The act called the Military Bill, which accompanied these laws, and which was formed to support and encourage the soldiery in beating down all possible resistance to the other acts, it was imagined, would complete the design, and bring the colonies to a perfect submission. In confidence of the perfection of this plan of terrors, punishments, and regulations, and of the large force by sea and land (as it was then thought) which was sent to strengthen the hands of government, adininistration reposed in the most pers fect security; and ended the session in the most triumphant manner, and with the mutual congratulas tions of all concerned in those acts, which may be well remembered, and which we have described in our last volume.

no

In a word, these bills, (as had been too truly foretold by their opposers at home) instead of a of answering the purposes for which they were intended, spread a general alarm from one end to the other of the continent, and became the cement of a strict and close union between all the old colonies. They said it was now visible, that charters, grants, and established usages, were longer a protection or defence; that all rights, immunities, and civil securities, must vanish at the breath of an act of parliament. They were all sensible, that they had been guilty, in a greater or lesser degree, of those unpardonable sins which had drawn down fire upon Boston; they believed, that vengeance, tho delayed, was not remitted; and that all the mercy, the most favoured or the least culpable could expect, was to be the last that would be devoured.

It may be remembered in the last session, that the minister had an

The event, in all these cases, was however very different. The neighbouring towns disdained every idea of profiting in any degree by the misfortunes of their friends in Boston. The people of the pronounced in the House of Commons, vince, instead of being shaken by the coercive means which were used for their subjugation, joined the more firmly together to brave the storin; and seeing that their ancient constitution was destroyed, and that it was determined to deprive them of those rights, which they had ever been taught to revere as sacred, and to deen more valuable than life itself, they determined at all events to preserve them, or to perish in the common ruin. In the same manner, the other colonies, instead of abandoning, clung the closer to their devoted sister as the danger increased; and their affection and sympathy seemed to rise in proportion to her misfortunes and sufferings.

the appointment of General Gage to the government of the province of Massachusett's Bay, and to the command in chief of the army in North-America. As this gentleman had borne several commands with reputation in that part of the world; had lived many years there, and had sufficient opportunities of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the people, and was besides well approved of.by them, great hopes were formed of the happy effects which would have resulted from his administration; and it is little to be doubted, if his appointment had been at a happier time, and his government free from the necessity of enforcing measures which were generally odious to the people, but [4] 2

these

celerity. These had the effect which the poets ascribe to the Fury's torch; they set the countries in a flame through which they passed. At Boston and New-York, the populace had copies of the bill printed upon mourning-paper with a black border, which they cried about the streets under the title of a barbarous, cruel, bloody, and inhuman murder. In other places, great bodies of the people were called together by public advertisement, and the obnoxious law burned with great solemnity.

There was, however, a very sur prising mixture of sobriety with this fury; and a degree of moderation was blended with the excess into which the people were hur

ried.

petition to the Governor, for appointing a day of general prayer and fasting, which he did not think proper to comply with.

In the mean time, Provincial or Town meetings were held in every part of the continent; in which, tho' some were much more temperate than others, they all concurred in expressing the greatest disapprobation of the measures which were pursued against Boston, an abhorrence of the new act, and a condemnation of the principles on which it was founded, with a resolution to oppose its effects in every manner, and to support their distressed brethren, who were to be the immediate victims.

The House of Burgesses, of the province of Virginia, appointed the 1st of June, the day on which the Boston Port Bill took place, to be set apart for fasting, prayer, and humiliation, to implore the Divine interposition to avert the heavy calamity, which threatened destruction to their civil rights, with the evils of a civil war; and to give one heart and one mind to the people, firmly to oppose every injury to the American rights. This example was either followed, or a similar resolution adopted, almost every where, and the 1st of June became a general day of prayer and humiliation throughout the con tinent.

This extraordinary combustion in the minds of all ranks of the people did not prevent the Governor's be ing received with the usual honours at Boston. The new Assembly of the province met of course a few days after, the Council, for the last time, being chosen according to their charter. The Governor at their meeting laid nothing more before them than the common business of the province; but gave them notice of their removal to the town of Salem, on the first of June, in pursuance of the late act of parliament. The Assembly, to evade this measure, were hurrying through the necessary business of the supplies This measure, however, procured with the greatest expedition, that the immediate dissolution of the they might then adjourn themselves Assembly of Virginia; but before to such time as they thought pro- their separation, an association was per; but the Governor having ob- entered into and signed by 89 of tained some intelligence of their the members, in which they de intention, adjourned them unex-clared, that an attack made upon pectedly to the 7th of June, then to one colony, to compel submission to meet at Salem. Previous to this arbitrary taxes, was an attack on all adjournment, they had presented a British America, and threatened [4] 3

ruin

ruin to the rights of all, unless the united wisdom of the whole was applied in prevention. They therefore recommended to the committee of correspondence, to communicate - with the several committees of the other provinces, on the expediency of appointing deputies from the different colonies, to meet annually in General Congress, and to deliberate on those general measures which the united-interests of America might, from time to time, render necessary. They concluded with a declaration, that a tender regard for the interests of their fellow-subjects the merchants and manufacturers of Great-Britain, prevented them from going further at that time.

At Philadelphia, about 300 of the inhabitants immediately met, and appointed a committee to write to the town of Boston. Their letter was temperate, but firm. They acknowledged the difficulty of of féring advice upon that sad occasion; wished first to have the sense of the province in general; observed, that all lenient applications for obtaining redress should be tried before recourse was had to extremities; that it might perhaps be right to take the sense of a General Congress, before the desperate measure of potting an entire stop to commerce was adopted; and that it might be right, at any rate, to reserve that measure as the last resource, when all other means had failed. They observed that if the making of restitution to the EastIndia Company for their teas, would put an end to the unhappy controversy, and leave the people of Boston upon their ancient footing of constitutional liberty, it could not admit of a moment's doubt what

part they should act; but it was not the value of the tea, it was the indefeasible right of giving and granting their own money, a right from which they could never recede, that was now the matter in consideration..

A Town-meeting was also held at New-York, and a committee of correspondence appointed; but they were as yet, in general, very temperate in their conduct; and Government had a much stronger interest in that colony than in any other. The case was far different at Anapolis in Maryland, where the people of that city, though uns der a proprietáry government, exceeded the other colonies in the violence of their resolations; one of which was to prevent the carrying on of any suits in the courts of the province, for the debts which were owing from them in Great Britain. This resolution, however, was neither adopted nor confirmed by the Provincial meeting which was held soon after; nor was it any where carried into practice.

In general, as night have been expected in such great commercial countries, the proposal for shutting up the ports (former resolutions of this kind having been much abused for the private gain of individuals) was received with great seriousness, hesitation, and coldness; and considered as the last desperate resort, when all other means of redress should fail. In other respects, upon the arrival of the news from Boston, moderation was little thought of any where, and the behaviour of the people was nearly similar in all places. At the numberless public meetings which were held upon that occasion, throughout the continent, they passed every resolution,

and