he other Colonies were compelled to depend upon
the will of the British Government in all matters. Every act passed by
a colonial assembly must receive the sanction of the British Parliament
before it became a law. Petitions were disregarded. Frequently there
was a delay of two years between the passage of an act by the Colonial
General Assembly and its ratification. But every measure had to receive
the approval of the Crown. While the affairs of the country were in this
peculiar condition, the people became more and more dissatisfied.

It is now known that Governor James Wright, loyal to the King as he
proved himself to be, was fully sensible of the injustice to which
the Colonies were compelled to submit. On the 15th of August, 1769, he
addressed a letter to the Earl of Hillsborough, which was not read until
fifteen months after it was written. In this letter the governor warned
the British cabinet that the Colonies would never submit to taxation
without representation. There was no disaffection, he said, toward the
King or the royal family, but simply a determination on the part of the
people to stand on their rights. But the governor's letter lay unread
for fifteen months, and there was no reply to the numerous petitions
sent from the Colonies. At last the Americans determined to appeal to
the pockets instead of to the sentiments of the people of Great Britain.
They determined to import no goods whatever that could be manufactured
or produced at home.

This determination, instead of causing the British people to conciliate
the Americans by securing the repeal of unfriendly laws, turned the
popular opinion against the Colonies; and this feeling was intensified
by the Boston Tea Party. A bill was passed by both Houses of the British
Parliament to close the port of Boston, and the discussion of the
measure gave an opportunity to some of the statesmen of the mother
country to show their spite. Another law was passed, limiting and
cutting down the power of the representative assembly of Massachusetts,
and providing that town meetings should not be held except on permission
in writing from the royal governor. Another act was passed, giving the
governor of the Province the power to send to Great Britain or to other
Colonies persons indicted for murder or charged with capital crimes
committed in aiding the government of Massachusetts. These acts,
intended to humiliate the Colonies, had the effect of inflaming them,
and the