north; for there the colonists were indignant at the restrictions laid on their commerce by the establishment of an American board of admiralty, and the powers granted to the officers of the navy, in order to enforce the revenue laws. The zeal of these petty officers was often much greater than their prudence; and they highly provoked the people by the vexatious activity and insolence with which they executed their commission.

Lieutenant Dudington, commander of the armed vessel Gasper, stationed off Rhode Island, was remarkably active in searching for contraband goods. By this conduct, and by compelling the packets to lower their colors in passing him, he had become the object of much ill will. On the evening of the 9th of June, 1772, the Providence packet, with passengers on board, came up with colors flying, and refusing to lower them, the lieutenant fired a shot at her; which being disregarded, he gave chase. It was near full tide, and the packet stood closely in to the land, for the purpose of drawing the Gasper into shallow water: the design succeeded, and the schooner got fast aground about seven miles below Providence. The packet proceeded to the town, where the resolution was soon formed of attacking and destroying the Gasper. Accordingly, about two in the morning, a body of armed men, in several whale-boats, boarded the Gasper, which was still aground, forced the lieutenant, who was wounded in the scuffle, with his crew, ashore, and burned the schooner and her stores.

The British ministry were incapable of deriving wisdom from experience; for, after all the mischief which had resulted from their American acts, they still indulged the passion for colonial legislation. Hitherto the assembly of Massachusetts Bay had voted a scanty allowance to the judges and to law officers of the crown; but about the beginning of 1772, in order to render the judges more independent, the crown granted them liberal salaries out of the American reveThe measure was unseasonable; for every act of government was looked on with distrust and jealousy by the colonists; and in the irritable state of the public mind at that time, the grant of salaries to the judges, being viewed as the wages of subserviency, created much alarm and agitation.

nue.

The inhabitants of Boston met on the 25th of October. Mr. Hutchinson was then governor, having succeeded Sir Francis Bernard in 1770: to him they presented a petition, setting forth the evil tendency of the new regulation respecting the judges, and the alarm which it had occasioned, and praying him to call an assembly. He refused: the people, therefore, appointed a committee to consider what was to be done in that season of danger, and to report to a subsequent meeting. The committee prepared a report more extensive than any that had hitherto been framed, comprehending the rights of the colonists as men, as citizens, and as Christians

The inhabitants of Boston met to receive the report, which was read and agreed to. It was ordered to be printed and circulated in the province, accompanied by an exhortation to the people no longer to doze or sit in supine indifference, while the hand of oppression was tearing the choicest fruits from the tree of liberty.

When the assembly met in January, 1773, the governor imprudently expatiated on the supreme legislative authority of the king and parliament. This fanned the dying embers; and the assembly, instead of qualifying the claims contained in the resolutions of the people of Boston, avowed them in all their extent. In their address they openly denied the right of parliament to tax or to legislate for them in any respect whatsoever; and added that, if in any late instances there had been a submission to acts of parliament, it had arisen rather from want of consideration, and a reluctance to contend with the parent state, than from a conviction of the supreme legislative authority of parliament.

CHAPTER II.

The independent spirit which had so often manifested itself in the assembly and colony of Massachusetts Bay, had been gradually working its way into the other provinces. Since the time of the first congress, a mutual correspondence had been maintained between the leading men of the several colonies. The measures of the British ministry had tended to promote among them an approximation of political sentiment, and to make them feel the importance of union and co-operation in giving consistency and vigor to their measures. But although the colonies were determined to resist taxation by a British parliament, yet there was not at this time among the great body of the people, nor even among their leaders, unless with perhaps a very few exceptions, the remotest intention of a separation from Great Britain. But an act of parliament was passed this session, which brought matters to a crisis, and severed the American colonies for ever from the British empire.

The East India Company enjoyed a monopoly, and, having allowed their affairs to fall into disorder, they applied to parliament for relief, complaining that. their embarrassments were partly owing to the American disturbances, which had lessened the demand for their tea, and left nearly 17,000,000 lbs. lying in their warehouses for want of a market; but unhappily the ministry resolved to relieve them. For this purpose parliament empowered the company to export their tea to the colonies free from all duties payable in Britain. The ministry seem to have imagined that the company, by exporting the tea to America in their own ships, would be enabled to relieve their overstocked warehouses; that the colonial non-importation associations would be rendered ineffectual; and. that the tax of three pence on the pound would necessarily be paid in America. But the quarrel had already proceeded too far to admit of the success of such a scheme. The Americans easily foresaw, that if the tea were landed in the provinces it would be impossible to check the sale and consumption of it; they, therefore took measures to prevent the discharging of their cargoes.

In November news reached Boston that three ships, loaded with tea, on account of the East India Company, were on their way to that port. The information threw the people into great commotion; the consignees were threatened, and fled for safety to Castle William. On the arrival of the tea, a meeting of the inhabitants of Boston and of the neighboring towns was held, at which it was resolved to send back the ships without permitting them to discharge their cargoes. Notice of this resolution was given to the consignees and others interested in the ships; and the meeting adjourned to afford them time to return their answer. The captains wished to put to sea, without running the risk of losing their cargoes. But the governor, who had always recommended coercive measures, found it easy to throw difficulties in the way of an amicable arrangement. The clearance from the customhouse, which was necessary to authorize the sailing of the ships, could not be obtained; besides, the vessels could not be allowed to pass Castle William without the governor's permission, which he refused to grant. The people, however, were too resolutely bent on their purpose to be diverted from it by such management. On the 16th of December the ad

journed town meeting, after having heard an account of al the proceedings in the affair, dissolved itself amid cries of "A mob, a mob !" and in the evening a number of armed men, disguised like Mohawk Indians, boarded the three tea ships, and in about the space of two hours, broke open 342 chests of tea, valued at 18,000l. sterling, and discharged the contents into the sea. The work was deliberately performed, and no property but the tea injured.

The determined spirit of resistance to the introduction of this article was not confined to Boston, but manifested itself in other places also, although it was not attended with similar violence. In most instances the ships were obliged to return without having discharged their cargoes. In Charlestown, after much opposition, the tea was permitted to be landed, but was immediately lodged in damp cellars, where it long remained, and was finally spoiled.

Information of the destructive proceedings at Boston reached Britain while parliament was sitting, and was communicated to both houses by messages from the crown. The people of that town had on so many occasions shown an independent spirit, and had resisted oppression so often, that it was determined to make them feel the weight of parliamentary vengeance. For that purpose a bill was introduced on the 14th of March, 1774, and received the royal assent on the 31st of the same month, prohibiting the lading or unlading of any goods or merchandise, excepting stores for his majesty's service, and provisions and fuel for the use of the inhabitants, at any place within the port of Boston, after the 1st day of June, until the king was satisfied that good order and obedience to the laws were restored, and until the East India Company and others should be indemnified for the loss they had sustained. Then, and not till then, might the king by proclamation open the harbor of Boston. In order to enforce obedience to the enactments of this bill, four ships-of-war were ordered to sail for the proscribed town. General Gage, commander-in-chief in America, was appointed governor of Massachusetts Bay, in the room of Mr. Hutchinson; and he was authorized to grant pardons for treasons and all other crimes, and to remit forfeitures to all such offenders as he should think fit objects of royal clemency.

2

But the British ministry were not satisfied with shutting up the harbor of Boston; they resolved not only to punish the people for past offences, but also to prevent future misconduct. For these purposes, they determined to annul the charter of the colony, and give it a new constitution. They accordingly procured an act of parliament which deprived the lower house of assembly in Massachusetts Bay of the power of electing the council, and vested that privileg in the crown, authorizing the king, or the governor acting in his name, to appoi judges, magistrates, and sheriffs. The act also empowered the sheriff to summon and return juries, and prohibited town meetings, unless with the consent of the governor. The charter was considered by the colonists as the compact between them and the king, and as the only bond of union between them. They admitted that if they had violated the charter they were justly liable to punishment; but thought neither king nor parliament had any right to annul the charter. The attempt to do so, in their opinion, broke the bond of union, and set the people free from their allegiance. From that moment the parties became independent of each other, and the king could reign over the colony only as a conquered province, reduced to unconditional submission.

But with these two acts the ministry were not satisfied. For the consummation of their plan, they added a third, empowering the governor, with the advice of the council, when any person in the discharge of his duty as an officer of revenue, or as a magistrate in the suppression of riots, or in the support of the laws of revenue, or when any person acting under the authority of a magistrate for any of those purposes, should be charged with the crime of murder, or with any other capital offence while so acting, to send the person so charged to any