tisfaction either from individuals or from
the
community in general. The Ministry, it seems,
officiously made the case their own, and the
great Council of the nation descended to inter-
meddle with a dispute about private property. --
Divers papers, letters, and other unauthenti-
cated ex parte evidence were laid before them;
neither the persons who destroyed the Tea, or
the people of
Boston, were called upon to answer
the complaint. The Ministry, incensed by be-
ing disappointed in a favourite scheme, were
de-
termined to recur from the little arts of finesse, to
open force and unmanly violence. The port of
Boston was blocked up by a fleet, and an army
placed in the town. Their trade was to be suspend-
ed, and thousands reduced to the necessity of gain-
ing subsistance from charity, till they should
submit to pass under the yoke, and consent to
become slaves, by confessing the omnipotence
of Parliament, and acquiescing in whatever dis-
position they might think proper to make of
their lives and property.
LET justice and humanity cease to be the
boast of your nation! consult your history, ex-
amine your records of former transactions, nay
turn to the annals of the many arbitrary states
and kingdoms that surround you, and shew us
a single instance of men being condemned to
suffer for imputed crimes, unheard, unquestion-
ed, and without even the specious formality of
a trail; and that too by laws made expresly
for the purpose, and which had no existence at
the time of the fact committed. If it be dif-
ficult to reconcile these proceedings to the ge-