stating their sufferings and imploring relief. On
the 5th of March Lord North introduced a Bill into the Commons for the
repeal of the whole of the Act of 1767, which imposed duties on glass,
red lead, paper, and painters' colours, but retaining the preamble,
which asserted the absolute authority of Parliament to bind the colonies
in all cases whatsoever, and retaining, as an illustration of that
authority, the clause of the Act which imposed a duty on tea. He
said:--"The articles taxed being chiefly British manufactures, ought to
have been encouraged instead of being burdened with assessments. The
duty on tea was continued, for maintaining the parliamentary right of
taxation. An impost of threepence in the pound could never be opposed by
the colonists, unless they were determined to rebel against Great
Britain. Besides, a duty on that article, payable in England, and
amounting to nearly one shilling in the pound, was taken off on its
exportation to America; so that the inhabitants of the colonies saved
ninepence in the pound. The members of the opposition, in both Houses,
advocated the repeal of the clause on tea, and predicted the
inefficiency of the Bill should that clause be retained, and repeated
the arguments on the injustice and inexpediency of taxing America by Act
of Parliament; but the Bill was carried by a large majority, and
assented to by the King on the 12th of April."

The repeal of the obnoxious port duties of 1767 left no pretence for
retaining the duty on _tea_ for raising a _revenue_, as the tea duty, at
the highest computation, would not exceed L16,000 a year; and when Lord
North was pressed to relinquish that remaining cause of contention, he
replied:

"Has the repeal of the Stamp Act taught the Americans obedience? Has our
lenity inspired them with moderation? Can it be proper, while they deny
our legal right to tax them, to acquiesce in the argument of illegality,
and by the repeal of the whole law to give up that honour? No; the most
proper time to exert our right of taxation is when the right is refused.
To temporize is to yield; and the authority of the mother country, if it
is now unsupported, will in reality be relinquished for ever. A total
repeal cannot be thought of till America is prostrate at our feet."

Governor Pownall, who had spent many years in America, and had preceded
Barnard as Governor of Massachusetts, moved an amendment, to include the
repeal of the duty on tea as well as on