recommended itself to the other members of the Administration, of whom Conway alone, true to the principles he had supported under Rockingham, inclined to lenient measures. He lacked, however, the ability to form and the decision to carry out a plan. Charles Townshend, now in high favour at Court, enjoyed an easy triumph over his hesitations and the indolence of Grafton, while Camden in the absence of Chatham forswore his ancient love of liberty, though for a season only.[1] It was successively decided by the Cabinet to move the Privy Council to annul the Massachusetts Amnesty Act as an interference with the royal prerogative, and the New York Quartering Act as inconsistent with the clause in the charter of the province requiring the legislation of that colony to be as nearly as possible consonant with the laws of England; to pass an Act of Parliament forbidding the Governor to give his consent to any further legislation sent up to him by the Assembly, till compliance should have been made with the Mutiny Act; to extend the Mutiny Act itself for another year;[2] and while supporting the Acts of Navigation in their integrity, to impose port duties for the purposes of revenue on wine, oil, and fruits, if allowed to be carried into America direct from Spain and Portugal, and also on glass, paper, lead, colours, and tea. The revenue obtained from these duties was to be placed at the disposal of the King for the payment of the civil officers of the colonies, and it was hoped that the fact of the new taxation being levied in the shape of port duties would effectually baffle the arguments of those who had resisted the Stamp Act on the ground that it imposed an internal tax. Bernard began to think that now at last he was really Governor of Massachusetts. He was to have a salary independent of the whims of any colonial
- ↑ Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George III., ii. 418, 448.
- ↑ 6 and 7 George III. c. 55.
on this subject will be material, as well as every information which can tend to elucidate how far it is practicable and expedient to blend the English with the French laws, in order to form such a system as shall at once be equitable and convenient, both for His Majesty's old and new subjects, in order to the whole being confirmed and finally established by authority of Parliament." (See Kingsford, History of Canada, v. ch. v.) Morgann did not return to England until January 1770.
