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

[459] ‘as much or more may be brought into the revenue

Chap. XLIX.} 1773. April.

by not allowing a full exemption from the duties paid here.’ But Lord North refused to discuss the right of Parliament to tax America; insisting that no difficulty could arise, that under the new regulation America would be able to buy tea from the Company at a lower price than from any other European Nation, and that men will always go to the cheapest market.¹

The Ministry was still in its halcyon days; no opposition was made even by the Whigs; and the mea-

May.

sure which was the King's own,² and was designed to put America to the test, took effect as a law from the tenth day of May.³ It was immediately followed by a most carefully prepared answer from the King to Petitions from Massachusetts, announcing that he ‘considered his authority to make laws in Parliament of sufficient force and validity to bind his subjects in America in all cases whatsoever, as essential to the dignity of the Crown, and a right appertaining to the State, which it was his duty to preserve entire and inviolate;’ that he, therefore, ‘could not but be greatly displeased with the Petitions and Remonstrance in which that right was drawn into question;’ but that he ‘imputed the unwarrantable doctrines held forth in the said Petitions and Remonstrance, to the artifices of a few.’⁴ All this while, Lord Dartmouth ‘had a true desire to see lenient measures adopted towards the Colonies,’⁵ not being in