You will receive from me without further application, regular accounts
of what is doing on this side the Atlantic, in relation to the colonies.
The burning of the _Gaspee_ schooner near Providence, has given the
chief rise to “an act for the better securing his majesty’s dock yards,
magazines, ships, ammunition and stores.” If the button of a marine’s
coat, the oar of a cutter’s boat, or the head of a cask belonging to the
fleet, are included under the comprehensive term _stores_, then
according to the act, a person wilfully and maliciously destroying, or
aiding and assisting in destroying the same, is to suffer death on being
convicted. But what will affect you more than all the rest is that the
act is extended to the colonies, and subjects a person to a trial at the
pleasure of his majesty, his heirs or successors, in any shire or county
in Great-Britain. Your own feelings will furnish you with the best
comment on this new extension of parliamentary power.
The supporting of the authority of parliament was the only cause
assigned by the minister himself, for retaining the tea-duty, at the
very time when he acknowledged it to be as anti-commercial a tax, as any
of those which he had repealed upon that principle. It now appears that
government had something more in contemplation.
The East-India Company, feeling the bad effects of the colonial
smuggling trade, (occasioned by the retention of the duty) in the large
quantities of tea which remained in their warehouses unsold, requested
the repeal of the three-pence per pound in America, and offered that,
upon its being complied with, government should retain six-pence in the
pound on the exportation. Thus the company presented the happiest
opportunity which could have offered, for honorably removing the cause
of difference with America. Here was an opening for doing right, without
infringing the claims on either side. The company asked, and their
situation required relief. It could not be alledged, that it was done at
the instance of American discontent. The minister was requested and
intreated, by a gentleman of great weight in the company, and a member
of parliament, to embrace the opportunity; but it has been rejected. New
contrivances have been set on foot to introduce the tea, attended with
the three-penny duty into all the colonies. Various intrigues and
solicitations have been used to induce the chairman and deputy chairman,
to undertake this rash and foolish business. It has been protested
against as contrary to the principles of the company’s monopoly; but the
power of ministry has prevailed; and the insignificant three-penny duty
on tea, is doomed to be the fatal bone of contention between
Great-Britain and America. A bill has been passed into an act, [May 10.]
for enabling the company to export their own teas. In consequence of it
they have adopted the system, and are become their own factors. They
have come to a resolution of sending 600 chests of tea to
_Philadelphia_, the like quantity to _New-York_ and _Boston_, beside
what is designed for other places; several ships are accordingly
freighted for different colonies, and agents appointed for the disposal
of the commodity.
The several colonies will undoubtedly consider the scheme as calculated
merely to circumvent them into a compliance with the revenue law, and
thereby to open the door for an unlimited taxation; for if taxation can
be established in this instance, it will be extended to others.
Consequences will not fail to convince the minister, that it would have
been far more eligible to have repealed the duty, than in this way to
attempt its establishment. It will be needless for me to assure you,
that you may upon all occasions command the assistance of
Your, &c.
N. B. Some of the captains have refused to take the tea on board.