liatory proposition was
made. Mr. Rose Fuller 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 power of reasoning, and all
the splendour of eloquence which distinguished that consummate
statesman; but reason and eloquence were of no avail. It was lost by a
great majority. The earl of Chatham, who had long been too ill to
attend parliament, again made his appearance in the house of lords. He
could have been drawn out, only by a strong sense of the fatal
importance of those measures into which the nation was hurrying. But
his efforts were unavailing. Neither his weight of character, his
sound judgment, nor his manly eloquence, could arrest the hand of fate
which seemed to propel this lofty nation, with irresistible force, to
measures which terminated in its dismemberment.[231]

[Footnote 231: Idem.]

[Sidenote: General enthusiasm.]

It was expected, and this expectation was encouraged by Mr.
Hutchinson, that, by directing these measures particularly against
Boston, not only the union of the colonies would be broken, but
Massachusetts herself would be divided. Never was expectation more
completely disappointed. All perceived that Boston was to be punished
for having resisted, only with more violence, the principle which they
had all resisted; and that the object of the punishment was to coerce
obedience to a principle they were still determined to resist. They
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 submit to be taxed by a parliament, in which
they were not and could not be represented, or support their brethren
who were selected to sustain the first shock of a power which, if
successful there, would overwhelm them all. The neighbouring towns,
disdaining to avail themselves of the calamities inflicted on a sister
for her exertions in the common cause, 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 intelligence of the Boston port bill, a meeting of the
people of that town was called. They perceived that "the sharpest,
sharpest conflict" wa