146 Partiality of PARTIALITY OF THE COUNCIL. CH. XVIII. stration of their power. He saw that the crisis of American affairs was approaching, and that the great question whether the colony or the parent state was to give way must soon be determined. Some new impulse was wanting to raise the tone of provincial patriotism to the revolutionary pitch; some stronger bond of union between the different independent settlements than any which yet existed must be supplied; and the disclosure of treachery, or what might pass for such, on the part of native Americans holding high office in the colony, seemed to furnish the occasion which was wanted. This affair of the purloined letters was, in a word, one of those transactions of which history affords numerous examples, of a great end being advanced by unworthy means. It was a transaction to which Washington would not have stooped, but was level to the morality of Franklin. Whatever might have been Franklin's fault, the conduct of his judges was such as to show "the Council. that the semblance even of impartiality was not to be expected, when colonial grievances were concerned. While the Solicitor-General was denouncing the American agent, in language of studied derision, as a traitor, a thief, a treacherous spy, unsafe to be admitted to the intercourse of private life, the members of the Council, Earl Gower, the President, setting the example, expressed by laughter and gestures of applause their sympathy with the advocate. Lord North alone maintained an imperturbable gravity. The minister felt it was no laughing matter. And, perhaps, the sympathy of one who was himself a scholar and a wit, as well as a humane and high-bred gentleman, would have inclined more to the venerable philosopher and man of letters, who stood alone amidst a host of insulting foes, than to the venal and shameless lawyer, who so impudently affected to vindicate the cause of truth and honour. 1773. DECISION OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL. 147 Final decision. That the decision of such a tribunal would be against the petition of the Assembly there could be no doubt. But it was hardly to have been expected that even a packed body of King's friends and courtiers should have gone the length of reporting as frivolous and vexatious' a petition which merely submitted that persons who had recommended measures directly subversive of the laws and constitution of the colony were unfit to hold office as the representatives of the Crown. In conformity with the report of the Council, the petition of the colony was rejected, and Franklin was immediately dismissed from the important office of Postmaster-General in America, which he had held for some years. Quarrel with inflamed. I have dwelt at some length on this disastrous passage in the quarrel between England and her American dependencies, because the colonies the breach thenceforward became irreparable. Up to this period, it is agreed on all hands that the dispute might have been accommodated, and the colony reconciled for the time, at least, to British dominion. But those who had hitherto held aloof from the councils of the patriotic party, still confiding in the justice and generosity of the British nation, were now content to unite with their countrymen in obtaining, by other means, the redress which they had hitherto sought by remonstrance and supplication. Measures were adopted on both sides of the Atlantic tending to precipitate the rupture. Soon after the Petition of the Boston Assembly had been disposed of, intelligence arrived in England of the refusal to admit the tea ships. This was considered an affair of such gravity that it was formally communicated by a message from the Crown to both Houses. bill was immediately introduced to close the port of Boston; and, after a faint show of opposition, was A 148 ALTERATION OF CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. CH. XVIII. Alteration of the Charter of Massachusetts. passed through its stages as rapidly as the forins of Parliament permitted. This arbitrary proceeding could be justified only on the assumption that the lawless destruction of the cargoes had been instigated or approved by the inhabitants of the town-an assumption which was no doubt founded in fact; but it is hardly necessary to point out the gross error of the English Government in not previously righting itself by founding the measure on a demand and refusal of the local authorities to make reparation. Concurrently with this measure, an act was passed to alter the Charter of the Colony of Massachusetts in some important particulars. The appointment of judges, magistrates, and sheriffs belonged to the Colonial Council, and the Council was elected, like the Assembly, by popular suffrage. The new law of the Imperial Parliament transferred the appointment and removal of the judges, and the other officers of the law, to the Governor, and vested the nomination of the Council exclusively in the Crown. These provisions were conceived in the spirit of the famous letters, the discovery of which had lately given such an impulse to the colonial question. The change in the constitution of the Council was, however, a measure in itself wise and just; but though the appointment of the ministers of justice should be wholly disconnected from a body which owes its existence to popular election, it did not follow that a power upon the exercise of which all security to freedom and property, and all confidence in Government ultimately depends, should be left in the head of the local administration. The supreme executive authority, far removed from provincial intrigues and influence, should have reserved the power of appointing the judges, if not the inferior officers of the law. But these measures, whether for good or evil, were sure to be denounced in the colony as an arbitrary con 1773. DISMISSAL OF FOX. 149 fiscation of chartered rights and an open invasion of popular privileges. A government which passed such measures as the Boston Port Act and the Massachusetts Government Act should have been prepared to enforce its authority by arms. And so indeed they were. Concurrently with the enactment of these laws, a significant change was made in the Government of Massachusetts. The House of Assembly had petitioned for the recall of Hutchinson: Their prayer was contemptuously rejected. But a few weeks afterwards Hutchinson was removed, and his successor was General Gage, the Commander-in-Chief in North America. At the same time a bill was passed for quartering and billeting troops throughout the North American colonies. All these measures were encountered in their passage through Parliament by opposition opposition of from the Whig leaders, but as the bulk of the Whigs. the party had from the commencement of the American troubles given a general support to the coercive policy of the Government, the American cause was sustained only by the argument and eloquence of the few distinguished statesmen, who had always recommended counsels of a more wise and generous character. The debates on American af- Fox's desertion fairs during this session afforded the occa- from the sion to Charles Fox of finally separating himself from the Tories. Holding an inferior place in the Government, his frequent insubordination had incensed even the placable temper of his chief; and, on his opposing the colonial measures of this year with characteristic vehemence, Lord North deprived him of his office, by a letter, the caustic brevity of which added poignancy to the mortification of a dismissal. Tories. A remarkable proof that the differences between the colonies and the mother-country had at length arrived at an issue, was found in the change which 150 State of opinion as to the colonies. PETITION TO THE CROWN. CH. XVIII. this time took place in the opinions and conduct of some eminent men on either side. Conway, Dowdeswell, Thomas Townshend, and other Whigs, who had hitherto favoured the pretensions of the colonists, now supported the measures of the Government. While Washington and other colonial leaders, who had kept aloof from the violence of the Boston party, in the hope that a reconciliation with the mother-country might yet be effected, now committed themselves heartily and without reserve to measures of resistance. When the intelligence of the Boston' Port Bill arrived in America, the colony of Virginia, in which Washington resided, adopted a resolution simultaneously with Massachusetts itself, that a General. Congress of delegates from the provinces should assemble to consider the state of affairs; and Washington declared his readiness to raise a thousand men at his own charge and lead them to Boston. He was also present at a meeting which adopted a petition to the King enumerating in emphatic terms the grievances of the colonies, beseeching His Majesty not to reduce his faithful subjects in America to desperation, and warning him that from a sovereign there could but be one appeal. The Boston Port Act was to take effect on the 1st of June, and preparations were made to commemorate that day as an era in the struggle for freedom. The people of Boston were too far committed to stand still; they must either recede or advance in their conflict with the British Government. But they never hesitated for a moment, and their proceedings were marked by judgment and policy, as well as by firmness and vigour. Every measure which they took was calculated, at once, to provoke the hostility of the executive, and to engage the sympathy of their countrymen. At the opening of the session, on the 26th of May, the Assembly ad |