While the cabinets of Petersburg, Vienna, and Berlin were occupied in dismembering Poland, and aggrandizing their dominions at the expense of that ill-fated country, France was making preparations to send a powerful fleet into the Baltic. This was evidently the forerunner of some ulterior design, although D’Aigullon, the prime minister of France, endeavoured to keep those designs from the public view. He was, however, unable to elude the vigilance, or to baffle the penetration of the British cabinet. After expatiating on the ambition of Russia, as well as the ties of honour and interest by which France was bound to assist Sweden, D’Aigullon was informed by Lord Stormont, the British ambassador, that, if France sent her ships into the Baltic, they would be followed by a British fleet. The presence of two fleets, he said, would have no more effect than a neutrality, and that, however the British cabinet might desire peace between England and France, it was impossible to foresee the consequences that might arise from accidental collision. This had some effect, for the squadron at Brest was countermanded; but soon after the French minister, in hopes of eluding observation, gave orders for the equipment of an armament at Toulon, under pretence of exercising the sailors of France in naval tactics. Discovering this, the British cabinet made vigorous demonstrations of resistance. The English ambassador was directed to declare that the objections made against a fleet of France occupying the Baltic, applied equally to the Mediterranean, and a memorial was presented to the French minister, accompanied by a demand that it should be laid before the king, and council. This was sufficient: the armament was countermanded and the sailors discharged.
IRISH AFFAIRS.
The spirit of disaffection was still rife in Ireland. The Earl of Harcourt having been appointed to the government, was at first received with great joy, but he soon found that his popularity was not sufficient to ensure obedience to the dictates of the British cabinet, or to repress the overflowings of human passion. The White Boys, and the Hearts of Steel, still exhibited a turbulent spirit, which nothing could allay or soothe. Nor was it among the populace alone that ill-feeling was displayed. When the Irish parliament met, the spirit of liberty was discerned in that assembly likewise. The speaker of the house of commons, in a speech to his excellency before the lords, expressed the inability of the country to endure any additional taxation, by reason of those commercial restrictions, which, he said, had fettered all its energies. The claim of commercial freedom was, indeed, warmly repeated in the official addresses of the speaker during the continuance of the government of this viceroy, and a spirit of jealousy also appeared in a refusal to admit foreign mercenaries, when the British troops were withdrawn to America, although the English government offered to defray all the expenses. A relaxation of the penal code, however, by which the condition of the Roman Catholics was improved, had the effect of lowering the angry feelings of the nation, and on the whole the government of the Earl of Harcourt is looked upon as having produced beneficial results to the country. Dr. Miller says, “The government of Lord Townshend had termininated the oligarchical administration: that of Lord Harcourt unfolded those germs of political energy, which were soon to expand themselves into national prosperity and importance.”
DISPUTES WITH THE AMERICAN COLONIES.
The storm which had long been gathering in the horizon, was now gathering thick over our American colonies, and threatened ere long to pour out its fury throughout the whole length and breadth of the conn-try. It was now increased by the attempt of Lord North at taking the payment of the colonial judges and governors out of the hands of the houses of assembly. This the Americans declared was an attempt of the British government to impose its own arbitrary instruments upon them; to destroy the very essence of their charters and liberties, by making the judges and governors wholly independent of the people, and dependent on the crown. Resistance was therefore resolved upon. A series of protests were issued from the assembly of Boston, and the example was followed by all the assemblies throughout the colonies. For the purpose of making the opposition more effectual, a corresponding committee was established, with branches and ramifications, which reached nearly to every town and village throughout the colonies, and the effect of this great lever of the revolution was soon seen in a general combination of measures, a unanimity of language, and a general persecution of all those who were in favour of the British government. The movement, which had hitherto been slow in its progress, now took rapid strides, the celerity of which nothing could impede. The assembly of Boston, always in the van, next got up a manifesto, which treated the authority of the British parliament with contempt. This manifesto declared that the British parliament had no right to legislate for the colonies in any matter whatever; denounced the declaratory act recommended by Chatham, and passed in 1768, as an unjust assumption of a legislative power, without the consent of the colonists; and charged the British ministry with a design to complete a system of slavery begun in the house of commons. Copies of this manifesto were dispersed throughout the province of Massachusets, urging the people not to dose any longer, or to sit supinely, whilst the hand of oppression was plucking the choicest fruits from the tree of liberty. The people, however, seem to have considered it as too violent, for it was not responded to as the Bostonians expected it would have been, and they were compelled somewhat to retrace their steps, They apologized to the British government for having gone thus far, throwing the whole blame on their new governor, Mr. Hutchinson, who, they said, had provoked them to act thus by his intemperate conduct. At the same time they stated that they were faithful subjects of his majesty, and that they conceived themselves happy in their connexion with Great Britain! At this critical moment, however, when the minds of the people of New England wavered, and when the southern and middle countries were comparatively peaceable, communications were received from England, which set the whole country in commotion.
During the course of the disputes, certain letters had been written by Mr. Hutchinson, Mr. Oliver, lieutenant-governor., and others, to the home government, reflecting strongly on the character of the colonial opposition, and recommending the adoption of coercive measures, and a material change in the system of the government of the colonies. These letters were strictly confidential, but they were purloined from the office in which they were deposited by some person favourable to American interests, and placed in the hands of Dr. Franklin, agent for the province of Massachusets. Franklin thought proper to transmit these letters to a friend in that province, with a strict injunction against their being printed, as he had given a promise to the friend who had furnished him with them to that effect. Their contents, however, soon became known, and the legislative assembly obliged Franklin’s correspondent to produce them, and having resolved that the tendency of them was to overthrow the constitution and to introduce arbitrary power into the province, the house of assembly drew up a petition to the king, charging the governor with betraying his trust, and slandering the people under his government; declaring him an enemy to the colony; and praying for the instant dismissal of both Hutchinson and Oliver, the governor and deputy-governor of the province. Copies of this petition, and also of the letters which gave rise to it, were soon scattered over all the continent, from the Lawrence to the Mississippi, and from the shores of the Atlantic to the regions of the far west; and their effects soon became manifest. Long before this, in 1772, the people of Rhode Island had insulted the British flag by boarding, capturing, and burning a British ship of war, and though government had offered a large reward with pardon, if claimed by an accomplice, for the discovery and apprehension of any persons engaged in the outrage, all the offenders had escaped with impunity. Opposition to the British government, now that the letters transmitted by Franklin had inflamed the public mind, grew more bold. In the midst of the discontent two ships arrived at Boston with the cargoes of tea which Lord North had allowed the East India Company to export duty free. Anterior to their arrival, meetings had been held and mobs raised, to terrify the consignees into an engagement not to receive the tea, and when they arrived, another meeting of the inhabitants of Boston and all the neighbouring towns was called to prevent its being landed. At this meeting a resolution was passed, asserting among other things that the tea ships were sent for the purpose of enslaving and poisoning all free-born Americans, and that the tea which came charged with a duty to be paid in America should not be landed, but be sent back in the same bottoms. The consignees offered to store the teas till they could receive further instructions; but this moderate offer was rejected with disdain, and a strong body of Bostonians armed with muskets, rifles, swords, and cutlasses, were sent down to Griffin’s wharf to watch the ships, in order to prevent a single leaf from being put on shore. This was on the 30th of November, and on the 14th of December, two other ships freighted by the East India Company having arrived, another crowded meeting was held at the Old South Meeting-house, whence orders were sent to the captains of the tea vessels to return without delay. The answer received was, that the collector could not give any clearance until the vessels had discharged their cargoes, and, indeed, if the captains had been disposed to return, they could not have complied with the demand, as the governor had ordered that they should not be allowed to pass the forts without a permit signed by himself, and Admiral Montague had sent two ships of war to guard all the passages out of the harbour. The meeting waited for the reply, and when it arrived, a question was put whether those assembled would abide by their former resolutions respecting the tea, which was carried unanimously. A message was then sent to desire the governor to give the ships a permit to depart, and he replied that he could not consistently with his duty to the king give any pass unless the vessels were properly qualified from the custom-house. The meeting was about to consider this reply, when a person disguised like an Indian, began uttering the war-whoop in tones so natural that he might have been taken for a real savage. His yell was succeeded by the cry of “A mob, a mob!” and some, more cautious than the rest, moved that the meeting should be dissolved. This was done, and many of the people ran at once from the old meeting-house to Griffin’s wharf, where they were met by a number of men disguised as Mohawk Indians, and by a still greater number of skippers, sailors, boatmen, and men of colour. In overwhelming force these boarded the ships, split open the tea-chests, and having emptied their contents into the sea, returned, without being discovered, to their homes. The moment of excitement was followed by trembling anxiety. The Bostonians now began to tremble for their charter, their property, and their trade; and, as before, some attempted to throw all the blame upon the conduct of their governor. As for the governor himself, he represented to the ministry at home, that it was out of his power to prevent the destruction of the tea, without yielding to unreasonable demands, and thereby rendering the authority of government null and void. It is to be regretted that the assembly took part with the mob, and thereby accelerated the fearful consummation of their violent proceedings. As if animated by the popular proceedings they renewed their personal contests with the governor, and even proceeded so far as to vote articles of impeachment against the chief justice, Peter Oliver, for a design of introducing a partial, arbitrary, and corrupt administration of the laws, he having declined to receive the annual grant of the assembly, and accepted a stipend from his majesty. The message conveying this resolution was indignantly rejected by the governor, who disclaimed all power of determining on such cases, and as the house persevered in attempting to force it on him under a different form, he dissolved the assembly.
A.D. 1774