risks to enkindle an immortal hatred between
them."--(Quoted by Mr. Hildreth, Vol. II., p. 409, in a note.)]

[Footnote 317: Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. iii., pp.
370-372.]

CHAPTER XVII.

EVENTS OF 1771, 1772, 1773--THE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S TEA REJECTED IN
EVERY PROVINCE OF AMERICA--RESOLUTIONS OF A PUBLIC MEETING IN
PHILADELPHIA THE MODEL FOR THOSE OF OTHER COLONIES.

By this unprecedented and unjustifiable combination between the British
Ministry and East India Company to supersede the ordinary channels of
trade, and to force the sale of their tea in America, the returning
peace and confidence between Great Britain and the colonies was
arrested, the colonial merchants of both England and America were roused
and united in opposition to the scheme, meetings were held, associations
were formed, and hostility throughout all the colonies became so general
and intense, that not a chest of the East India Company's tea was sold
from New Hampshire to Georgia, and only landed in one instance, and then
to rot in locked warehouses. In all cases, except in Boston, the
consignees were prevailed upon to resign; and in all cases except two,
Boston and Charleston, the tea was sent back to England without having
been landed. At Charleston, South Carolina, they allowed the tea to be
landed, but not sold; and it rotted in the cellars of the store-houses.
At Philadelphia, the consignees were forced to resign and send the tea
back to England.[318] At New York they did the same. At Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, they sent the tea away to Halifax. At Boston the consignees
were the sons of Hutchinson, the Governor, and he determined that it
should be landed and sold; while the mass of the people, led by
committees of the "Sons of Liberty," were equally determined that the
tea should not be landed or sold.

As this Boston tea affair resulted in the passing of two Acts of
Parliament--the Bill for closing the port of Boston, and the Bill for
suspending the Charter and establishing a new constitution of government
for Massachusetts--and these were followed by an American Congress and a
civil war, I will state the transactions as narrated by three American
historians, agreeing in the main facts, but differing in regard to
incidental circumstances.

Dr. Ramsay narrates the general opposition to the scheme of the East
India Company, and that at Boston in particular, in the following words:

"As the time approached when th