In conclusion, he
expressed a hope that the present bill would create an executive power,
and give strength and spirit to the civil magistracy; and professed
himself open to discussion and a change of opinion, if his views were
proved to be erroneous.
This bill encountered more opposition than that of the Boston Port Bill,
and it was considerably altered in committee. As it stood when presented
anew, after the Easter recess, the council of Massachusets Bay was
placed on the same footing as the councils of other colonies: the
nomination was vested in the crown., and they were to have no negative
voice, or power to appoint, as hitherto, the judicial officers of the
province. Moreover, the mode of choosing juries was altered, and the
continual assemblies and town-meetings held in Boston were not to be
convened without the consent of the governor, unless for the annual
election of certain officers. The bill, as altered, however, encountered
much opposition. In support of it Mr. Welbore Ellis asserted that it was
the duty of the legislature to alter or take away charters, if they were
abused, or found deficient; and he was supported in these views by Mr.
Charles Jenkinson and Mr. Dyson, who argued that in this case the
house proceeded, not in its judicial, but in its legislative capacity,
regulating and supplying deficiencies in charters granted by the crown.
The opposition took a different view of the measure, denouncing it as
arbitrary and likely to lead to permanent evils.
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