was much favored by the government, and had an extensive influence over it. This company having obtained permission to transport their tea, free of the usual export duty, from Great Britain to America, on condition that upon its introduction there, the duty of three pence per pound should be paid, immediately dispatched enormous shipments to Boston and other American ports. On the arrival of the tea in Boston, the patriots were thrown into a frenzy of indignation and alarm. They saw and felt that the crisis now approached which was to decide the great question, whether they would submit to taxation without representation, or brave the consequences of some decisive movement, which might be adequate to relieve them from the emergency. If the tea was permitted to be landed, it would be sold, the duties paid, and all they had gained be lost. They resolved, therefore, that it should not be landed; and the resolution was no sooner formed, than executed, by the destruction of the entire cargo.

The intelligence of this spirited stroke in vindication of popular rights so exasperated the British ministry, that they resorted to a measure which fixed the irrevocable sentence of dismemberment upon the British empire. This was the famous Boston Port Bill, by which the harbor of that great city was closed against the importation of any goods, wares or merchandise whatsoever, from and after the first day of June, 1774.

When the rumor of the impending calamity reached Boston, a meeting of the inhabitants was called; the act was denounced as cruel and flagitious; they made their appeal to God and the world. Numerous copies of the act were printed and dispersed over the colonies; and to make a deeper impression on the multitude, the copies were printed on mourning paper, bordered with black lines; and they were cried through the country as the barbarous, cruel, sanguinary and inhuman murder.'*

The Legislature of Virginia was in session when the news of this interdict was received, to wit, in May, 1774. Mr Jefferson was still a member, and his sympathies for the north, rose to a point before unequalled. Perceiving the advantages to be derived from the popular excitement, which he foresaw would be created, he as quickly devised the means for using it with effect for the benefit of the common cause. Fearful to trust the cause, at this propitious moment, to the tardy pace of the old members, he again rallied the little council of chiefs with whom he had confederated on the former occasion, and concerted a private meeting, the same evening, at the council chamber of the library, to consult on the proper measures to be taken.' Punctual at the hour, they met; and mutually ripe in sentiment, unanimously agreed that they must boldly take an unequivocal stand in the line with Massachusetts.' They were also impressed with the necessity of arousing the people from the apathy into which they had fallen, as to passing events; and for this purpose, Mr Jefferson proposed the appointment of a day of general fasting and prayer throughout the colony, as most likely to call up and alarm their attention.' The proposition met enthusiastic acceptance with his colleagues; and he was requested to prepare the necessary instrument, to be presented to the House.

'No example,' says Mr Jefferson, of such a solemnity had existed since the days of our distress in the war of '55, since which a new generation had grown up. With the help, therefore, of Rushworth, whom we rummaged over for the revolutionary precedents and forms of the Puritans of that day, preserved by him, we cooked up a resolution, somewhat modernizing their phrases, for appointing the first day of June, on which the Port Bill was to commence, for a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, to implore Heaven to avert from us the evils of civil war, to inspire us with firmness

in support of our rights, and to turn the hearts of the King and Parliament to moderation and justice.' The draft was approved by the consulting members; but before they separated, another important figure was necessary to be arranged; and the manner in which it was done showed the wisdom and sagacity of the conclave. To give greater emphasis to our proposition,' continues Mr Jefferson, we agreed to wait, the next morning, on Mr Nicholas, whose grave and religious character was more in unison with the tone of our resolution, and to solicit him to move it.' They accordingly went to Mr Nicholas the next morning. He moved it the same day, May 24th; and it passed without opposition.

The instrument was drawn up much like the New England proclamations of the present day, with great solemnity of phraseology, directing the members, 'preceded by the Speaker and mace,' to assemble on the appointed day, devoutly to implore the Divine interposition for averting the heavy calamity which threatens destruction to our civil rights, and the evils of civil war ; to give us one heart and one mind, firmly to oppose, by all just and proper means, every injury to American rights; and that the minds of His Majesty and parliament may be inspired from above with wisdom, moderation, and justice, to remove from the loyal people of America, all cause of alarm from a continued pursuit of measures pregnant with their ruin.'

The solemn example of Virginia was the signal for a general movement among the colonies. The same religious observance was ordered to be kept on the same day, in all the principal towns; and the first day of June was a day of mourning throughout the continent. Business was suspended; the bells sounded a funeral knell; the pulpits reverberated with inflammatory discourses; and every engine of popular terror was put in

use.

In Virginia, the heavens were shrouded with

gloom; the ministers of religion, arrayed in their long black robes, headed processions of the people, and alarmed them from the pulpit with terrific appeals to their passions; popular orators pronounced their inflammatory harangues; the committees of vigilance circulated the infection through every village; and all cooperated with prodigious effect in promoting the general conflagration. The people,' says Mr Jefferson, 'met generally, with anxiety and alarm in their countenances, and the effect of the day, through the whole colony, was like a shock of electricity, arousing every man, and placing him erect and solidly on his centre.'

6

The most important transaction of this eventful session remains to be considered. The chain of causes were now bringing about the grand result, so confidently predicted by Mr Jefferson. It would hardly seem credible at the present day, that a resolution for the appointment of a religious ceremony, conceived in such terms of mingled devotion and loyalty as was that of the House of Burgesses, should have provoked the hostile interposition of the Executive power: but so it was. The order of the House for a general fast had no sooner fallen under the eye of Lord Dunmore, than he made his appearance before them with the following speech: 'Mr Speaker and gentlemen of the House of Burgesses: I have in my hand a paper published by order of your House, conceived in such terms as reflect highly upon His Majesty and the parliament of Great Britain, which makes it necessary to dissolve you, and you are dissolved accordingly.'

But the powers of the government had become completely paralyzed in that contumacious colony; and its Executive decrees were regarded as idle ceremonies. The whole body of the members repaired in a mass to the Apollo. They immediately organized themselves into an independent Convention, agreed to an association more solemnly than ever against the calamitous

revenue system; declared that an attack on any one colony to compel submission to arbitrary taxes, should be considered as an attack on all British America; and instructed their committee of correspondence to propose to the corresponding committees of the other colonies, the expediency of appointing Deputies to meet in Congress annually, at such place as should be convenient, to direct from time to time the measures required by the general interest.

That no time might be lost in carrying their recommendation of a Congress into effect, they did not leave their seats without first having arranged the preliminary meeting for the choice of their own deputies. They passed a resolution soliciting the people of the several counties to elect representatives to meet at Williamsburg, the 1st of August ensuing, to take into further consideration the state of the colony; and particularly to appoint delegates to the General Congress, should that measure be acceded to by the corresponding committees of the other colonies. The meeting then dissolved; and the members were universally greeted with the applause of their countrymen,