assembly in Massachusetts sent a circular letter to the other committees, stating the question between the colonies and Great Britain.

The refusal of the consignees of the tea to not receive it, in Boston alone, had naturally attracted attention to this port. The committee say in their letter: "Is it not of the utmost importance that our vigilance should increase; that the colonies should be united in their sentiments of the measures of opposition necessary to be taken by them; and that in whichsoever of the colonies any infringements are or shall be made on the common rights of all, that colony should have the united efforts of all for its support? This, we take it, to be the true design of the establishment of our committees of correspondence."

1773, OCTOBER 23.-The Delaware assembly chose a committee of correspondence.

The signers of a letter to the house of burgesses were Cæsar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean, John McKinley, and Thomas Robeson.

1773, NOVEMBER 28. One of the ships loaded with tea arrived at Boston, and a few days afterwards two others.

The ships were moored close together, the design being to send the tea back in them. "The town is as furious as it was in the time of the Stamp Act," wrote Governor Hutchinson. The ships in returning could not pass the Castle without an order from the governor, and he would not give this before they were cleared at the custom-house, while the collector refused to give them a clearance before they were discharged of all articles subject to duty. Public meetings were held, in which the selectmen took part. The consignees of the tea refused to resign their commission. By the law of the port, a vessel twenty days after her arrival was liable to be seized for nonpayment of dues; on the sixteenth day of December this time would expire with the "Dartmouth," the first ship which arrived.

1773, DECEMBer 2. The Boston Gazette said:

"There is no time to be lost. A congress, or a meeting of the states, is indispensable."

1773, DECEMBER 4.-The Essex Journal and Merrimack Packet, or the Massachusetts and New Hampshire General Advertiser, appeared in Newburyport.

It was established by Isaiah Thomas and Henry Walton Tinges. Thomas soon sold his share to Ezra Lunt. Eventually John Mycall became sole proprietor, and continued the publication for a number of years.

1773, DECEMBER 8. The assembly of North Carolina chose a committee of correspondence.

This committee consisted of John Harvey, Mr. Howe, Mr. Harnett, Mr. Hooper, Mr. Caswell, Mr. Vail, Mr. Ash, Mr. Hewes, and Samuel Johnson. Their answer to the burgesses is dated December 26, and is signed John Harvey.

1773. ON the 16th of December a public meeting was held in Boston at the "Old South Meeting House."

An immense gathering, estimated at "nearly seven thousand," assembled from the town and country round, and adjourned from the morning to the afternoon,

and at half past four resolved that the tea should not be landed. The meeting was patient and orderly, and refused to adjourn. About six o'clock Mr. Rotch, the consignee of the tea, appeared in the meeting and reported that he had been to see the governor, who refused to give the vessel a pass unless the vessel was properly cleared. Being asked whether he would send the vessel back with the tea in her, he replied he "could not possibly comply, as he apprehended compliance would prove his ruin;" and further he said that "if called upon by the proper officers, he should attempt, for his own security, to land the tea." Samuel Adams then said, "This meeting can do nothing more to save the country." An immense shouting arose, the moderator declared the meeting dissolved, and the crowd dispersed, following a band of about fifty persons dressed as Indians, who proceeded to the wharf where the ships were moored. Proceeding on the vessels, they warned the custom-house officers and the guard in possession not to interfere, broke open the hatches, hoisted the chests of tea, broke them open, and emptied them into the water. "The whole was done with very little tumult," wrote Hutchinson.

The tea had been guarded by a committee of the citizens, and John Hancock was one of them this evening. The names of those who formed the band of Indians are not known; they worked in an orderly and efficient manner. No other property was injured, no one was hurt, and no tea was allowed to be carried away; the crowd remained on the wharf while the work was done, and then quietly went home, and the city is said never to have been more quiet than it was at ten o'clock that evening. One of the party, on his return home, found some of the tea had lodged in his shoes; it was preserved in a bottle with a parchment memorandum, and is now in the possession of Lemuel Shaw, of Boston.

1773. IN December, in Philadelphia bells were rung, and a large public meeting returned their "hearty thanks to the people of Boston for their resolution in destroying the tea rather than suffering it to be landed."

In New York, similar demonstrations were made concerning the destruction of the tea.

1773.-JOHN SHIPMAN, of Saybrook, Connecticut, obtained from the legislature a patent for an improved tide-mill of his own invention.

An exclusive right was given him for forty years, for the town of Saybrook and twenty miles west of the Connecticut River; and all others were forbidden to erect or improve tide-mills within these limits, during this time.

1773.-VIRGINIA coined half pence.

1773. THE Copper mines in Simsbury, Connecticut, were abandoned, and being bought by the state were made a prison for criminals.

During the Revolution, Tories were confined there.

1773. THE first experimental steam-engine built in America was exhibited by Christopher Colles, in Philadelphia.

He had used a model as an illustration for his lectures before the American Philosophical Society, and was employed to build one for a distillery, but the slightness of its construction made it of no practical use.

1773. THE settlers in the valley of the Wyoming, on the Upper Susquehanna, were taken under the protection of Connecticut.

The Susquehanna Company prevailed upon the province to do this. Under the charter of Connecticut her territory extended to the Pacific. The settlement was incorporated as the town of Westmoreland, and annexed to Litchfield County. The Pennsylvania assembly constituted the same settlement the County of Northumberland, and the question of jurisdiction was carried before the king in council.

1773.

THE jurisdiction over Pittsburg and the region west of the Laurel Mountains was claimed by Virginia.

An agent who appeared there with a commission from Lord Dunmore was arrested, but escaped.

1773. THE boundary between New York and Massachusetts was arranged by a commission which met at Hartford, Connecticut.

Governors Hutchinson and Tryon were present and arranged the line. It was not confirmed before the war.

1773. GOVERNOR TRYON of New York made an unsuccessful attempt to arrange the disputed question of boundaries with New York and "The Green Mountain boys," as the settlers in Vermont were called.

He went to England to lay the matter before the English government.

1773. AN attempt was made to work the mines on Lake Superior.

It was soon abandoned as too expensive.

1773. JOHN MURRAY, the founder of Universalism, arrived in the country.

1774, JANUARY 20.-The New York assembly chose a committee of correspondence.

Their reply to the burgesses is dated March 1. The committee consisted of John Cruger, James DeLancy, James Janney, Jacob Walton, Benjamin Scaman, Isaac Wilkins, Frederick Phillips, Daniel Kissam, Zebulon Scaman, John Rapalse, Simeon Bærum, John De Noyelles, and George Clinton, or any seven of them.

1774, FEBRUARY 8.-The assembly of New Jersey chose a committee of correspondence.

It consisted of James Kinsey, Stephen Crane, Hendrich Fisher, Samuel Tucker, John Wetherell, Robert Friend Price, John Hinchman, John Mehelm, and Edward Taylor.

1774, FEBRUARY 23. The assembly of Rhode Island passed an act providing for the gradual extinction of slavery in that

state.

All children born of slave mothers after the 1st of March were to be free, and

the towns were to pay the cost of their rearing. The next year this charge was laid upon the owners of the mothers. The act had been framed the year before by the assembly, and printed. It was drawn in answer to a petition from the Quakers for the abolition of slavery.

1774, FEBRUARY 29.- The petition of the Massachusetts assembly for the removal of Hutchinson from the governorship was heard before the Privy Council.

Franklin was present as the agent of the province. The petition was dismissed as "groundless, scandalous, and vexatious," and Franklin was dismissed from his position of colonial postmaster.

1774, MARCH 5 - John Hancock delivered the annual oration in Boston, in commemoration of the Boston Massacre.

In this he urged that the condition of affairs required a general congress.

1774, MARCH 7.—The king, in his messages to parliament, called their attention to the proceedings in America, and particularly to the destruction. of the tea in Boston, Massachusetts.

1774, MARCH 8.-A bill suppressing the slave trade was passed by the Massachusetts assembly.

Under instructions from the Home government, Governor Hutchinson refused to sign it. This refusal was also made by his successor, Governor Gage.

1774, MARCH 14.-Lord North, in parliament, proposed the Boston Port Bill, which passed both houses, and on the 31st received the royal assent.

This bill prohibited the landing or the shipping of any merchandise whatever, in Boston, after the 1st day of June. It also constituted Marblehead, Massachusetts, a port of entry, and made Salem the seat of government. This was to continue until the owners of the property destroyed should be paid for their loss, and until other conditions had been satisfied. Official notice was given that the enforcement of the act would be maintained by the army and navy if necessary. The notice of the act arrived in Boston on the 10th of May, and in New York on the 12th of May by another vessel.

1774, MARCH 28.- Lord North moved in parliament that "leave be given to bring in a bill for the better regulating the government of Massachusetts Bay."

In speaking of the bill he proposed, he said it was intended to "give a degree of strength and spirit to the civil magistracy and to the executive power." In the debate which followed, Lord George Germain said: "There is a degree of absurdity, at present, in the election of a council. I cannot, sir, disagree with the noble lord; nor can I think he will do a better thing than to put an end to their town meetings. I would also wish that all corporate powers might be given to certain people of every town, in the same way that corporations are formed here. The juries require great regulation; they are totally different from ours-I would wish to bring the constitution of America as similar to our own as possible. I would wish to see the council in that country similar to a House of Lords in thisYou have, sir, no government, no governor; the whole are the proceedings of a