George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 6, 10th edition.

‘ [145] immediately to dissolve them. Upon their next

Chap. Xxxiii} 1768. April.

choice, he is again to insist on it; and, if then refused, he is to do the like; and as often as the case shall happen. I had settled the repeal of these Acts with Lord North; but the opposition of the Colonies, renders it absolutely necessary to support the authority of Parliament.’¹

Here was a colonial system, never before thought of Townshend had suspended the legislative functions of New-York by Act of Parliament. Now a Secretary of State speaking for the King, offered to Massachusetts the option of forfeiting its representative government, or submitting to his mandate. At the same time the Commander-in-Chief in America, who was responsible to no one on that Continent, and in New-York itself took precedence² of the Governor, was ordered to maintain the public tranquillity.³ But it was characteristic of Massachusetts, that the peace had not been broken. The power of Parliament was denied, but not resisted. ‘Things are fast hastening to a crisis,’ said Eliot⁴ of Boston. Yet none desponded. The people were persuaded that England had greater cause to fear the loss of their trade, than they the withholding of her protection. ‘The grand design of God in the settlement of New England,’⁵ began to be more clearly discerned. Some enthusiasts saw in this western Continent the wilderness spoken of