enue, and more disposed, in the
frenzy of patriotism, to commit outrages on their persons and property.
The constant bickering that existed between them and the inhabitants,
together with the steady opposition given by the latter to the discharge
of the official duties of the former, induced the Commissioners and
friends of an American revenue to solicit the protection of a regular
force at Boston. In compliance with their wishes, his Majesty ordered
two regiments and some armed vessels to repair thither for supporting
and assisting the officers of Customs in the execution of their duty.
(Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. iii., pp. 355, 356.)]

[Footnote 298: His Revenue Act, and the two subsequent Acts to give it
effect, produced an excitement throughout the American colonies that
will be noticed hereafter. Mr. Bancroft remarks: "They would nullify
Townshend's Revenue Act by consuming nothing on which he had laid a
duty, and avenge themselves on England by importing no more British
goods. At the beginning of this excitement (September, 1767), Charles
Townshend was seized with fever, and after a short illness, during which
he met danger with the unconcerned levity that had marked his conduct of
the most serious affairs, he died at the age of forty-one, famed alike
for incomparable talents and extreme instability." (History of the
United States, Vol. VI., p. 98.)]

[Footnote 299: Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. V., Chapter
ix., pp. 161, 162. Mr. Bancroft adds:

"The promise of large emoluments in case of forfeiture stimulated their
natural and irregular vivacity to enforce laws which had become
obsolete, and they pounced upon American property as they would have
gone to war in quest of prize-money. Even at first their acts were
equivocal, and they soon came to be as illegal as they were oppressive.
There was no redress. An appeal to the Privy Council was costly and
difficult; and besides, when it so happened, before the end of the year,
that an officer had to defend himself on an appeal, the suffering
colonists were exhausted by the delay and expense, while the Treasury
took care to indemnify their agent."--_Ib._, p. 162.]

[Footnote 300: Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol I., Chapter iii., pp. 352,
353.

"Towards the last of October, the inhabitants of Boston, 'ever sensitive
to the sound of liberty,' assembled in a town meeting, and voted to
dispense with a large number of articles of British man