tumults and insurrections_ which have been excited and carried on in
North America, and at the resistance given, by _open_ and _rebellious_
force, to the execution of the laws in that part of his Majesty's
dominions; to assure his Majesty, that his faithful Commons, animated
with the warmest duty and attachment to his royal person and
government, ... will firmly and effectually support his Majesty in all
such measures as shall be necessary for preserving and securing the
legal dependence of the colonies upon this their mother country," &c.,
&c.

Here was certainly a disturbance preceding the repeal,--such a
disturbance as Mr. Grenville thought necessary to qualify by the name of
an _insurrection_, and the epithet of a _rebellious_ force: terms much
stronger than any by which those who then supported his motion have ever
since thought proper to distinguish the subsequent disturbances in
America. They were disturbances which seemed to him and his friends to
justify as strong a promise of support as hath been usual to give in the
beginning of a war with the most powerful and declared enemies. When the
accounts of the American governors came before the House, they appeared
stronger even than the warmth of public imagination had painted them: so
much stronger, that the papers on your table bear me out in saying that
all the late disturbances, which have been at one time the minister's
motives for the repeal of five out of six of the new court taxes, and
are now his pretences for refusing to repeal that sixth, did not
amount--why do I compare them?--no, not to a tenth part of the tumults
and violence which prevailed long before the repeal of that act.

Ministry cannot refuse the authority of the commander-in-chief, General
Gage, who, in his letter of the 4th of November, from New York, thus
represents the state of things:--