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

On the ninth of April, four days after Grenville had carried his bill triumphantly to the House of Lords, one more attempt was made to conciliate America; and Trecothick of London, supported by Beckford and Lord Beauchamp, by Dowdeswell, Conway, Dunning the late Solicitor General, and Sir George Saville, proposed¹ the repeal of the duty on tea. The King who watched Parliament closely, was indignant at this ‘debate in the teeth of a standing order,’² on a proposal which had already been voted down. ‘I wish to conciliate the Americans, and to restore harmony to the two countries,’ said Lord North; ‘but I will never be intimidated by the threats nor compelled by the combinations of the Colonies to make unreasonable or impolitic concessions.’ So the next order of the day was called for by a vote of eighty to fifty-two.

The news of the Boston Massacre³ reached England at a time when the Legislature of Massachusetts was solemnly declaring, that the keeping a standing army in the Colony, in a time of peace, without its consent, was against law. ‘God forbid,’ said Grenville in the House of Commons,⁴ on the twenty-sixth of April, ‘we should send soldiers to act without civil authority.’—‘Let us have no more angry votes against the people of America,’ cried Lord Beauchamp. ‘The officers’ observed Barre, ‘agreed in ’