he council in the crown, altered the
system by which juries were chosen, and prohibited town meetings, the
principal engine of democratic rule, from being held without the consent
of the governor. The abrogation of chartered rights excited strong,
though ineffectual, opposition; the bill was passed in the commons by
239 to 64, and in the lords by 92 to 20, eleven peers signing a protest
against it.

This measure was calculated to alarm and irritate the colonies
generally, for the alteration of the charter of one of them would be
taken as a menace to the constitutional liberties of all. In the hope of
counteracting this effect, the opposition wished the house of commons,
before it passed the bill, to conciliate the Americans by repealing the
tax on tea.[91] A motion was made for the repeal on April 19, and was
supported by Burke in a speech of remarkable power. He maintained that
the concession would be well received, and entreated the house to resort
to its old principles, to be content to bind the colonies by laws of
trade, to disregard the question of its right, and to refrain from
taxation. Only forty-nine voted for the motion. A third bill ordered
that any one accused of a capital offence should, if the act was done in
the execution of the law in Massachusetts, be tried in Nova Scotia or
Great Britain; and a fourth provided for the quartering of troops. When
the quartering bill was before the lords, Chatham returned to
parliament. He opposed the bill, declared his dislike of the Boston port
bill, which, he said, punished a whole town for the crime of a few; and
while he condemned the turbulence of the Americans, declared that their
discontent was due to the irritating treatment they had received, and
urged that England should act towards them as a fond and forgiving
parent, for the time was at hand when she would "need the help of her
most distant friends". On all these bills the numbers of the minority
were very low, and the king declared himself "infinitely pleased" with
the reception they met with. Meanwhile Hutchinson was recalled, and Gage
was appointed governor of Massachusetts as well as commander-in-chief.

[Sidenote: _THE QUEBEC ACT._]

Another bill, closely connected with the state of affairs in America,
though not devised merely with reference to it, provided for the
government of Canada, which had remained as it had been settled
temporarily by royal proclamation in 1763. The province of Quebec, as it