XLVIII 1775. ment, so far as the tax was concerned, was unanswer- CHAP. able; but the sting of the tax act lay in its preamble: Rockingham's declaratory act affirmed the power Aug. of parliament in all cases whatsoever; Townshend's preamble declared the expediency of using that power to raise a very large colonial revenue. Still collision was practically averted, for the Americans, in their desire for peace, gave up the importation of tea. No revenue, therefore, was collected; and by resolute self-denial, the colonies escaped the mark of the brand which was to show whose property they were. At this the king, against the opinion of Lord North and of the East India Company, directed that company itself to export tea to America, and there to pay the duty, hoping that a low price would tempt Americans to buy. But the colonists would not suffer the tea to be exposed for sale; the crown officers yielded to their unanimous resistance, every where except at Boston, and there the tea was thrown overboard. To close the port of Boston and require an indemnity for the East India Company's loss, was the advice of Hutchinson, and neither New York, nor Pennsylvania, nor Virginia would have supported a refusal to such a requisition; but the king and the Bedford party seized the occasion to carry into effect part of their cherished system, and changed by act of parliament the charter granted by William and Mary to Massachusetts. The object of the change was the compression of popular power in favor of the prerogative. The measure could bring no advantage to Britain and really had nothing to recommend it; CHAP, to the people of Massachusetts and to the people of XLVIII all the colonies, submission to the change seemed an 1775. acknowledgment of the absolute power of parliament Aug. over liberty and property in America. The people of Massachusetts resisted: the king answered, "blows must decide." A congress of the colonies approved the conduct of Massachusetts; parliament pledged itself to the king. In 1773 a truce was possible; after the alteration of the charter of Massachusetts, in 1774, America would have been pacified by a simple repeal of obnoxious acts; in 1775, after blood had been shed at Lexington, some security for the future was needed. British statesmen of all schools but Chatham's, affirmed the power of parliament to tax America; America denied that it could be rightfully taxed by a body in which it was not represented, for taxation and representation were inseparable. British politicians rejoined, that taxation was but an act of legislation; that, therefore, to deny to parliament the right of taxation, was to deny to parliament all right of legislation for the colonies, even for the regulation of trade. To this America made answer that, in reason and truth, representation and legislation are inseparable; that the colonies, being entitled to English freedom, were not bound by any act of a body to which they did not send members; that in theory the colonies were independent of the British parliament; but as they honestly desired to avoid a conflict, they proposed as a fundamental or an organic act their voluntary submission to every parliamentary diminution of their liberty which time had sanctioned, XLVIII including the navigation acts and taxes for regulating CHAP. trade, on condition of being relieved from every part of the new system of administration and being secured 1775. Aug. against future attempts for its introduction. Richard Penn, the agent of congress, was in London with its petition to the king, to entreat his concurrence in this endeavor to restore peace and union. CHAPTER XLIX. CHAP. THE KING AND THE SECOND PETITION OF CONGRESS. AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, IN EUROPE. THE zeal of Richard Penn appeared from his 1775. celerity. Four days after the petition to the king had Aug. been adopted by congress, he sailed from Philadelphia on his mission. He arrived in Bristol on the thirteenth of August, and made such speed that he was the next day in London. Joint proprietary of the opulent and rapidly increasing colony of Pennsylvania, of which he for a time was governor, long a resident in America, intimately acquainted with many of its leading statesmen, the chosen suppliant from its united delegates, an Englishman of a loyalty above impeachment or suspicion, he singularly merited the confidence of the government. But not one of the ministers waited on him, or sent for him, or even asked him, through subordinates, one single question about the state of the colonies. The king, on whose decision neither the petition nor its bearer had the slightest XLIX. influence, would not see him. "The king and his CHAP. cabinet," said Suffolk, "are determined to listen to nothing from the illegal congress, to treat with the 1775. Aug. colonies only one by one, and in no event to recognise them in any form of association." "The Americans," reasoned Sandwich, "will soon grow weary, and Great Britain will subject them by her arms." Haldimand, who had just arrived, owned that "nothing but force would bring the Americans to reason." Resolvedly blind to consequences, George the Third scorned dissimulation, and eagerly "showed his determination," such were his words, "to prosecute his measures, and force the deluded Americans into submission." He chid Lord North for "the delay in framing a proclamation declaring the Americans rebels, and forbidding all intercourse with them." He was happier than his minister; he had no misgivings that he could be in the wrong, or could want power to enforce his will. The colonists who pleaded their rights against the unlimited supremacy of the king in parliament, were to him false to the crown and the constitution, to religion, loyalty, and the law; in his eyes, to crush their spirit and punish their disobedience was a duty and a merit. In the indulgence of his anger he sought to impose an authority which the colonists never could endure, and which promised no advantage to Britain. The navigation acts, of which it already began to be seen that the total repeal would not diminish British trade, were not questioned; the view of a revenue from America had dissolved; the unwise change in the charter of Massachusetts weakened the influence of the crown by irritating the people; the most per |