them into the payment of this tax, in order to ESTABLISH THE PRECEDENT; and they were firmly and unanimoufly determined that no such project should take effect. Six hundred chests were by the Company in pursuance of the late act consigned to their agent at Boston, the like quantity to New York and Philadelphia, and in proportion to the other principal ports of the continent. Pennsylvania on this occasion diftinguished herself by setting the first example of opposition. A general meeting was convened at Philadelphia, in which a series of vigorous resolutions were paffed, " declaring this new ministerial plan of importation to be a violent attack upon the liberties of America, and pronouncing it to be the duty of every American to oppose this attempt; and that whoever should directly or indirectly countenance it was an enemy to his country." A committee was then appointed to wait upon the confignees of the Company, and to request their refignation, which was immediately complied with. At New York, on the arrival of the tea-ships in December, they were with difficulty permitted to approach the wharf; and, as at Philadelphia, the confignees were compelled to relinquish their appointments, and the ships returned back to England without breaking bulk. At Charlestown, after much opposition and tumult, the tea was permitted to be unloaded, but was immediately lodged in damp unventilated cellars, where it long remained, and finally perished. In no place was the delivery of it to the confignees suffered, and in most the captains of the India ships, on being apprized of the temper and disposition of the people, without any attempt to land wisely set their fails for England. At Boston the spirit of resistance rose to a height which made the excesses committed elsewhere appear trivial. At a general meeting of the inhabitants, the resolves of the city of Philadelphia were unanimoufly adopted, and a committee appointed to wait upon the confignees, to know whether they would resign their appointments,

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ments, which they declared not to be in their power. At a succeeding meeting at Faneuil Hall, it was voted with loud acclamations, " that the tea shall not be landed, that no duty shall be paid, and that it shall be sent back in the fame bottoms." "We must not," said a leading member of the affembly, " flatter ourselves, that popular refolves, popular shouts, or harangues will vanquish our foes or terminate our trials. We must be ignorant of the power of those who have combined against us; we must be blind to that malice, inveteracy and revenge which have uniformly actuated their conduct, to hope that we shall end this controversy without the sharpest, conflict. Let us then weigh and confider, before we determine upon those meafures which must bring on the most terrible struggle which this country ever experienced." The question was again put, and passed without a negative. On an application from the captain of the Dartmouth East Indiaman to the governor, for a clearance, he replied, "I cannot give you a pass confiftent with the laws and my duty to the king, unless the veffel is properly qualified from the Custom Houfe." Upon this answer being reported to the affembly, the meeting was declared to be diffolved. An immense crowd repaired in haste to the quay, and a number of the most refolute, in the disguise of Mohawk Indians, boarded the vefsfels, and in about two hours broke open three hundred and forty-two chests of tea, and difcharged their contents into the sea. Such was the consequence of the obstinacy of the governor, who might have recollected that his predeceffor Sir Francis Bernard, in a like exigency, granted permits to many ships not qualified for want of stamps, and that the prudence and propriety of his conduct had never been called in question. But the present governor had long been the urgent advocate for measures of coercion on the part of Great Britain, and was probably not displeased to see matters tending to a crifis: and, in a subsequent declaration, he affigned somewhat unwarily unwarily as one of the reasons for this refusal, " that by a compliance with the demand of the people he should have rendered himself OBNOXIOUS to his SOVEREIGN." This undoubtedly is the MASTER-KEY which unfolds all the apparent abfurdities and extravagancies of his conduct. The temper of the British court was so well understood in America, that no one prefumed to hope they would be induced, by this determined and inflexible spirit of oppofition in the colonies, to desist from their ruinous projects. On the contrary, measures of vengeance were confidently expected; and even persons of acknowledged moderation, on perceiving the ideas which they had long cherished of reconciliation to be hopeless, declared their resolution, in cafe matters were carried to extremity by Great Britain, to join the standard of their countrymen. A major of provincials, who had been foreman of the jury on the trial of capt. Preston, and to whom, in reward of his meritorious conduct, the governor had given this commission, said to him with unexpected energy, " Sir, you know that I am a friend to government, and wish to support it; but if any attempt be made to violate our CHARTER, I will fight up to my knees in blood in defence of it."

On the meeting of the general court of Massachusetts, A. D. 1774, the house of representatives seemed in no respect disposed to recede from the highest claims and pretenfions they had formed. On the contrary, they, by a new affumption of authority, determined upon an impeachment of the chief justice Oliver, for refusing to relinquish the falary fettled upon him by the crown-which, combined with the hope of its augmentation, they affirmed" must have the effect of a perpetual bribe, and expose him to the violation of his oath that the acceptance of this falary, unprecedented in all former times, was a breach of his implied engagements on entering into his office; and that by receiving a grant payable out of the revenue unjustly extorted from the American colonies, he had given a fanction a sanction to injustice, counteracted the petitions of the people, and wickedly endeavoured to increase the discontents and jealoufies which had originated from this grievance." The governor refusing to receive the accusation, no other effect resulted from it than to render the governor and the chief justice more obnoxious, and to keep alive the spirit of animosity and resistance.

On the 13th of January, 1774, the parliament of Great Britain was convened at Westminster. The ministry not being as yet in poffeffion of full information from America, the Speech from the throne observed a profound filence relative to the late transactions; but on the 7th of March a message was delivered from his majesty to both houses of parliament, informing them, that, " in consequence of the unwarrantable practices carried on in North America, and particularly of the violent and outrageous proceedings at the town and port of Boston, with a view of obstructing the commerce of this kingdom, and upon grounds and pretences immediately subversive of its constitution, it was thought fit to lay the whole matter before parliament-recommending it to their ferious confideration what farther regulations or permanent provisions might be necessary to be established." Lord North, who presented the message, laid at the fame time before the house of commons a great number of papers, which sufficiently shewed the daring and feditious spirit which now prevailed over the whole continent of America. His lordship, on enlarging upon these documents, represented the conduct of the inhabitants of Boston in the most atrocious light. He afferted that the utmost lenity on the part of the governor, PERHAPS TOO MUCH, had been already shewn, and that this town, by its late proceedings, had left government perfectly at liberty to adopt any measures they should think convenient, not only for redreffing the wrong sustained by the East India company, but for inflicting such punishment as their factious and criminal conduct merited; and that the

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aid of parliament would be reforted to for this purpose, and for vindicating the dignity of the crown, so daringly and wantonly attacked, and contemned." The speech of the minister was received with great applause, and the house appeared clearly and unanimously of opinion, that firm and vigorous measures were at this crisis absolutely neceffary. It was then moved, " that an address of thanks should be presented to the king, affuring his majesty, that they would not fail to exert every means in their power of effectually providing for the due execution of the laws, and fecuring the dependance of the colonies upon the crown and parliament of Great Britain." This excited fome faint shew of oppofition, and it was remarked, " that fimilar affurances had been already often repeated, but that the measures hitherto adopted by minifters for the support and DIGNITY OF THE CROWN had only expofed it to scorn, obloquy, and contempt. That the present cafe was of the utmost importance they admitted, and it required therefore an attentive and impartial examination. In order to do the Americans justice it was neceffary to trace the fource of these calamities to their origin, in a system of arbitrary and unwise measures at home." No inclination however appeared to enter into any retrospective investigations, and the address was finally agreed to, and presented to the king.

In a short time the minister began to develop his grand plan of coercion and punishment, by the introduction of a bill for discontinuing the lading and shipping of goods, wares, and merchandize at the town of Boston or the har bor thereof; and for the removal of the custom house, &c. to the town of Salem. This bill was to continue in force, not only till full and ample compenfation was made to the East India company for the damage sustained by them, but till the king in council should declare himself satisfied as to the restoration of peace and good order in the town. This bill was honored with the general approbation of the house;