words in Parliament, there seems to have been but one man of all those who wrought the mischief sober enough to suspect, that, in forging chains for others, he might be forging them for himself.

For awhile the ukase administration seemed to be acceptable even to the victims. Under the intolerable pressure of personal deprivation, the non-importation agreement was broken, and the colonists fell to quarrelling among themselves and calling each other hard names. The Boston massacre, which had created intense excitement in both countries, appears to have served the purpose in America of relieving the public mind of the hatred. then poured out on England and every thing English. But the troops had been withdrawn, and a disposition to let things alone, bad as they were, began to make itself felt. Repeal, such as it was, was having its effect, and the ministry party in the colonies began to flatter themselves, that "the reaction," that dream of Bourbonism, which always takes hope when revolution stops to take breath, had surely set in.

One great effect of the Stamp Act had been to call into existence two parties in America, which, like those of England, were called Whig and Tory. So distinct, however, were the provinces, and so sluggish the disposition to unite, that, in the Whig or patriot party, there was little concert of action. There could not be; for what existed of that party in each colony was bounded by the limits of that colony, and, in fact, there may be said to have been as many such parties as there were provinces. Apathy had fallen upon the land, but the apathetic pauses of revolution are invariably brooding, and this was one of them. The American leaders were none the less conscious that something had to be done to deliver the people from the body of that death, notwithstanding that the people were muttering for a little more slumber, a little more folding of the hands to rest. For the moment it seemed as if there was nothing which was available to break the dangerous lethargy. The pertinacity of the cabinet, however, soon came to their relief. Though the duties on glass, paper, and paint, had been repealed, the preamble of the Act imposing them had not been, and the purpose to make the colonial governments and courts English instead of American still stood out boldly from the statute book. That purpose was now to be enforced through an

COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE.

271

order of Hillsborough, that the judges and their subordinates should be paid from the imperial treasury. This was followed by a declaration of Lord Dartmouth, that the King had the right to make such provision. "The blind may see, the callous must feel, the spirited will act," cried Josiah Quincy; and Samuel Adams, seeing that the hour had struck, now bent himself to the task of organizing one party throughout America. At a town-meeting, called to consider this salary question, Adams moved that a committee of correspondence be appointed. The motion was carried. This example was everywhere followed throughout New England, and eventually in the other provinces, and henceforward the "committees of correspondence" figure on every page of the revolution. This movement, even when still confined to New England, was formidable, and the astute and far-reaching Hutchinson, delaying not for instructions from London, boldly threw himself in its path and denounced the committees of correspondence as hostile to the Constitution. The encounter which ensued was eagerly observed from both sides of the Atlantic. To the annoyance of the cabinet, it brought out that dread of absolutism, a discussion of first principles, before which the unsupported Hutchinson at last had to retire, covered with the ridicule of enemies and the reproaches of friends.

Still the remaining colonies did not evince a disposition to throw off their indifference, and the Bostonians were yielding to disappointment, when a Royal Instruction arrived creating a Commission to inquire into the circumstances which resulted in the burning of His Majesty's schooner Gaspee in the Rhode Island waters, to order the arrest of the parties charged, together with the witnesses, and to call for assistance, if any were needed, upon the commander of the army in America, who was instructed to supply it. When the arrests were made, the parties arrested were to be sent to England for trial.

This actual violation of the right to trial by jury, with the spectacle of the British army in readiness to strike the right down should it attempt to assert itself, aroused every instinct of the freeman. Nevertheless, the tameness of overawed Rhode Island was such as to provoke a taunt from Greene, the future antagonist of Cornwallis in the Carolinas. Virginia, however, took up the matter at once, and, through her young progressives, sounded the alarm to

all the colonies in a set of resolutions, which, for the first time, referred to the action of all the British colonies in America, without limitation. These resolutions, which were unanimously adopted, provided for a standing committee "to keep up and maintain a correspondence and communication with her sister colonies," and was the first effective legislative action of the kind. "Full scope," wrote Richard Henry Lee, "is given to a large and thorough union of the colonies, though our language is so contrived as to prevent the enemies of America from hurrying this transaction into the vortex of treason." Five colonies at once responded with resolutions to coöperate. The silence of irresolution hung over the remaining seven. Another aggression was needed to stir timidity into boldness. It soon came, and the prolonged quiet was abruptly broken by an affair which riveted attention upon the colonies, and did much to hasten their revolt.

Τ

CHAPTER XI.

The Conflict with Absolutism-Continued.

HE affairs of the East India Company had fallen into bad shape. Child's panegyric had been written in vain. Their embarrassments were attributed to bad management and to the refusal of one of their best markets, the American, to take their teas on any terms so long as they were burthened with duties. The colonists drank tea none the less, it is true, but they smuggled it from the rivals of the East India Company, the Dutch; a fact which only served to aggravate the evil. Two things occurred, in consequence, to embarrass the company: an enormous glut which crammed the warehouses, and an empty money-chest. In its distress the company appealed to the government, who undertook to relieve it by a loan of £1,500,000 sterling. In order to reim bursement, however, it was necessary to take another step, namely, to effect the sale of the teas. In 1772, on a renewal of the Tea Act, an act granting a drawback of three fifths of the English duties of customs on all teas sent to the colonies was passed. Still the Americans would not take the teas. In order to overcome this perversity, Lord North now, April 27, 1773, proposed a drawback on teas going to America of the whole duty payable in England, and that the company should be at liberty to export its teas directly to the colonies, which, under the Navigation Acts, as we have seen, could not then be done. In this case, the teas, when landed on American wharves, would be subject only to the duty of three pence imposed by the Act of 1767. As this would enable the Americans to get their teas cheaper than from the Dutch, no doubt was entertained of the colonial market opening itself to the company, which, in turn, would be relieved of its surplus, and

reimbursement would be assured, while the three pence, which would not be felt in the paying, would be enough to keep the flag of principle flying, and satisfy the royal mind respecting the one tax necessary to maintain the right.

It will be observed, that in this, as in every measure brought to bear upon them, the Americans were to admit the right of Great Britain to tax them without representation, as a first step, and, as a second, they were to pay in cash for making the admission. So long as the colonies were maintained by England for commercial reasons, it was natural and proper that her legislation should bear the ear-marks of trade. But when, in addition to commercial regulation, she adopted a policy purely political, it is but reasonable to expect that her action in that respect should be free from even the suspicion of thrift. This, it seems, was to expect too much. "They have no idea," wrote Franklin, "that any people can act from any other principle than that of interest," and, accordingly, all of England's dealings with her colonies are marred by those offensive peculiarities which smack of the shop. This was galling in the extreme to a people who, outside of their few seaports, had no trading classes, and it served to aggravate the irritation every measure of this commercial power excited.'

1 During the year 1773 there occurred two expressions of feeling which displayed the sense of injury felt by one side, and the contempt entertained by the other. The first was the publication of two satires by Dr. Franklin, then residing in England as a colonial agent, entitled respectively, "Edict of the King of Prussia," in which Prussia exacts revenue from the people of England on the ground of their Teutonic origin, and "Rules for reducing a Great Empire to a Small One," the tenor of which may be judged from the following paragraph : In the first place, gentlemen, you are to consider that a great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges. Turn your attention, therefore, first to your remotest provinces, that, as you get rid of them, the rest may follow in order."-" Works," iv, 387.

The second was one in which the same person figured, but in a different capacity from that of author. A Mr. Thomas Whately, formerly private secretary of Mr. Grenville, and later Under Secretary of State, died, leaving among his effects a package of personal correspondence with Gov. Hutchinson and Lt. Gov. Oliver, of Massachusetts. These letters, in some mysterious way, came into the hands of Dr. Franklin, under an injunction of secrecy and a pledge that he would never reveal the name of him who disclosed them. This pledge Dr Franklin kept, but he forwarded the letters, or a copy of them, to the Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Assembly, still under the imposition of secrecy. Another copy, however, coming under no condition of secrecy, as it was alleged, was published. The effect was, to cause such indignation that a petition was ordered by the Assembly to be transmitted to Dr. Franklin for presentation to the king, asking the removal of Hutchinson and Oliver. The matter was referred to the Council, before whom the petitioners appeared by their counsel, Lee and Dunning, and Hutchinson and Oliver by their counsel,