fy the
British Government. The wrath of the meeting was kindling, when the
sheriff of Suffolk entered with a proclamation from the Governor,
"warning, exhorting, and requiring them, and each of them there
unlawfully assembled, forthwith to disperse, and to surcease all further
unlawful proceedings, at their utmost peril." The words were received
with hisses, derision, and a unanimous vote not to disperse. "Will it be
safe for the consignees to appear in the meeting?" asked Copley; and all
with one voice responded that they might safely come and return; but
they refused to appear. In the afternoon Rotch, the owner, and Hall, the
master, of the Dartmouth, yielding to an irresistible impulse, engaged
that the tea should return as it came, without touching land or paying
a duty. A similar promise was exacted of the owners of the other
tea-ships whose arrival was daily expected. In this way "it was thought
the matter would have ended." "I should be willing to spend my fortune
and life itself in so good a cause," said Hancock, and this sentiment
was general; they all voted "to carry their resolutions into effect at
the risk of their lives and property."

Every shipowner was forbidden, on pain of being deemed an enemy to the
country, to import or bring as freight any tea from Great Britain till
the unrighteous act taxing it should be repealed, and this vote was
printed and sent to every seaport in the province and to England.

Six persons were chosen as post-riders to give due notice to the country
towns of any attempt to land the tea by force, and the committee of
correspondence, as the executive organ of the meeting, took care that a
military watch was regularly kept up by volunteers armed with muskets
and bayonets, who at every half-hour in the night regularly passed the
word "All is well," like sentinels in a garrison. Had they been molested
by night, the tolling of the bells would have been the signal for a
general uprising. An account of all that had been done was sent into
every town in the province.

The ships, after landing the rest of their cargo, could neither be
cleared in Boston with the tea on board nor be entered in England, and
on the twentieth day from their arrival would be liable to seizure.
"They find themselves," said Hutchinson, "involved in invincible
difficulties." Meantime in private letters he advised to separate Boston
from the rest of the province; and to begin criminal prosecutions
against its p