two mafters. The Government, he affirms, has been too weak to fubdue the turbulent spirits. He infinuates the expediency of " TAKING OFF" those perfons whom he styles "the original incendiaries." He wishes for the institution of an order of Patricians, and afferts the neceffity of an ALTERATION OF THE CHARTERS." The Affembly, thrown into a violent flame by the reading of these letters, unanimously refolved, "that the tendency and defign of the faid letters was to overthrow the Conftitution of this Government, and to introduce arbitrary power into the Province;" and a petition was immediately voted to the King, to remove the Governor Hutchinson, and the Lieutenant Governor Oliver, for ever from the government of the Province. This PETITION being tranfmitted to the Agent of the Affembly, Dr. Franklin, was by him delivered to Lord Dartmouth; and on its being prefented to the King, his Majefty fignified his pleafure that it fhould be laid before him in Council. On the 29th of January 1774, Dr. Franklin was fummoned in his official capacity as Agent of the Province in fupport of the petition. Mr. Wedderburn, now Lord Loughborough and Chancellor of Great Britain *, appearing as counsel for the defendants, delivered in that capacity against the Agent, the House of Reprefentatives, the Province * 1796. of 1 of Maffachusetts, and the whole Continent of America, one of the most extraordinary invectives that was on any occafion perhaps ever heard in the Council Chamber. "Dr. Franklin, faid Mr. Wedderburn, ftands in the light of the first mover and prime conductor of this whole contrivance against his Majefty's two Governors; and having, by the help of his own special confidents and party leaders, first made the Affembly his agent in carrying on his own fecret defigns, he now appears before your Lordships to give the finishing ftroke to the work of his own hands. How thefe letters came into poffeffion of any one but the right owners, is a myftery for Dr. Franklin to explain. Your Lordfhips know the train of mifchiefs which followed this concealment *. After they had been left for five months to have their full operation, at length comes out a letter, which it is impoffible to read without horror, expreffive of the coolest and most deliberate malevolence. My Lords, what poetic fiction only had penned for the breaft of a cruel African, Dr. Franklin has realized and tranfcribed from his own-His too is the language of a ZANGA. Know then 'twas I, I forged the letter, I difpofed the picture: I hated, I defpifed, and I destroy. And * In confequence of the tranfmiffion of thefe letters, a duel was fought between Mr. Whately, brother to the correfpondent of the two Governors, and his friend Mr. Temple, who mutu ally And he now appears before your Lordships, wrapped up in impenetrable fecrecy, to fupport a charge against his Majefty's Governor and Lieutenant Governor, and expects that your Lordships fhould advife the punishing them on account of certain letters which he will not produce, and which he dares not tell how he obtained. Thefe are the leffons taught in Dr. Franklin's school of politics. With regard to his conftituents, the factious leaders at Boston, who make this complaint against their Governors, if the relating of their evil doings be criminal, and tending to alienate his Majesty's affections, muft not the doing of them be much more fo? Yet now they afk that his Majesty will gratify and reward them for doing these things, and that he will punish their Governors for relating them, because they are fo very bad that it cannot but offend his Majefty to hear of them." From thefe paffages fome judgment may be formed of the general strain of this famous Philippic, which, violating every rule and limit of decorum, ftands upon record as the groffeft infult ever offered to a great and venerable character, the moft diftinguished ornament of his age and country. A wife Government would have known his value, and ally fufpected each other of being acceffary to the communication of them, and in this rencounter Mr. Whately was dangerously wounded. been been happy to have availed itself of his experience and fagacity; but the counfels of a Franklin under the prefent reign were not likely to preponderate over thofe of a Hutchinson. The report of the Lords of the Council was in a few days afterwards made, the KING'S moft excellent Majefty being prefent, "that the petition in queftion was founded upon falfe and erroneous allegations, and that the fame is groundless, vexatious and fcandalous, and calculated only for the feditious purposes of keeping up a fpirit of clamor and discontent in the Province." And his Majefty was pleased, upon taking the faid report into confideration, to approve thereof, and to order the faid petition of the Affembly of Maffachufets to be difiniffed accordingly. Such was the mode in which a petition from the first Provincial Legislature in the Empire, compofed of men eminent for ability and integrity, was treated by the British Government, which perhaps had never duly pondered the ancient maxim of moral and political wisdom, "that pride goeth before deftruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." But a matter of higher import, and attended with far more serious confequences, which at this time took place, is now to be related. When at a very early period of Lord North's administration the duties on paper, glafs, and colors were repealed, it has been already remarked that the duty on TEA was purposely left as a mark of of Legislative Supremacy. The Eaft India Company, finding their stock of tea to accumulate in their warehouses in confequence of the lofs of the American market, were very urgent with the Minifter to repeal the American import duty of threepence per pound, offering in lieu of it to pay double the fum on exportation. A fairer opportunity could not occur to terminate the difpute. As the duty would not have been taken off at the inftance of the Americans, either in the dread of their refentment, or in the profpect of their advantage, it might have been hoped that the most strenuous ftickler for "the dignity of the Crown," and "the honor of Parliament," whofe fleeping and waking dreams had centred folely in thefe beloved and darling objects, might at length have banifhed his perturbations, and preffed his pillow in peace. This conceffion, however, the Minifter was not inclined, or, which is far more probable, was not PERMITTED to make; and things remained on this footing, till in the feffion of 1773 the Act paffed for allowing the exportation of TEAS duty-free, and the Company, eager to make a grand effort to relieve themselves from their difficulties, were buoyed up with the flattering expectation, by becoming their own factors, of regaining poffeffion of the American market: for when the teas were actually transported across the Atlantic, and lodged in warehouses, the mere circumftance of their having pre vioufly |