rnishing his lordship, however, with travelling hints
and directions, and recommending proper guides.

The general covenant throughout the colonies against the use of taxed
tea had operated disastrously against the interests of the East India
Company, and produced an immense accumulation of the proscribed
article in their warehouses. To remedy this Lord North brought in a
bill (1773), by which the company were allowed to export their teas
from England to any part whatever, without paying export duty. This,
by enabling them to offer their teas at a low price in the colonies
would, he supposed, tempt the Americans to purchase large quantities,
thus relieving the company, and at the same time benefiting the
revenue by the impost duty. Confiding in the wisdom of this policy,
the company disgorged their warehouses, freighted several ships with
tea, and sent them to various parts of the colonies. This brought
matters to a crisis. One sentiment, one determination, pervaded the
whole continent. Taxation was to receive its definitive blow. Whoever
submitted to it was an enemy to his country. From New York and
Philadelphia the ships were sent back, unladen, to London. In
Charleston the tea was unloaded, and stored away in cellars and other
places, where it perished. At Boston the action was still more
decisive. The ships anchored in the harbor. Some small parcels of tea
were brought on shore, but the sale of them was prohibited.

To settle the matter completely, and prove that on a point of
principle they were not to be trifled with, a number of inhabitants,
disguised as Indians, boarded the ships in the night (18th December),
broke open all the chests of tea, and emptied the contents into the
sea. The general opposition of the colonies to the principle of
taxation had given great annoyance to government, but this individual
act concentrated all its wrath upon Boston. A bill was forthwith
passed in Parliament (commonly called the Boston port bill), by which
all lading and unlading of goods, wares, and merchandise, were to
cease in that town and harbor on and after the 4th of June, and the
officers of the customs to be transferred to Salem.

Another law, passed soon after, altered the charter of the province,
decreeing that all counsellors, judges, and magistrates, should be
appointed by the crown, and hold office during the royal pleasure.
This was followed by a third, intended for the suppression of riots;
and providing that