Mr. Thomas
Townshend, also, though equally warm as Sir William Meredith in
opposition to ministers on general points, gave this measure his decided
support. Though averse to meddling with charters, he said, the evils of
town-meetings justified interference, and that the institution of juries
was properly altered according to the forms of the mother country.
Thurlow, the attorney-general, and Lord North spoke in favour of the
bill, likewise, on this occasion, the latter expressing a hope that good
consequences might arise from its adoption. It was opposed by Mr. Burke,
Mr. Charles Fox, and Colonel Barre, the latter of whom reprobated the
violence of both houses. "In the lords," said he, "the phrase is, 'We
have passed the Rubicon!'--in the commons, 'Delenda est Carthago!'"
But opposition was of no avail. The bill was carried by an overwhelming
majority in the lower house; and when it was taken into the upper house,
though it was severely criticised, opposed, and denounced by a few
lords, most of the peers were in its favour, and it passed into a law.
In order to qualify the severity of the bill for regulating the
government of Massachusets, Mr. Rose Fuller, on the 19th of April,
moved that the house should, that day se'nnight, resolve itself into a
committee for taking into consideration the question of a total repeal
of the tea duty. This was opposed by Lord North, who contended that no
acts of lenity ought to attend their restrictive measures.
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