Government Bill. The governor of the province, he insisted, had no power to uphold the authority with which he was invested. "There must be something radically wrong," he said, "in that constitution in which no magistrate for a series of years had done his duty in such a manner as to enforce obedience to the laws." Under these circumstances, he not only proposed that the Council of the province, instead of being elected by the people as heretofore, should be appointed by the Crown, but also that the governor should have the nomination of the judges, the magistrates, and sheriffs. So gross a violation of the liberty of the subject so unscrupulous an invasion of constitutional rights-had not been attempted by a British minister since the day when Massachusetts had received its charter from the hands of William of Orange. At once, every right-minded American resident in England, without waiting to learn the sentiments of his countrymen on the other side of the Atlantic, raised his voice against so infamous a proposal to render justice subservient to the Crown. In Parliament also it met with violent opposition. The people of Massachusetts, said Governor Pownall, instead of being a set of thankless, discontented, and turbulent rioters, such as their enemies had represented them, were, as a community, as religious, conscientious, and peaceable a people, as any in his Majesty's dominions. Lord North, however, was not to be diverted from

his purpose. "The Americans have tarred and feathered your subjects," he said, "have plundered your merchants, burned your ships, denied all obedience to your laws and authority; yet so clement, and so long-forbearing has our conduct been, that it is incumbent on us now to take a different course. Whatever may be the consequence, we must risk something. If we do not, all is over." Once more the experienced ex-governor endeavoured to induce ministers to listen to reason, but again with little effect. If they persisted, he told them, in their present arbitrary policy, then indeed "all was over." "I tell you," he exclaimed, emphatically, "that the Americans will oppose the measures now proposed by you in a more vigorous way than before. The committees of correspondence in the different provinces are in constant communication. They trust not in the conveyance of the post-office. They have set up a constitutional courier, who will soon grow up and supersede your post-office. As soon as intelligence of these affairs reaches them, they. will judge it necessary to communicate with each other. It will be found inconvenient and ineffectual to do so by letters. They must confer. They will hold a conference; and to what these committees, thus met in congress, will grow up, Should recourse be had to arms,

I will not say.

you will hear of other officers than those appointed. by your governor. Should matters once come to

that, it will be, as it was in the late civil wars of this country, of little consequence to dispute who were the aggressors. That will be merely matter of opinion." Pownall's prophetic words shared the fate of many similar warnings. Ministers not only triumphed in both Houses of Parliament, but were enabled, in the course of the session, to carry another tyrannical measure, which empowered the Governor of Massachusetts, in cases of murder or any other capital offence, to send the accused for trial, either to Great Britain or to one of her colonies, on his own individual authority, To this measure also, considerable opposition was offered in each House of Parliament, yet it was carried into law by large majorities.

CHAPTER IX.

Excitement in the American Colonies Strenuous Resistance to the Coercive Measures of Parliament - Closing of Boston Port Severe Distress in Consequence - Sympathy in the Provinces and in England - General Congress Held at Philadelphia Military Preparations Lord Chatham's Speech

on Moving an Address to the Crown to Remove the Troops from Boston - His Speech on Proposing Conciliatory Measures - Rejection of His Motion-Defeat of the Motion to Hear Franklin, and Two Other American Agents, at the Bar of the House of Commons State of Opinion in the Provinces.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the grief and consternation which pervaded the population of Massachusetts, so soon as the intelligence reached them that their ancient charter had been violated, and that the noble port of Boston, of whose rising commerce they were justly proud, was about to be closed. Nor was the consternation confined to the people of Massachusetts. The tidings flew with an electric effect over the length and breadth of the land. Before a month had elapsed, the people of America from Lake Huron to the Gulf of Mexico had made the cause of Massachusetts their own. In many places the Boston Port Bill was printed with a black border

around it, and cried in the streets as "a barbarous, cruel, bloody, and inhuman murder." If, said the Americans, they permitted one province to be robbed of its charter without remonstrance and opposition, who would guarantee that the charter of his own province would not be the next violated? The inhabitants of Baltimore were the first to encourage their brethren in Massachusetts, by advocating a suspension of trade with Great Britain, and by declaring in favour of sending delegates to a general Continental Congress. New Hampshire, though still affectionately attached to the mother country; New Jersey, destined to be the scene of more than one hard-fought struggle in the impending contest; and even South Carolina, though scarcely strong enough to defend herself against the fierce Creek and Cherokee Indians who hovered in formidable numbers along her frontiers, nevertheless declared themselves, through their several Assemblies, prepared to stand by Massachusetts and by one another even unto death. Not less ardent was the spirit which animated the people of Virginia, that romantic region which had given birth to Washington, to Patrick Henry, and to Jefferson, and which was destined to be the scene of the crowning success which gave America her independence. There, the majority of the House of Burgesses, averse as they were to sever the ties which bound them to the land of their forefathers, nevertheless passed