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and the devout were disturbed by military music, which often offended their ears during divine service. With the difference of manners between the soldiers and the inhabitants of the town, and the strong prejudices reciprocally entertained against each other, it is not wonderful that personal broils should frequently occur, and mutual antipathies already so strong be still further increased.

While these measures were pursuing in America, every session of parliament was opened with information from the king, that a disposition to refuse obedience to the laws, and to resist the authority of the supreme legislature of the nation, still prevailed among his misguided subjects in some of the colonies. In the addresses answering the speeches from the throne, both houses uniformly expressed their abhorrence of the rebellious spirit manifested in the colonies, and their approbation of the measures taken by his Majesty for the restoration of order and good government.

To give a more solemn expression to the sense of parliament on this subject, joint resolutions* of both

* Resolved, by the lords spiritual and temporal in parliament assembled, that the votes, resolutions, and proceedings of the house of representatives of Massachussetts Bay, in the months of January and February last, respecting several late acts of parliament, so far as the said votes, resolutions, and proceedings, do import a denial of, or to draw into question, the power and authority of his Majes ty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal,

both Houses were at length entered into, condemn. ing in the strongest terms the measures pursued by the

temporal, and the commons in parliament assembled, to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects to the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever, are illegal, unconstitutional, and derogatory of the rights of the crown and parliament of Great Britain.

Resolved, by the lords spiritual and temporal in parliament assembled, that the resolution of the said house of representatives of the province of Massachusetts Bay, in January last, to write letters to the several houses of the representatives of the British colonies in the continent, desiring them to join with the said house of representatives of the province of Massachussetts Bay, in petitions which do deny or draw into question the right of parliament to impose duties and taxes upon his Majesty's subjects in America ; and in pursuance of the said resolution, the writing such letters, in which certain late acts of parliament imposing duties and taxes are stated to be infringements of the rights of his Majesty's subjects of the said province, are proceedings of a most unwarrantable and dangerous nature, calculated to inflame the minds of his Majesty's subjects in the other colonies, tending to create unlawful combinations repugnant to the laws of Great Britain, and subversive of the constitution.

Resolved by the lords spiritual and temporal in parliament assembled, that in these circumstances of the province of Massachussetts Bay, and of the town of Boston, the preservation of the public peace, and the due execution of the laws, became impracticable without the aid of a military force to support and protect the civil magistrates and the officers of his Majesty's

revenue.

Resolved, by the lords spiritual and temporal, in parliament assembled, that the declarations, resolutions, and proceedings in the town-meeting in Boston, on the fourteenth of June and twelfth of

September,

the Americans; and an address was likewise agreed on, approving the conduct of the crown, giving assurances of effectual support to such further measures as might be found necessary to maintain the civil magistrates in a due execution of the laws within theprovince of Massachussetts Bay; and beseeching him to direct the governor of that colony to obtain and transmit to his Majesty, information of all treasons committed in Massachussetts since the year 1767, with the names of the persons who had been most active in promoting such offences, that prosecutions might be instituted against them within the

September, were illegal and unconstitutional, and calculated to excite sedition and insurrections in his Majesty's province of Massachussetts Bay.

Resolved, by the lords spiritual and temporal, in parliament assembled, that the appointment at the town-meeting of the twelfth of September, of a convention to be held in the town of Boston on the twenty-second of that month, to consist of deputies from the several towns and districts in the province of Massachussetts Bay, and the issuing a precept by the select men of the town of Boston to each of the said towns and districts for the election of such deputies, were proceedings subversive of his Majesty's government, and evidently manifesting a design in the inhabitants of the said town of Boston to set up a new and unconstitutional authority, independent of the crown of Great Britain.

Resolved, by the lords spiritual and temporal, in parliament assembled, that the elections by several towns and districts in the province of Massachussetts Bay, of deputics to sit in the same convention, and the meeting of such convention in consequence thereof, were daring insults offered to his Majesty's authority, and audacious usurpations of the powers of government.

realm,

realm, in pursuance of the statute of the 35th of Henry VIII.

These threatening declarations, which seem to have been particularly directed against Massachussetts Bay*, in the hope that the other provinces might be deterred from involving themselves in her dangers, made no impression on the colonists in any degree favourable to the views of the mother country. Their resolutions to resist the exercise of the authority claimed by Great Britain not only remained unshaken, but manifested itself in a still more determined form.

Not long after these votes of the British parliament, the assembly of Virginia was convened by Lord Bottetourt, a nobleman of the most conciliating and popular manners, who had been recently

*These resolutions originated in the House of Lords, and passed both houses by immense majorities. In the debate in the House of Commons, Mr. Parré commented with great force on their being levelled particularly at Massachussetts, when the offence of resistance was common to all the colonies. He said, "Away with these partial resentful trifles, calculated to irritate, and not to quell or appease, inadequate to their purpose, and unworthy of us! Why will you endeavour to deceive yourselves and us? You know that it is not this place only which disputes your right, but every part. They tell you, that you have no right from one end of the continent to the other. My sentiments of this matter you well know. Consider well what you are doing. Act openly and honestly. Tell them you will tax them, and that they must submit. Do not adopt this little, insidious, futile plan; they will despise you for it."

appointed

appointed Governor of that colony. A copy of the proceedings having already been received, the House took into their immediate consideration the state of the colony and passed, unanimously, several resolutions, asserting in the most decisive terms the exclusive right of that assembly to impose taxes on the inhabitants within his Majesty's dominion of Virginia, and their undoubted right to petition for a redress of grievances, and to obtain a concurrence of the other colonies in such petitions. Alluding particularly to the joint address of the two houses to the king, they also resolved, that all persons charged with the commission of any offence within that colony, were entitled to a trial before the tribunals of the country, according to the fixed and known course of proceeding therein; and that to seize such persons and transport them beyond sea for trial, derogated in a high degree from the rights of British subjects; as thereby the inestimable privilege of being tried by a jury from the vicinage, as well as the liberty of summoning and producing witnesses on such trial, would be taken away from the party accused.

An address* to his Majesty was also agreed on, which states, in the style of loyalty and real attach

ment.

This address manifests so clearly the then real temper of at colony which took a very active part in the contest with the mother country, that it cannot be entirely unacceptable to the reader.

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