ted of
having goods which had not been duly entered.[297]

3. A third Bill, in Mr. Charles Townshend's scheme for the taxation of
the colonies, was for the establishment in America of _Courts of
Vice-Admiralty_--at Halifax, Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston--Courts
in which the colonists were deprived of the right of trial by jury,
which were invested with authority to seize and transport accused persons
to England to be tried there--Courts of which the officers and informers
were paid out of the proceeds of sales of confiscated goods, and in
proportion to their amounts, and were therefore personally interested
in confiscating as many goods as possible, and from their decisions
there was no appeal except to England--a process not only tedious,
but ruinously expensive, even if successful, of which there could
be little hope.

In connection with these three Acts (the operations and effects of which
Charles Townshend did not live to see),[298] the navy and military in
America were commanded, not as a defence against foreign or even Indian
invasions, but as Custom-house guards and officers, to enforce the
payment of taxes on the colonists. The very next day after the King had
given the royal sanction to the system of Courts of Admiralty in
America, "orders were issued directly to the Commander-in-Chief in
America, that the troops under his command should give their assistance
to the officers of the revenue for the effectual suppression of the
contraband trade. Nor was there delay in following up the new law, to
employ the navy to enforce the Navigation Acts. To this end Admiral
Colville, the naval Commander-in-Chief on the coasts of North America,
from the River St. Lawrence to Cape Florida and the Bahama Islands,
became the head of a new corps of revenue officers. Each captain of his
squadron had Custom-house commissions, and a set of instructions from
the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty for his guidance; and other
instructions were given them by the Admiral, to enter into the harbours
or lie off the coasts of America; to qualify themselves, by taking the
usual Custom-house oaths, to do the office of Custom-house officers; to
seize such persons as were suspected by them to be engaged in illicit
trade."[299]

The effect of these acts and measures was to create universal
dissatisfaction throughout the colonies, as they were not even in
pretence for the regulation of trade, but for the purpose of raising a
parliam