| You are here: Home >> American Archives |
in America; for continuing and amending, and making perpetual, an Act, passed in the sixth year of the reign of his late Majesty, King George the Second, intituled 'An Act for the better securing and encouraging the Trade of his Majesty's Sugar Colonies in America;' for applying the produce of such Duties, and of the Duties to arise by virtue of the said Act, towards defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing, the said Colonies and Plantations; for explaining an Act, made in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of King Charles the Second, intituled 'An Act for the Encouragement of the Greenland and Eastland Trades, and for the better securing the Plantation Trade;' and for altering and disallowing several Drawbacks on Exports from this Kingdom, and more effectually preventing the clandestine conveyance of Goods to and from said Colonies and Plantations, and improving and securing the Trade between the same and Great Britain." April 4th and 5th That this Bill passed the House on the 4th of April, and received the Royal assent on the following day. December 11th, 1764. No 2. Representation of the Board of Trade to his Majesty. The Committee having perused the Report of the Board of Trade, of the 11th day of December, 1764, and the Papers laid before his Majesty therewith, find in the said Papers the strongest assertions by the Assembly of the Massachusetts Bay, of their sole right to pass laws, particularly of taxation; and of their resolution to invite the other Colonies to combine with them in measures to prevent the King, in his Parliament, from passing any such laws; for instance, in a letter to Mr. Mauduit, then Agent of the Province, which was drawn up by a Committee of the House of Representatives, and afterwards approved by the House, they used the following expressions: "The silence of the Province should have been imputed to any cause, even to despair, rather than be construed into a tacit cession of their rights, or an acknowledgement of a right in the Parliament of Great Britain to impose Duties and Taxes upon a People who are not represented in the House of Commons;" and in the same letter they avowed and authenticated the doctrines advanced in a certain pamphlet, intituled, "The Rights of the British Colonies asserted and proved;" written by James Otis, Esq.; which pamphlet, amongst other things, says, "That the imposition of taxes, whether on trade or on land, on houses or ships, on real or personal, fixed or floating property, in the Colonies, is absolutely irreconcilable with the rights of the Colonists, as British subjects, and as men." The Committee find that, on the 28th day of February, 1765, a Bill was brought from the Commons, intituled, "An Act for granting and applying Stamp Duties and other Duties in the British Colonies and Plantations in America; towards further defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the same; and for amending such parts of the several Acts of Parliament relating to the Trade and Revenues of the said Colonies and Plantations, as direct the manner of determining and recovering the penalties and forfeitures therein mentioned." That the said Bill received the Royal assent on the 22d of the same month. That on the 17th day of December, his Majesty declared, in his most gracious Speech from the Throne, "That the matters of importance which had lately occurred in some of his Colonies in America, were the principal cause of his Majesty's assembling his Parliament sooner than was usual in times of peace." It appears to the Committee, from the votes of the House of Representatives of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, of the 6th of June, 1765, that they came to a Resolution, "That it was highly expedient there should be a meeting, as soon as might be, of Committees from the Houses of Representatives or Burgesses, in the several Colonies on the American Continent, to consult on their then present circumstances, and the difficulties to which they were reduced by the operation of the late Acts of Parliament, for levying Duties on the Colonies, and to consider of a general Address to his Majesty and the Parliament, to implore relief; and that letters should be forthwith prepared and transmitted to the respective Speakers of the several Assemblies, to invite them to accede to this proposition:" and further, that on the 8th of June, they did actually elect three persons to be their Committees; and also voted £450 to bear their expenses. Your Committee find, in a letter from the Governor to the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, dated August 15th, 1765, an account of a violent riot at Boston, in resistance to a law passed by the Legislature of Great Britain, in which an attack was made upon Mr. Oliver, Distributer of Stamps, and carried to the length of pulling down and destroying his houses, manifesting a resolution, if they could have found him, of putting him to death; upon which occasion the backwardness and indisposition of the Council to support the peace and good order of Government, were very apparent. Also, in another letter from the Governor, dated August 31st, 1765, to the said Board of Trade, they find that the mob attacked the house of Mr. Storey, Register of the Admiralty, which they demolished; they also took all his books and papers, amongst which were the Records of the Court of Admiralty, and burnt them, and searched about for him, with an intent to murder him; they also pillaged the house of Mr. Hallowell, Comptroller of the Customs. But their most violent proceeding was against the Lieutenant Governor, whose house, plate, books, and manuscripts, to a very great value, they totally destroyed. And, in this great extremity, the Council being, as the Governor observes, dependent upon the people, refused even to concur with him in his proposition of giving notice to General Gage of the then situation of the town of Boston. It is remarkable that this commotion entirely arose out of the town of Boston; for though it was given out that many People out of the country were concerned in this affair, upon inquiry, it was found that such persons living out of Boston as were seen in the crowd, were there merely as spectators. In Governor Bernard's letter to the Board of Trade, of October 12th, 1765, he says, "That the real authority of the Government is at an end; some of the principal ringleaders in the late riots, walk the streets with impunity; no Officers dare attack them; no Attorney General prosecute them; no Witness appear against them; and no Judges sit upon them." And during the general disorder, the Governor thought it necessary for some companies of the Militia to be mustered, with the unanimous advice of the Council, but that the Militia refused to obey his orders. And we find that so little attention was paid to an Act of the British Legislature, by the Council and House of Representatives, that they resolved in a joint Committee, on the 25th of October, 1765, that it should and might be lawful to do business without Stamps, notwithstanding the Act of Parliament to the contrary. On the 14th day of January, 1766, upon the meeting of the Parliament, after the recess at Christmas, his Majesty was pleased to declare himself in a most gracious Speech from the throne, in the following terms: "My Lords and Gentlemen: When I met you last, I acquainted you that matters of importance had happened in America, which would demand the most serious attention of Parliament.
|