"And what is their temper now?"

"Oh, very much altered."

"If the act is not repealed what do you think will be the consequences?" "A total loss of the respect and affection the people of America bear to this country, and of all the commerce that depends on that respect and affection."

AMERICANS WOULD NEVER SUBMIT.

"Do you think the people of America would submit to pay the stamp duty if it was moderated?"

"No, never, unless compelled by force of arms."

The act was repealed on the 18th of March, 1766, to the great joy of the sincere friends of both countries, and to no one more than to Washington. Early in 1770 an important change took place in the British Cabinet. The Duke of Grafton suddenly resigned, and the reins of government passed into the hands of Lord North.

He was a man of limited capacity, but a favorite of the King and subservient to his narrow colonial policy.

His administration, so eventful to America, commenced with an error. In the month of March an act was passed revoking all the duties laid in 1767, excepting that on tea.

This single tax was continued, as he observed, "to maintain the parliamentary right of taxation"—the very right which was the grand object of

contest.

In this, however, he was in fact yielding, against his better judgment, to the stubborn tenacity of the King.

FIRST BLOOD SHED IN THE CAUSE OF LIBERTY.

On the very day this ominous bill was passed in Parliament, March 5th, 1770, a sinister occurrence took place in Boston.

Some of the young men of the place had quarreled with the British military while the latter was under arms; the troops attacked the young men, who, after a scuffle, were put to flight and pursued.

The alarm bells rang; a mob assembled; the custom house was threatened; the troops, in protecting it, were assailed with clubs and stones and obliged to use their firearms before the tumult could be quelled.

Four of the people were killed and several wounded.

The troops were now removed from the town, which remained in the highest state of exasperation.

This occurrence has passed into history as "the Boston massacre." One of the victims was a negro, who bravely faced the Fnglish soldiery and dared them to fire.

The general covenant throughout the colonies against the use of taxed tea had operated disastrously against the interests of the East India Company and produced an immense accumulation of the proscribed article in their warehouses.

To remedy this Lord North brought in a bill (1773) by which the company were allowed to export their teas from England to any part whatever, without paying export duty, but thus leaving the import duties to be paid by the Americans.

This, by enabling them to offer their teas at a low price in the colonies, would, he supposed, tempt the Americans to purchase large quantities, thus relieving the company and at the same time benefiting the revenue by the impost duty. Confiding in the wisdom of this policy, the company disgorged their warehouses, freighted several ships with tea and sent them to various parts of the colonies.

This brought matters to a crisis. One sentiment, one determination, pervaded the whole continent. Taxation was to receive its definite blow. Whoever submitted to it was an enemy to his country.

"NO TEA IN OURS, THANK YOU."

From New York and Philadelphia the ships were sent back, unladen, to London. In Charleston the tea was unloaded and stored away in cellars and other places; in Boston (December 16th, 1773), the tea was promptly thrown into the sea by the people of the town.

England's Parliament took its own mean and petty way of securing revenge upon the Province of Massachusetts and the "rebel" town of Boston.

The charter of the Province was so altered that all counselors, judges and magistrates were appointed by the Crown, and held office during the Royal pleasure.

All the officers of customs were removed from Boston to Salem, a very small town, where the troops could easily put down any patriotic or other rising of the people.

These two acts of Parliament were followed by a third, intended for the suppression of riots, and providing that any person indicted for murder

or other capital offense, committed in aiding the magistracy, might be sent by the Governor to some other colony or to Great Britain for trial.

Such was the bolt of Parliamentary wrath fulminated against the devoted town of Boston. Before it fell there was a session, in May, of the Virginia House of Burgesses.

The social position of Lord Dunmore had been strengthened in the province by the arrival of his lady and a numerous family of sons and daughters.

The old Virginia aristocracy had vied with each other in hospitable attentions to the family. A court circle had sprung up.

Regulations had been drawn up by a herald and published officially, determining the rank and precedence of civil and military officers and their wives.

The aristocracy of the Ancient Dominion was furbishing up its former splendor. Carriages and four rolled into the streets of Williamsburg, with horses handsomely caparisoned, bringing the wealthy planters and their families to the seat of government.

Things were going on smoothly in Virginia when a letter, received through the corresponding committee, brought intelligence of the vindictive measure of Parliament, by which the port of Boston was closed on the Ist of June.

The letter was read in the House of Burgesses, and produced a general burst of indignation. All other business was thrown aside, and this became the sole subject of discussion.

VIRGINIA PROTESTS AGAINST OPPRESSION.

A protest against this and other recent acts of Parliament was entered upon the journal of the House, and a resolution was adopted, on the 24th of May, setting apart the 1st of June as a day of fasting, prayer and humiliation, in which the divine interposition was to be implored, to avert the heavy calamity threatening destruction to their rights and all the evils of civil war, and to give the people one heart and one mind in firmly opposing every injury to American liberties.

While the Burgesses were engaged in animated debate they were summoned to attend Lord Dunmore in the council chamber, where he made them the following laconic speech:

"Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Burgesses-I have in my hand a paper, published by orders of your House, conceived in such terms