as to the over to Benedict Calit's me —

*I write a FOL In a subject of importance, and of no small elbermeten me -law and ward, Mr. Custis, has as I have been informed, but his addresses to your second dangizer: and having made some progress in her affections, has solicited her in name Bow far a union of this sort may be agreeable to you you best can tell; but I should think myself wanting in codon were I not to confess that Miss Netty's amiable qualities are acknowledged on all hands, and that as alllance with your dolly will be pleasing to his.

→ This acknowledgment being made, you must permi¿ me to add, sir, that at this, or in any short time, his youth, inexperience, and unripesed education are, and will be, insuperable obstacles, in my opinita, to the completion of the marriage. As his guardian. I conceive it my in dispensable duty to endeavor to carry him through a regular course of education (many branches of which, I am sorry to say, he is totally deficient in), and to guide his youth to a more advanced age, before an event, on which his own peace and the happiness If the affecof another are to depend, takes place. . tion which they have avowed for each other is fixed upon a solid basis, it will receive no diminution in the course of two or three years; in which time he may prosecute his studies, and thereby render himself more deserving of the lady, and useful to society. If, unfortunately, as they are both young, there should be an abatement of affection on either side, or both, it had better precede than follow marriage.

"Delivering my sentiments thus freely, will not, I hope, lead you into a belief that I am desirous of breaking off the

LETTER TO BENEDICT CALVERT. 403

match. To postpone it is all I have in view; for I shall recommend to the young gentleman, with the warmth that becomes a man of honor, to consider himself as much engaged to your daughter, as if the indissoluble knot were tied; and as the surest means of effecting this, to apply himself closely to his studies, by which he will, in a great measure, avoid those little flirtations with other young ladies, that may, by dividing the attention, contribute not a little to divide the affec tion."

CHAPTER XXXI

Lord Nora's BII frating the Exportation of Teas - Ships regnet win Teamies. - Sem back from some of the Ports - Tes destrored a Boston.- Passage of the Boston Port Lil. - Session or the House of Burgesses. Splendid Drening - Bus of Indignation at the Port Bil. - Souse Dissided-Resolutions at the Raleigh Tav e- Popies of a General Songs.

Washington and Lord Dunmore — The Form 3I goes into Effect. — General Gage & Boston - League and Grvenant.

DIE PEDETI A TELt throughout the coloties arting the use of tixed tea, had

operated Cisastrously 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 H (1773), by which the company were allowed to export their teas from England to any part whatever, without paying export duty. This, by enabling them to offer their teas at a low price in the colonies would, he suppose, 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

DESTRUCTION OF TEA AT BOSTON. 405

parts of the colonies. This brought matters to a crisis. One sentiment, one determination, pervaIded the whole continent, Taxation was to receive its definitive blow. Whoever submitted to From New

it was an enemy to his country. 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, where it perished. At Boston the action was still more decisive. The ships anchored in the harbor. Some small parcels of tea were brought on shore, but the sale of them was prohibited. The captains of the ships, seeing the desperate state of the case, would have made sail back for England, but they could not obtain the consent of the consignees, a clearance at the custom-house, or a passport from the governor to clear the fort. It was evident, the tea was to be forced upon the people of Boston, and the principle of taxation established.

To settle the matter completely, and prove that, on a point of principle, they were not to be trifled with, a number of the inhabitants, disguised as Indians, boarded the ships in the night (18th December), broke open all the chests of tea, and emptied the contents into the sea. This was no rash and intemperate proceeding of a mob, but the well-considered, though resolute act of sober, respectable citizens, men of reflection, but determination. The whole was done calmly, and in perfect order; after which the actors in the scene dispersed without tumult, and returned quietly to their homes

The general opposition of the colonies to the principle of taxation had given great annoyance to government, but this individual act concentrated all its wrath upon Boston. A bill was forthwith passed in Parliament (commonly called the Boston port bill), by which all lading and unlading of goods, wares, and merchandise, were to cease in that town and harbor, on and after the 4th of June, and the officers of the customs to be transferred to Salem.

Another law, passed soon after, altered the charter of the province, decreeing that all counselors, judges, and magistrates, should be appointed by the crown, and hold office during the royal pleasure.

This was 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 ful minated 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