Chap. LII.} 1774. April. |
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Meantime, New-York gave proof that the union
was perfect; on the nineteenth, while the House of Commons was voting not to repeal the duty on tea, its people sent back the tea-ship which had arrived but the day before; and eighteen chests of tea, found on board of another vessel, were hoisted on deck and emptied into ‘the slip.’
America had chosen her part, so too had the British Ministry.
The second penal Bill for the Government of Massachusetts Bay, which was introduced into Parliament on the twenty-eighth, without any hearing or any notice to the Province, abrogated so much of its Charter as gave to its Legislature the election of the Council; abolished Town Meetings except for the choice of town officers, or on the special permission of the Governor; conferred on the executive the power of appointing and removing the Sheriffs at pleasure; and transforming the trial by jury into a snare for the people, it intrusted the returning of juries to the dependent Sheriff.
This Bill, too, notwithstanding the earnest resistance of Dunning, passed the Commons by a vote of more than three to one.
A third penal measure, which had been questioned by Dartmouth, and recommended by the King, transferred the place of trial of any magistrates, Revenue officers, or soldiers, indicted for murder or other capital offence in Massachusetts Bay, to Nova Scotia1 or Great Britain.
As Lord North brought forward this wholesale Bill of indemnity to the Governor and soldiers, if they should trample upon the people of Boston and be charged
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1859.
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