to the letter of the Maffachusetts Affembly, his Lordship faid, "It is his Majesty's PLEASURE that, you should, immediately on the receipt hereof, exert your utmost influence to defeat this flagitious attempt to disturb the public peace, by prevailing upon the Affembly of the Province to take no notice of it, which will be treating it with the con-tempt it deserves." The contempt of the Amerieans was referved however for the letter of his Lordship; the Assemblies throughout the continent highly applauding the conduct of the Maffa chusetts, and almost unanimously paffing votes and refolves according with the spirit of the letter received from Boston. The Assembly of New York in particular, whose principles were supposed most favorable to loyalty, answered it in the most respectful terms, and appointed a Committee of Correspondence to confult with the other Colonies on the measures to be pursued in the present crifis; upon which that Affembly also was diffolved. Orders alfo were tranfmitted by Lord Hillsborough to Governor Penn, to diffolve the Affembly of Pennfylvania; his Lordship, by a pleasant mistake, not recollecting it to be the established and chartered privilege of that House to fit on their own adjourn ments, and that the Governor had no power to diffolve them.

In the midst of the ferment occafioned by these proceedings, a floop, called the Liberty, laden with B 4 wine wine from Madeira, was seized under authority of the Commiffioners of the Customs for a false entry; and, being cut by force from her moorings, was by their order removed under the guns of the Romney, a thip of war lying in the harbor of Boston. The minds of the populace being greatly inflamed, a violent riot ensued, in which the houses of the Commiffioners were affailed, their perfons grossly insulted, and they were compelled to take refuge at first on board the Romney, and afterwards at the fortrefs adjacent to the town, called Castle William, It being now thought necessary by Government, which disdained every idea of conceffion or retractation, to station a confiderable military and naval force at the town of Boston, orders were issued for that purpose, and also for repairing the fortress of Castle William. On receiving this intelligence, a meeting of the principal inhabitants of Boston was called, and an address presented by them to the Governor, praying him in the most urgent terms to iflue precepts forthwith for convening a General Affembly; but this his Excellency declared he eould not do without receiving his Majesty's commands. The legality of the meeting also was peremptorily denied by the Governor, who declared the conveners of it to be guilty of an high offence, admonishing them to confider the penaltics they were incurring by continuing their feffion; and he protested that, if they did not attend to this warn

ing, he must affert the prerogative of the Crown in a more public manner; adding, in a tone of imenace, "that they may assure themselves, for he spoke from INSTRUCTION, that the KING was determined to maintain his ENTIRE SOVEREIGNTY over that Province; and whoever should perfist in ufurping any of the rights of it would REPENT his RASHNESS." But the Governor seemed not to recollect, that those who ufurp the RIGHTS of the PEOPLE may be made to REPENT their RASHNESS, as well as those who invade the PREROGATIVE of the SOVEREIGN. A number of votes expreffive of the agitation of the public mind were unanimoufly paffed, and amongst them is a resolve, that those inhabitants who are not provided with arms be requested to furnish themselves forthwith. On the first of October 1768, the troops landed under cover of a confiderable fleet, confifting of fourteen ships of war of different descriptions, lying in the harbor of Boston, with their broadfides to the town; and marching into this metropolis with bayonets fixed, drums beating, and colors flying, with a train of artillery accompanying them, the imagination of the inhabitants was impressed with all the ideas af sociated with the insolence of conquest, and the horrors of military despotifm.

In the ensuing month of February (1769) a joint address was moved, and presented by both Houses of Parliament to the King, expreffing their fatisfaction fatisfaction in the measures already pursued, and giving him the strongest afsurances, "that they would fupport him in such farther measures as might be found necessary to maintain the Civil Magistrates in a due execution of the laws within the Massachusetts Bay; and beseeching him to direct the Governor to take the most effectual méthods for procuring the fullest information touching all TREASONS committed within that Government. fince the 30th December 1767; and to transmit the fame, with the names of the persons most active in the commiffion of fuch offences, in order that his Majesty might issue a special commiffion for hearing and determining the said offences within the realm, pursuant to the statute of the 35th year of Henry VIII." In reply his Majesty affured them, " that he would not fail, in the mode they had recommended, to give the most effectual orders for bringing the authors of the late disorders in the province of Massachusetts to CONDIGN PUNISHMENT." Thus was an obsolete and tyrannical fiatute of the most arbitrary of the English Monarchs revived in the reign of George III, in the vain. hope to fubdue that unconquerable spirit of liberty in America, which only blazed the more fiercely and dangeroufly for the repeated attempts to overwhelm or extinguish it. "Confider well," faid Colonel Barré to the Minifters, when the address was pending in the House of Commons, " what

you

you are doing. Why will you deceive yourselves and us? You know that it is not this or that place only that disputes your right, but every part. They tell you with one voice, from one end of the continent to the other, that you have no right to tax America." When this address reached the western fhore of the Atlantic, the Assemblies of Maffachusetts and New York no longer existed; but Virginia, on this occafion, assumed the lead with equal spirit and firmness. On the 16th of May (1769) they came to several resolutions, copies of which they ordered their Speaker to tranfmit to the different Affemblies throughout the continent, and to request their concurrence. These resolutions imported, " That the sole right of impofing taxes on the inhabitants of the Colony is now, and ever hath been, in the House of Burgesses, with confent of the Council, and of the King, or Governor for the time being:-That it is the privilege of the inhabitants to petition their Sovereign for redress of grievances; and that it is lawful to procure the concurrence of his Majesty's other Colonies in dutiful addresses, praying the royal interpofition in favor of the violated rights of America:-That all trials for treason, or misprifion of treason, here committed, ought to be in and before his Majefty's Courts within the faid Colony; and, That sending accufed perfons to be tried beyond the feas, is highly derogatory to the rights of British