only until compensation should be made to the East India Company for the damage sustained, but until the king in council should declare himself satisfied as to the restoration of peace and good order in the town. It passed both houses without a division, and almost without opposition.

Soon after this, a bill was brought in for better regulating the government of the province of Massachussetts Bay. By this act the charter was totally subverted, and the nomination of councellors, and of all magistrates and officers, vested in the crown. The persons thus appointed were to hold their offices during the royal pleasure. This bill also was carried through both houses by great majorities, but not without a vigorous opposition, and an animated debate..

The next measure proposed, was a bill for the impartial administration of justice in the province of Massachussetts Bay. It provided, "that in case any person should be indicted in that province, for murder or any other capital offence, and it should appear by information given on oath to the governor, that the fact was committed in the exercise or aid of magistracy in suppressing riots, and that a fair trial could not be had in the province, he should send the person so indicted to any other colony, or to Great Britain to be tried." This act was to continue in force four years; and was, as an English writer observes,

the counter part of the absolute and tyrannical act of Henry VIII. lately revived, for the trial in Great Britain of treasons committed in America.

A bill was also passed for quartering soldiers on the inhabitants; and the system was completed by an act for making more effectual provision for the government of the province of Quebec. This bill extended the limits of that province, so as to include the territory between the lakes, the Ohio, and the Mississippi; and, which was its most exceptionable feature, established a legislative council to be appointed by the crown.

Amidst these hostile measures, one single conciliatory proposition was made. Mr. Rose Fuller, member for Rye, moved that the house resolve itself into a committee, to take into consideration the duty on the importation of tea into America,* with a view to its repeal. This motion was seconded by Mr. Burke, and supported with all the powers of reasoning, and all the splendour of eloquence, which he so eminently possessed; but it was lost by a great majority. The Earl of Chatham, too, who had long been indisposed, again made his appearance in the house of lords. He could only have been drawn out by the strong sense he entertained of the fatal importance of those mea

* Belsham.

sures

sures into which the nation was hurrying. But his efforts were unavailing. Neither his weight of character, his sound judgment (which was yet unimpaired) nor his manly eloquence, which, even at this late period of life, while his venerable frame was enfeebled by disease, partook largely of that fire and energy which, in the vigour of his midday course, gave him such commanding influence over the human mind, could arrest the hand of fate, which seemed, with irresistible force, to propel this lofty towering nation into a system which terminated in its dismemberment.

It was expected, and this expectation was encouraged by Mr. Hutchinson then in England, that by directing these measures of punishment particularly against Boston, not only the union of the colonies could be broken, but Massachussetts herself would be divided. Never was expectation more completely disappointed. It was perceived by all that Boston was to be punished for havin gresisted, only with more violence, the principle which they had resisted; and that the object of the punishment was, to coerce obedience to principles they were yet determined to oppose. Every man felt, therefore,

that the cause of Boston was the cause of all; that their destinies were indissolubly connected with those of that devoted town; and that they must either submit to be taxed by a parliament in which they were not, and could not be, represented,

03

L

presented, or support, with all the means they possessed, their brethren who were doomed to support the first shock of a power, which if successful there, would overwhelm them all. The neighbouring towns disdained to avail themselves of the calamities inflicted on a sister, in consequence of her exertions in the common cause. They clung to her with increased affection; and that spirit of enthusiastic patriotism, which, for a time, elevates the mind above all considerations of individual acquisition, became the ruling passion in the American bosom.

On receiving the first intelligence of the Boston Port Bill, a meeting of the people of that town was called. They were sensible that "the sharpest-sharpest conflict," was indeed now approaching, but seemed unawed by its horrors. Far from seeking to shelter themselves by submission, from the threateni g storm, they grew more determined as it increased. Resolutions were passed, expressing their opinion of the impolicy, injustice, inhumanity, and cruelty, of the act, from which they appealed to God and the world; and also invited the other colonies to join with them in an agreement to stop all imports and exports to and from Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies, until the act should be repealed, as the only means remaining for the salvation of North America and her liberties.

It was not in Boston only that this spirit was aroused. Addresses were soon received from every part of the continent, expressing sentiments of sympathy in their sufferings, exhorting them to resolution and perseverance, and assuring them that they were considered as suffering in the com

mon cause.

The legislature of Virginia was in session when the first intelligence of the Boston Port Bill reached that province. The house of burgesses appointed the first of June, the day on which the bill was to commence its operation, to be set apart for fasting, prayer, and humiliation; to implore the divine interposition to avert the heavy calamity which threatened destruction to their civil rights, and the evils of a civil war; and to give one heart and one mind to the people, firmly to oppose every invasion of their liberties. Similar resolutions were adopted almost every where, and the first of June became throughout the several colonies, a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer; in the course of which sermons were universally preached to the people, well calculated to inspire them with the utmost horror against the authors of the unjust suffering of their fellow subjects in Boston.

In consequence of this measure, the assembly was dissolved; but, before their separation, an association was entered into, signed by eighty-nine members, in which they declared an attack on one colony,

04