America had been transferred from the 

 people to the crown. In the act, which imposed 

 the port -duties in 1767, was a remarkable clause, 

 which gave scarcely less umbrage and alarm than the 

 taxes themselves, a clause empowering the crown, by 

 sign manual, to establish a general civil list through- 

 out every province in America, with any salaries, 

 places, or appointments, to the very last shilling of 

 the American revenue. In 1768, the assembly of 

 Massachussets-bay had called upon' the different co- 

 lonial legislatures to join with them in petitioning 

 the king respecting the grievances of America. In 

 spite of all the instructions of Lord Hillsborough 

 (secretary for foreign affairs) to the governors of 

 the provinces, their respective assemblies concurred 

 with the proposal of the Bostonians ; and a commit- 

 tee of correspondence was framed among them ; and 

 a general spirit of union appeared to pervade Ame- 

 rica. The first tumults arose at Boston, where the 

 populace rose on the commissioners for levying the 

 taxes, and compelled them to take refuge at a for- 

 tress near the town. In consequence of this riot, 

 troops were landed to overawe the citizens, under 

 coyer of fourteen ships of war ; while the assembly of 

 the province openly directed the inhabitants to hold 

 themselves provided with arms. This was the pro- 

 vocation which, in the ensuing year, the British par- 

 liament thought a sufficient justification for reviving 

 an obsolete and tyrannical statute of Henry VIII. 

 for bringing persons accused of treason beyond, seas 

 to trial and punishment in England. The measure 

 excited, throughout all America, a just and terrible 

 alarm. In such a state of mind, the Americans look- 

 ed back on the late concessions^ the mother coun- 

 try with suspicion ; and thor suspicions had but too 

 palpable grounds to lay hold of, when they saw that, 

 by maintaining the right of taxation in a single case, 

 they retained the principle, and founded a precedent 

 for its indefinite application. The residence of the 

 military at Boston, far from quieting, only enflamed 

 the populace. In 1770, an affray took place, in 

 which the military were constrained to fire upon the 



I rioters, and several lives were lost. 



During the session of the Massachusset's assem- 

 bly-in the summer of 1773, a discovery- was made, 

 which added fresh fuel to the flame, long since kin- 

 dled in that province. The celebrated Dr Franklin, 

 agent of the House of Representatives in England, 

 had acquired possession of certain letters, written in 

 confidence by Governor Hutchinson and others to 

 their friends in England, in which they spoke- of 

 coercive measures; of taking of incendiaries ; and of 

 altering charters, with the utmost freedom. Frank- 



Bniaiir 



, 



lin immediately transmitted these letters to lus con- 

 stituents. They excited excessive indignation, and 

 produced a petition from the Massachtissel's aaaem- 

 bly to the king, to remove their governor. The 

 petition was transmitted to Dr Frankhn, presented 

 to the king, and by his majesty laid before the privy 

 council. Dr Franklin was summoned to support the 

 petition before the same meeting, where he .received 

 from the Lord Chancellor Loughborough the gross- 

 est abuse. He was pronounced a forger of the let- 

 ters ; and the Massachusset's petition was rejected as 

 scandalous and seditious. 



The duty of tea, as we have already remarked, had Duty on 

 been left as a token of legislative supremacy. The tea repeal- 

 East India company, reduced almost to bankruptcy '"* 1773 - 

 by the accumulation of their teas, were urgent with the 

 minister to repeal the Ameritan duty of '.'>&. a pound, 

 offering in lieu of it, to pay double the sum on expor- 

 tation. At length, in 1773, an act passed for permit- 

 ting the exportation of teas duty free. The East 

 India Company hoped, by this measure, to regain the 

 American market, and the govenirm-nt still exulted 

 in upholding the principle of taxation, since the Com- 

 pany, instead of America, had paid the duty ; but in 

 this they were both disappointed. When the tea 

 was attempted to be landed, the mob arose in Bos- ;yf i, at 

 ton harbour, boarded the ships, and threw their car- Boston on 

 goes into the sea, retiring peaceably afterwards, with- 'he arrival 

 out giving or receiving any personal violence. Other T. tea 

 places followed the example, and in no places was s 

 the delivery of the tea to its consignees permitted by 

 the Americans. Snch resistance could not long be 

 concealed, and it reached England, heightened by 

 many exaggerations. The tidings were communica- 

 ted by the minister to parliament, at their next ses- 

 sion, and a plan of coercion and punishment destined 

 to be tried in America, was received and voted with 

 almost universal enthusiasm. A remonstrance, in- 

 deed, was presented by the Americans resident in 

 London, concluding with a bold avowal, that the 

 attachment of America could not survive the justice 

 of Great Britain ; and the voice of the minority was 

 also raised, though ineffectually, to advise concilia- 

 tion. A bill for removing the custom-house and seat 

 of government from Boston to Salem, and another 

 for depriving the Massachussets state of its charterj 

 were passed during the session, the former without a 

 division, the latter by a great majority. Lord Char. 

 ham, at this early stage of the dispute, declared his 

 unalterable opinion, that Britain had no right to tax 

 America. " As an Englishman, ( said that venerable 

 statesman,) I recognize to the Americans their su 

 preme unalterable right of property. As an Ame- 

 rican, I would equally recognize to England her su- 

 preme right of regulating commerce and. navigation. 

 This distinction is involved in the abstract nature of 

 things. Property is private, individual,, absolute 

 the touch of another annihilates it. Trade is an ex- 

 tended and complicated consideration it reaches as 

 far as ships can sail or winds can blow ; it is a vast 

 and various machine, which requires the superintend- 

 ing candour and energy of the s-upreme power of the 

 empire. Taxation is theirs, commercial regulation 

 is ours." But the language of the lords in admini- 

 stration was high and decisive ; it was declared that. 



1774. 



