ere placed in the streets,
pictures of him were hung in public halls. But, in reality, the passage
of the Declaratory Act was the beginning of more trouble.

[Sidenote: The Chatham Ministry.]

[Sidenote: The Townshend Acts, 1767. _McMaster_, 117-118.]

114. The Townshend Acts, 1767.--The Rockingham ministers did what
Mr. Pitt advised them to do. He then turned them out and made a ministry
of his own. He was now Earl of Chatham, and his ministry was the Chatham
Ministry. The most active of the Chatham ministers was Charles
Townshend. He had the management of the finances and found them very
hard to manage. So he hit upon a scheme of laying duties on wine, oil,
glass, lead, painter's colors, and tea imported into the colonies. Mr.
Pitt had said that Parliament could regulate colonial trade. The best
way to regulate trade was to tax it. At the same time that Townshend
brought in this bill, he brought in others to reorganize the colonial
customs service and make it possible to collect the duties. He even
provided that offences against the revenue laws should be tried by
judges appointed directly by the king, without being submitted to a jury
of any kind.

[Sidenote: The Sugar Act.]

[Sidenote: Enforcement of the Navigation Acts.]

115. Colonial Opposition, 1768.--Many years before this, Parliament
had made a law taxing all sugar brought into the continental colonies,
except sugar that had been made in the British West Indies. Had this law
been carried out, the trade of Massachusetts and other New England
colonies would have been ruined. But the law was not enforced. No one
tried to enforce it, except during the few months of vigor at the time
of the arguments about writs of assistance. As the taxes were not
collected, no one cared whether they were legal or not. Now it was plain
that this tax and the Townshend duties were to be collected. The
Massachusetts House of Representatives drew up a circular letter to the
other colonial assemblies asking them to join in opposing the new taxes.
The British government ordered the House to recall the letter. It
refused and was dissolved. The other colonial assemblies were directed
to take no notice of the circular letter. They replied at the first
possible moment and were dissolved.

[Sidenote: Seizure of the sloop _Liberty_, 1768.]

116. The New Customs Officers at Boston, 1768.--The chief office of
the new customs organization was fixed at Boston. Soon John Hancock's
sloop,