in their minds. On these occasions the blessings of liberty-the horrors of slavery-the dangers of a standing army-the rights of the colonies, and a variety of such topics, were represented to the public view under their most pleasing and alarming forms. These annual orations administered fuel to the fire of liberty, and kept it burning with an incessant flame."

Having thus procured the removal of the military, the determinations of the people, in other respects, continued, if possible, more firm than ever, until at last government, determining to act with vigor, and at the same time to behave with as much condescension as possible, without abandoning their principles, repealed all the duties lately laid on, that of three pence per pound on tea alone excepted. This was left on purpose to maintain the dignity of parliament; and it was thought that it could not be productive of any discontent in America, as being an affair of very little moment, the produce of which was not expected to exceed £16,000. The opposition, however, were strenuous in their endeavors to get this tax likewise abro. gated; insisting, that the Americans would consider it only as an inlet to others; and that the repeal of all the rest, without this, would answer no good purpose. The event showed that their opinion was well founded. The Americans opposed the tea tax with the same violence as they had done all the rest: and at last, on the news that salaries had been settled on the justices of the superior court of Massachusetts Bay, the governor was addressed on the subject; the measure was condemned in the strongest terms; and a committee, 80lected out of the several districts of the colony, appointed to inquire into it.

The new assembly proceeded in the most formal manner to disavow the supremacy of the British legislature; and accused the parliament of Britain of having violated the natural rights of the Americans in a number of instances. Copies of the transactions of this assembly were transmitted to every town in Massachusetts, exhorting the inhabitants to rouse themselves, and exert every nerve in opposition to the iron hand of oppression, which was daily tearing the choicest fruits from the fair tree of liberty.

The rigorous execution of the smuggling laws, gave occasion to the first daring act of violence, which might, with propriety, be called an act of hostility against government. This happened at Providence in Rhode Island, where, on the 10th of June 1772, the Gaspee schooner was burnt, and the captain wounded by a mob, exasperated at the vigilance he had manifested in

the execution of his office. A reward of £500 was offered for the discovery of those concerned; but so agreeable was it to the universal voice of the people, that not one was found to accept the offered reward.

The disturbances were greatly heightened in Massachusetts by an accidental discovery that Mr. Hutchinson, governor of Massachusetts Bay, had written several confidential letters to people in power in England, complaining of the behavior of the province, recom. mending vigorous measures against them, and, among other things, asserting, that "there must be an abridgment of what is called British liberty." Letters of this kind had fallen into the hands of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, the agent for the colony at London. They were immediately transmitted to Boston, where the assembly was sitting, by whom they were laid before the governor, who was thus reduced to a very mortifying situation. Losing every idea of respect or friendship for him as their governor, they instantly dispatched a petition to the king, requesting him to remove the gov

1773. June 23.

Nov. 22.

ernor and deputy governor from their places; but to this they not only received no favorable answer, but the petition itself was declared groundless and scandalous.

The system of committees of correspondence, which prevailed in the years 1765 and 1767, was revived in Boston, at this eventful period; by which a reciprocal exchange of intelligence was kept up, throughout the whole colonies. The British ministry seem to have been totally inattentive to the former operations of the committees of correspon dence, occasioned by the stamp act, while their predecessors were in office; else they might easily have foreseen the unanimous and vigorous opposition their measures would meet with in the present case. But the weakness of public measures was equally apparent in the adininistration of affairs in Britain, as in those relating to America; as will be shown in the next chap

ter.

CHAP. IV.

A brief account of the Political Disputes which convulsed Great Britain, from the beginning of the Reign of George III. till the Commencement of Hostilities in America.

NOTWITHSTANDING the just grounds of complaint which led the Americans to oppose with vigor, the ar bitrary designs of the British ministry, it would be difficult to account satisfactorily for their regular and steady opposition, from the beginning of the disputes, and even after hostilities commenced, without taking a view of the dissensions which agitated Britain during the same period.

The feuds and animosities which the Middlesex election excited, gave occasion to sudden changes of the ministry, and resolutions of parliament dangerous to the liberties of the people; which, probably, would never else have taken place. As this election is the great hinge upon which the political events of the reign of George III. for many years turned, every material circumstance relating to that singular transaction, and even to Mr. Wilkes, the principal agent concerned in it, shall be particularly attended to, consistently with the limits of this work.

ness.

Till the resignation of Mr. Pitt, (October 9, 1761) no material change had been made in the ministry during the first year of the reign of Geo. III. It continued nearly the same as it was at the death of the late king; with only this difference, that bord Bute, who was supposed to be a particular favorite of the present king, had been introduced into the cabinet, and appointed secretary of state in the room of the earl of HolderA more important alteration took place in 1762. An opinion had been long entertained, at least it was industriously propagated by certain persons, that the Pelham family had been as complete masters of the cabinet during the latter years of the last reign, as ever the Marlborough family was, during a great part of that of queen Anne. A resolution, it is said, was therefore taken to get rid of the Pelhams and all their connections. The duke of Newcastle was made so uneasy in his situation, that he resigned his post of first lord of the treasury, and was succeeded by the earl of Bute. This gave occasion to a most furious paper war between the friends and adherents of these two noble. men, and naturally tended to revive in the kingdom, that spirit of party, which, during the successful admin

istration of Mr. Pitt, had, in a great measure, been laid asleep. Dr. Goldsmith observes, that the earl of Bute was believed to be a man of ability and even of virtue, but deficient in that easiness of address and those engaging manners, without which no minister can ever expect to be long popular in England. As he was a man of taste and learning, had he continued groom of the state, as he was at the time of the king's accession, he might have easily passed for the Macenas of the age. Every favor which the king might have bestowed upon men of letters, would have been considered as originat ing from his advice; whereas, by plunging into politics, for which, as he was not bred to them, perhaps he was but ill qualified, he at once destroyed the peace of his own mind, diminished for a while the popularity of his sovereign, and distracted and perplexed the councils of his country.

The cry of favoritism, which was raised against lord Bute, immediately upon his introduction into the ministry, had hitherto been kept up with the utmost virulence and animesity. Having completed the peace in 1763, he resigned his place, as first lord of the trea sury, in April, in the same year, and was succeeded by Mr. George Grenville.

The spirit of venality and corruption was remarkably prevalent at this time in Britain. Licentiousness and riot were become general among the lower ranks; and tumults, and a spirit of disorder, affected most parts of the kingdom.

During the earl of Bute's administration, the English populace resigned all their thinking faculties, and even their senses, to the indefatigable incendiaries of a bold and insolent faction, who were overawed by no authority, and restrained by no principle; till at length the animosity to the Scotch in general, and the aversion to the minister in particular, proceeded to an amazing degree of infatuation.

The jealousy of the English nation, towards their fellow sujects on the other side of the Tweed, had discovered itself occasionally ever since the union of the crowns; and the ancient animosities had been kept alive by the two successive rebellions which began in Scotland; but the common grudge was founded upon the success of the Scotch, who had established themselves in different parts of England, and risen from very small beginnings, to wealth and consideration. In a word, the English looked upon them with an evil eye, as interlopers in commerce and competitors for reputation. It was not without murmuring that they had seen them aspire to the first offices in the law, the army,

and the navy; but they were exasperated to find a Scot at the head of the English treasury, and the chief administration of the kingdom in his hands. These were topics on which the writers in the opposition did not fail to expatiate. They revived and retailed with peculiar virulence, all the calumnies, ancient and modern, that ever had been uttered against the Scotch nation; some of them so gross and absurd, that they could not possibly obtain credit but among the very dregs of the people. They enlarged upon their craft, dissimulation, deceit, and national partiality. They denounced the dangers that threatened the interests of Old England, from the great numbers of those northern adventurers, who had wriggled themselves into all the different departments of civil and military institution; and they insisted upon the disgrace of acquiescing under the gov ernment of a North Briton, a Stuart, allied by blood to the pretender, who had expelled from court the best friends of the protestant succession, associated himself with avowed tories, who prostituted the offices, and squandered away the wealth of England on worthless favorites of his own country. These bitter remonstrances, in which no regard was paid either to truth or decency, they reinforced with feigned circumstances, and forged lists of North Britons gratified with pensions, appointed to places, or promoted in the service, till at length the populace were incensed even to the verge of insurrection. Had the natives of North Britain proved equally combustible, the flames of civil war would have certainly been kindled; and, in that case, the ruin of a mighty nation might have been effected by two or three infamous emissaries, equally desperate and obscure, who either prostituted their pens to a party for hire, or exercised their talents for abuse, in hope of being bought off by the minister.

All the most virulent papers againt government, in former days, seemed to be but decent compositions compared to those which were circulated through the nation, after the resignation of Mr. Pitt. Had the promulgators of the first defamatory libels, that appeared against the king and his family, been apprended, and punished in the ordinary course of law proceedings, the faction would have found it a very difficult task, in the sequel, to engage either printer or publisher in their service; and, in all probability, the evil would have been crushed in the bud; but they were emboldened by impunity to proceed in their career, to confirm their calumnies by unrefuted falsehoods,and to give rein to the most audacious scurrility; until the minds of the people were so deeply and universally tainted, that it became