The next day, Governor Bernard received positive instructions to dissolve the assembly of Massachusets. But it was in vain that the arm of power sought to quell the general disaffection: when employed it had only the effect of making the colonists more resolute in their opposition. Associations and committees were formed in most of the provinces, and smuggling was carried on in the broad face of day. Some months before, one Malcolm had fought with the custom-house officers, and had landed sixty pipes of Madeira at Boston without paying duty. In the month of June another cargo arrived at Boston, and when the excise-officer stepped on board he was seized and confined below, while the wine was sent on shore. The officer was afterwards liberated, and on the following morning the skipper of the sloop entered four or five pipes at the custom-house, declaring that this was the whole of his cargo. Aware of the falsehood of this statement, the commissioners ordered a comptroller to seize the sloop, and to fix the king’s broad arrow upon her. This was the signal for a riot. A mob, headed by Malcolm, beat and nearly killed several of the revenue officers, and the commissioners themselves were compelled to seek safety in flight. The sloop was, however, seized; the excise being assisted by the captain of the Romney man-of-war, then lying at anchor off Boston. This was on a Friday, and the two following days were comparatively quiet, but on Monday an immense mob gathered in the streets at Boston, and placards were stuck up, calling upon the “sons of liberty” to meet on the following morning. At this meeting a committee was appointed to wait upon the governor, to inquire why the sloop had been seized? This committee pretended that it was an affront offered to the town of Boston to act thus arbitrarily, since the sloop might have been left in safety at the wharf. The committee affected likewise to disapprove of the riot, and some few of the ringleaders were sought for and found, under the pretence of bringing them to condign punishment. But the whole was a farce. Malcolm, the smuggler, and others of a similar stamp, sate upon the grand jury, and quashed all prosecution.
It was these proceedings which seem to have persuaded the ministers at home to revive the obsolete statute of Henry VIII. Before the news of these Boston riots, however, had arrived in England, ministers had resolved to employ force. In a secret and confidential letter, Lord Hillsborough had told General Gage that it was his majesty’s pleasure he should send one regiment or more from Halifax to Boston, to be quartered in that town, in order to assist the civil magistrates and the revenue officers. This was on the 8th of June, and three days later Governor Bernard was informed by his lordship that his majesty had directed one regiment to be stationed at Boston, and had ordered a frigate, two sloops, and two armed cutters to repair to and remain in the harbour of that town for the above-mentioned purpose. It was not, however, till the month of September that the people of Boston became fully aware of the intention of government to send troops thither, and in the meantime they had been busy in organizing resistance to the Mutiny Act. In the month of August, the merchants and traders of Boston agreed upon a new subscription paper, to this effect:--“We will not send for or import from Great Britain, either upon our own account, or upon commission, this fall, any other goods than what are already ordered for the fall supply. We will not send for or import any kind of goods or merchandise from Great Britain, &c, from the lat of January, 1769, to the 1st of January, 1770; except salt, coals, fish-hooks and lines, hemp and duck, bar-lead and shot, wool-cards and card wire. We will not purchase of any factor or others any kind of goods imported from Great Britain, from January, 1769, to January, 1770. We will not import on our own account, or on commission, or purchase of any who shall import from any other colony in America, from January, 1769, to January, 1770, any tea, paper, glass, or any other goods commonly imported from Great Britain. We will not, from and after the 1st of January, 1769, import into this province any tea, paper, glass, or painters’ colours, until the act imposing duties on those articles shall be absolutely repealed.” This paper was generally subscribed by the merchants of Boston, and, soon after, the merchants of Connecticut, New York, and Salem entered into similar agreements.