was considered in England as evidencing a strong disposition on the part of ministers to avoid all harsh measures, that this instance of disobedience was punished with no possitive penalties; but, resisting all the violent propositions of those who contended that America was in a state of absolute disorder and open rebellion, they contented themselves with a law prohibiting the Governor, Council, and Assembly of the province from passing any act until the requisition of parliament had been in every respect complied with. The persevering temper of Massachussetts had not yet found its way to New York, and this measure produced the desired effect; the mutiny act was literally complied with. Two companies of artillery, driven into the harbour of Boston by stress of weather, applied to the Governor for the necessary and usual supplies. He laid the application before his council, who advised that, “in pursuance to the act of parliament,” the supplies required should be furnished. They were furnished, and the money, amounting to about sixty pounds sterling, drawn from the treasury by the authority of the executive. The General Court meet soon after, and the House of Representatives, very early in the session, sent a message to the Governor, requesting to know whether any provision had been made for his Majesty's troops lately arrived in their harbour, and by whom? and whether he had reason to expect the arrived arrival of any more troops to be quartered on the province ? The Governor, in reply, transmitted them the journals of the Council, with an account of the expense incurred; and also informed them that he had no reason to expect the arrival of any additional body of troops. The House expressed, in very pointed terms, their disapprobation of the conduct of the Governor: "He had no right," they said, "on the advice of Council, to issue money out of the treasury but in conformity with such acts as may, at the time, be in force within the province; and, in the case of his exceeding his authority under the pressure of urgent necessity, it was his duty to seize the first occasion for laying the matter before that House." But particular umbrage was excited by the declaration, that these steps had been taken in pursuance of an act of parliament. After the repeal of the stamp act, they were surprised to find that this act, equally odious and unconstitutional, should remain in force. They lamented the entry of this reason for the advice of Council the more, as it was an unwarrantable and unconstitutional step, which totally disabled them from testifying the same cheerfulness they had always shewn in granting to his Majesty, of their free accord, such aids as his service has from time to time required. Copies of these messages were transmitted by Governor Bernard to the ministry, in a manner not calculated calculated to render the communication less unplea sant. The idea of raising a revenue in America was highly favoured in England, especially by the landed interest; and not even the weight of administration could have obtained a repeal of the stamp act on the naked principle of right. Few were hardy enough to question the supremacy of parliament s and their having receded from the practical assertion of their power to tax the colonists, deeply wounded the pride and grated harshly on the feelings not only of the king, who was supposed to be still under the influence of the Earl of Bute, but of a considerable part of the nation. The temper now discovered in some of the colonies was by no means calculated to assuage the wound which this measure had inflicted on the haughty spirit of the rulers of that country, and is supposed to have contributed in no small degree to the revival of a system which had been reluctantly abandoned. Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in an administration formed by Lord Chatham, a man of splendid and versatile talents, said boastingly in the House of Commons, that "he knew how to draw a revenue from the colonies without giving them offence*." Mr. Grenville eagerly * Belsham, caught caught at the declaration, and instantly urged this minister to pledge himself to bring forward the measure at which he had hinted. A bill had been decided on in the cabinet during the sickness and absence of Lord Chatham, whose infirmities had for the time impaired both his talents and his influence, for imposing certain duties on tea, glass, paper, and painters' colours, imported into the colonies from Great Britain. This bill was now brought into Parliament, and passed almost without opposition: the taxes it imposed were appropriated, in the first instance, to the payment of the salaries of the governors, judges, and other officers of government. The friends of America in England had distinguished between internal and external taxation; and the same distinction had also been made in the colonies. As the power of parliament to impose duties for the purpose of commercial regulations had never been doubted, it is possible that, if the present measure had been adopted in the first instance, it might, as well as the act laying a duty on sugars, have been submitted to without examination; but the discussions to which the stamp act had given birth, had greatly enlarged the circle of political information in America, and, while they rendered more diffusive among the colonists a knowledge of their rights, had inspired also a much more accurate mode of think ing respecting them. The present duties were plainly intended not to regulate commerce, but to raise a revenue, which would would be as certainly collected from the colonies as the duties on stamps could have been. The principle of the two measures was precisely the same. The mode of attack indeed was varied, but the same object was still pursued. Many of the Americans were now too intelligent to be misguided by the distinction between internal and external taxation, or by the precedents quoted in support of the right contended for. This, they said, was plainly an internal tax, as the duties would be unavoidably paid in the country; and, if external, yet it was imposed, not for the purpose of regulating or restraining trade, but of raising a revenue; it was considered as establishing a precedent of taxation for the mere purpose of revenue, which might afterwards be extended at the discretion of Parliament, and was spoken of as the entering wedge designed to make way for impositions too heavy to be borne. The appropriation of the money did not lessen the odium of the tax: the Colonial Legislatures considered the dependence of Governors and other officers on them for their salaries, as the best security for their attending to the interests and cultivating the affections of the provinces. With these sentiments concerning the act, it was not strange that a determination was made to oppose its execution*; yet the idea of its being uncon VOL. II. * Prior Documents.. K stitutional |