beaten, and others were compelled to seek refuge in a man-of-war which
happened to be in the harbor.

It would be painful, and at the present day useless, to trace the steps
by which these local disturbances gradually grew into one general
insurrection. The spirit of resistance was undoubtedly fanned by a party
which from the first contemplated a total separation from England as its
ultimate result,[46] if, indeed, they had not conceived the design even
before Grenville had given the first provocation to discontent. But the
Colonists were not without advocates in England, even among the members
of the government. The Duke of Grafton, while he remained
Prime-minister, was eager to withdraw all the duties of which they
complained; but he was overruled by the majority of his colleagues. He
prevailed, however, so far that Lord Hillsborough, the Secretary of
State, was authorized to write a circular-letter to the governors of the
different provinces, in which he disowned, in the most distinct language
possible, "a design to propose to Parliament to lay any farther taxes
upon America for the purpose of raising a revenue," and promised for the
next session a repeal of all the taxes except that on tea; and when the
Duke retired from the Treasury, and was succeeded by Lord North, that
statesman himself brought forward the promised repeal in an elaborate
speech,[47] in which he explained that the duty on tea, which he alone
proposed to retain, had been originally a boon to the Americans rather
than an injury, as being accompanied by the removal of a far heavier
tax. But he admitted that even that consideration was not the one which
influenced him in his opinion that that duty should be maintained, so
greatly was the perception that the real object of those who complained
of it was, not the redress of a grievance, but the extinction of a right
which was an essential part of "the controlling supremacy of England."
The fact that the right to tax had been denied made it a positive duty