XVI. 1774. management, he sought no apology, he secured BOOK no retreat; but on the conclusion of an inquiry. which lasted six weeks, by a noble, spirited, and unexpected majority, in the teeth of all the old mercenary Swiss of state, in defiance of the whole embattled legion of veteran pensioners and practised instruments of a court, gave a total repeal to the Stamp Act, and, if it had been so permitted, a lasting peace to the empire." Of lord Chatham, Mr. Burke said, that "the venerable age of this great man, his merited rank, his superior eloquence, his splendid qualities, his eminent services, the vast space he filled in the eye of mankind, forbade him to censure his conduct; and to flatter him he was afraid. Let those who have betrayed him by their adulation insult him by their malevolence. For a wise minister, however, speaking with the freedom of history, Mr. Burke said, he must surely be acknowledged to have adopted measures greatly mischievous to himself, perhaps for that reason fatal to his country; MEASURES, the effects of which are, I am afraid, FOR EVER INCURABLE. He made an administration so chequered and speckled; he put together a piece of joinery so crossly indented, and whimsically dove-tailed; a cabinet so variously inlaid, such a piece of diversified mosaic, such a tesselated pavement without cement, here a bit of black stone and there a XVI BOOK bit of white; patriots and courtiers, king's friends and republicans, Whigs and Tories, treacherous 1774. friends and open enemies; that it was indeed a very curious show, but utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure to stand on. When his face was hid but for a moment, his whole system was on a wide sea, without chart or compass, whirled about, the sport of every gust; and those of the mariners who were most directly opposite to his opinions, being by far the most artful and powerful of the set, seizing the helm, turned the vessel wholly out of the course of his policy." The house were much amused with these ingenious representations; but no other effect was produced, the numbers on the division being 184 to 51. The session ended June 21, 1774, and his majesty's speech contained a very high eulogium on the measures which had been adopted for the purpose of reclaiming his deluded subjects; and on the temper, firmness, and unanimity, which had been displayed in the deliberations of parliament, which could not fail of giving them the greatest weight. Indeed, such was the elation of the court and its partisans at this period, that America seemed in their apprehension already subdued, and a complete victory obtained before the battle was begun. Governor Hutchinson, by, whose advice the king and his ministers had been chiefly guided, XVI. 1774. and who gave the most positive assurances that à BOOK speedy and general submission would be the consequence of the measures which he recommended, had been for some time past in England; and general Gage, already commander of the troops stationed at Boston, was appointed governor of the province. He arrived in that city in the month of May 1774, and was received with that dead and melancholy silence which portended a tremendous storm. The intelligence of the Boston Port Bill had been recently received; and on the day succeeding the arrival of the new governor a general meeting of the inhabitants was convened, in order to take it into consideration. At this meeting a resolution was passed, expressive of their ideas of the impolicy, injustice, and barbarity of the bill, and inviting the other colonies to join with them in a general agreement to put a stop to all exportation and importation to Great Britain and the West Indies till it should be repealed. Addresses from Virginia, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, New York, and the other provinces, in a short time arrived, exhorting them, with many expressions of affection and sympathy, to resolution and perseverance; and declaring, that they considered Boston as suffering in the common cause. One spirit, one undivided sentiment, of pity, indignation, and revenge, roused and per BOOK vaded all. A general congress became the obXVI. ject of universal desire; and Philadelphia being 1774. judged commodiously situated for the purpose, it was convened to meet in that city on the 1st of September, and in the mean time combinations were every where entered into to suspend all commercial intercourse with Great Britain; and renouncing all communication with those who should refuse to sign this covenant, notwithstanding a proclamation from general Gage, styling such agreement an unlawful, hostile, and traitorous combination. An address being presented to him by the municipality of Boston, in which the rights of the colonies were asserted in a high and resolute tone, the governor would not deign to hear it read to the end, declaring it to be an insult to his majesty and his govern ment. On the 25th of May, 1774, the new general court met as usual at Boston, when general Gage gave them notice of their removal to Salem by the late act. The assembly hastening the public business, in order to evade this necessity, the governor adjourned the court to the 7th of June, then to meet at Salem. The first business. after this adjournment, on the subsequent meeting at Salem, was to appoint deputies to meet those of the other colonies in general congress at Philadelphia. The governor, having received XVI. 1774. intimation of this design, dispatched his secre- BOOK tary with the greatest precipitation to dissolve the court: but, on his arrival, he found the doors fast locked; and knocking aloud for entrance, he was informed that the house was upon very important business, and till it was finished hé could not be admitted. On which he read the proclamation of dissolution on the stairs leading to the hall of the assembly; but the nomination of deputies being previously made, this was considered as an important advantage gained against the governor. It was a part of the artful and malignant plan of the British ministers in framing the Boston Port Bill, by removing the commerce of that metropolis to Salem, and making it the seat of government, to establish a rivalship and enmity between these two places, from which they hoped to derive mighty advantages. But the magnanimous spirit by which the Americans were at this period universally actuated discovered itself very conspicuously in an address presented by the merchants and freeholders of the town of Salem to the governor, the day succeeding the dissolution of the general court. "We are," say they, "most deeply afflicted with a sense of our public calamities.-By shutting up the port of Boston, some imagine that the course of trade might be turned hither, and to our |