hen the East India Company urged him to repeal the duty
of threepence per pound on tea, and offered to pay sixpence per pound
in lieu of it, as export duty, if permitted to import it into the
colonies duty free. The company was induced to make this proposition
in view of the great accumulation of tea in England; but the
government, more solicitous about the right than the revenue, would
not consent. The colonists were equally determined to resist taxation,
not on account of immediate burdens, but upon principle, and therefore
resolved to prevent the landing of the tea. A multitude rushed to the
wharf, and twenty persons, disguised as Indians, went on board the
ships laden with it, staved the chests, and threw their contents into
the sea. In New York and Philadelphia, as no persons could be found
who would venture to receive the tea sent to those ports, the ships
laden with it returned to England.

[Sidenote: Port of Boston Closed.]

The ministers of the crown were especially indignant with the province
of Massachusetts, which had always been foremost in resistance, and
the scene of the greatest disorders, and therefore resolved to block
up the port of Boston. Accordingly, in 1774 they introduced a bill to
discontinue the lading and shipping of goods, wares, and merchandise
at Boston, and to remove the custom-house to Salem. The bill received
the general approbation of the House, and passed by a great majority.

No measure could possibly have been more impolitic. A large force
should have been immediately sent to the colonies, to coerce them,
before they had time to organize sufficient force to resist the mother
country, or conciliatory measures should have been adopted. But the
House was angry and infatuated, and the voice of wisdom was
disregarded.

Soon after, Lord North introduced another bill for the better
government of the provinces, which went to subvert the charter of the
colony, and to violate all the principles of liberty and justice. By
this bill, the nomination of counsellors, judges, sheriffs, and
magistrates of all kinds, was vested in the crown; and these were also
removable at pleasure. The ministers, in advocating the bill, urged
the ground of necessity, the universal spirit of disaffection, which
bordered on actual rebellion. The bill was carried, by a majority of
two hundred and thirty-nine against sixty-four voices, May 2, 1774.

The next step of the minister was to bring in a bill which provide