o meet with concession on the part
of America. Accordingly, on the ground that other towns, and Boston in
particular, were more active "in resolving what they ought to do than
in doing what they had resolved," and on the ground that the present
non-importation agreement no longer served "any other purpose than
tying the hands of honest men, to let rogues, smugglers, and men of no
character plunder their country," the New York merchants, on July 9,
1770, resolved that for the future they would import from Great Britain
all kinds of commodities except such as might be subject to duties
imposed by Parliament.

The New York merchants were on every hand loudly denounced for having
betrayed the cause of liberty; but before the year was out the old
agreement was everywhere set aside. Yet everywhere, as at New York, the
merchants bound themselves not to import any British teas. The duty
on British teas was slight. Americans might have paid the duty without
increasing the price of their much prized luxury; ministers might have
collected the same duty in England to the advantage of the Exchequer.
That Britain should have insisted on this peppercorn in acknowledgement
of her right, that America should have refused it in vindication of her
liberty, may be taken as a high tribute from two eminently, practical
peoples to the power of abstract ideas.

CHAPTER V. A Little Discreet Conduct

It has been his [Thomas Hutchinson's] principle from a boy
that mankind are to be governed by the discerning few, and
it has been ever since his ambition to be the hero of the
few.--Samuel Adams.

We have not been so quiet these five years.... If it were
not for two or three Adamses, we should do well enough.--
Thomas Hutchinson.

In December, 1771, Horace Walpole, a persistent if not an infallible
political prophet, was of opinion that all the storms that for a decade
had distressed the Empire were at last happily blown over; among which
storms he included, as relatively of minor importance, the disputes with
the colonies. During two years following, this prediction might well
have appeared to moderate minded men entirely justified. American
affairs were barely mentioned in Parliament, and a few paragraphs in
the "Annual Register" were thought sufficient to chronicle for English
readers events of interest occurring across the Atlantic. In the
colonies themselves an unwonted tranquillity prevailed. Rioting