h troops at the
castle, in the harbour of Boston, and the Governor requested that
provision be made by the Assembly for their support. After due
deliberation, the House resolved that such provision be made for them
while they remain here, as has been heretofore usually made for his
Majesty's regular troops when occasionally in the province. The caution
with which this resolution was drawn shows how reluctant the Assembly
were to have a military force placed in the province; and how careful
neither to yield any portion of their legislative rights, nor to furnish
a precedent for the repetition of a measure equally obnoxious and
dangerous to the colonists. The suspension of the power of legislation
in New York justly excited alarm throughout all the colonies; for it was
perceived that every Colonial Assembly would, by parity of reasoning, be
put on their trial for good behaviour, of which the British Ministry
would be the judge. Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, said, 'An Act for
suspending the Legislature of that province hangs, like a flaming sword,
over all our heads, and requires by all means to be removed.'" (Annals,
etc., Vol. II., p. 149.)]

[Footnote 293: The Americans took the Chancellor of the Exchequer at his
word, the plain and logical inference from which was, that if it was
unlawful to impose _internal_ taxes, it was equally unlawful to impose
_external_ taxes. The colonies had unanimously denied the lawfulness of
_internal_ taxes imposed by Parliament, and in that denial had been
sustained by the opinions of Lord Camden, Pitt, and other English
statesmen, and virtually by the repeal of the Stamp Act itself.
Henceforth they resisted the imposition by Parliament of external as
well as internal taxes.]

[Footnote 294: Referring to the applause of the Commons which greeted
Townshend's utterances of his intention to draw a revenue from the
colonies, Mr. Bancroft says: "The loud burst of rapture dismayed Conway,
who sat in silent astonishment at the unauthorized but premeditated
rashness of his presumptuous colleague. The next night the Cabinet
questioned the insubordinate Minister 'how he had ventured to depart on
so essential a point from the profession of the whole Ministry;' and he
browbeat them all. 'I appeal to you,' said he, turning to Conway,
'whether the House is not bent on obtaining a revenue of some sort from
the colonies?' Not one of the Ministry then in London (Pitt being absent
and ill) had sufficie