n a most
embarrassing position. The king, whom he had already offended by his
opposition to the royal marriage bill, heartily disliked him, and urged
North to get rid of him. He was curtly dismissed from office on February
24. He at once went into opposition, and acted generally with the
Rockingham party, though he did not distinctly join it until a later
period. He was already intimate with Burke, who soon gained much
influence over him. On almost every question he combated the opinions
which he had previously supported, and constantly attacked his former
chief with great bitterness. In debate the opposition gained enormously
by his alliance, but it was in the end injurious to their cause. His
sympathy with the enemies of his country in time of war strengthened the
king and his ministers in their efforts to maintain the honour of
England by persevering in the struggle, for it revolted the patriotic
feelings of the nation and kept it steadfast in its support of the
government.

[Sidenote: _THE PENAL ACTS._]

On March 14 North began to lay before the commons the measures by which
the government hoped to bring the Americans to submission. By the first
of these penal laws, as they are called, Boston was to be punished by
the transference of the seat of government to Salem, and by the closing
of its harbour, which entailed the suspension of its trade, until the
town had made good the loss inflicted on the East India Company, and the
king was satisfied that the laws would be observed. North spoke with
remarkable moderation. Both he and Dartmouth disliked violent measures,
and their tone with regard to America was so different from that of
their colleagues, that it indicated a division in the cabinet.[90] The
bill met with little opposition in the commons, though Dowdeswell and
Burke spoke against it. In the lords, Rockingham and Shelburne opposed
it, Chatham was absent through ill-health, and Mansfield strongly
advocated it, declaring that Boston had committed "the last overt act of
treason," and that it was a lucky event, for if the bill passed we
should have crossed the Rubicon, the Americans would see that we would
temporise no longer, and if it passed unanimously, Boston would submit
without bloodshed. The bill passed both houses without a division. The
next bill, "for regulating the government of Massachusetts Bay,"
overthrew the charter of the colony; it increased the power of the
governor, vested the nomination of t