Volume 3, Chapter 48, Partial Repeal of the Townsend Duties
We have seen that the British colonial policy took a sharp turn to the right when the Cabinet
was reshuffled in the autumn of 1767 upon the death of Charles Townsend.
The arch-imperialist Bedford faction strengthened its post in the Cabinet, and the Tories north
and Hillsborough assumed critical positions in the ministry.
Domination by the Tory right was confirmed and intensified with the departure of the
erratic centrist Chatham, William Pitt and Shelburne from the government in October 1768.
The Bedfordites and other Tory factions now greatly consolidated their control under the
nominal leadership of the weak Duke of Grafton.
The Whigs staunchly attempted to delve into the causes of the American disorders, but
Lord North succeeded in focusing Parliament's attention on the resistance in Britain and
on the supposed need to assert imperial power over the colonies.
Hillsborough, North and Bedford pushed through resolutions denouncing Boston, pledging Parliament
and support to all measures needed to impose supremacy on the Americans and urging the
transportation of James Otis and other American leaders to England to be tried for treason.
Lord Hillsborough, furthermore, had bolder plans for crushing the Americans. They especially
included imposing a royally appointed council on Massachusetts and cancellation of the Massachusetts
In addition, the Mutiny Act was to be strengthened to allow quartering of troops in private houses.
The Tories were now in control.
The only gain to the liberal opposition was the accession of the Chathamites, who always
tended to be liberal when Chatham was out of power.
In contrast, Grenville's opposition was characteristically to attack the government for weakness and
appeasement when dealing with the Americans.
In the cabinet, only the liberals Camden and Conway opposed the harsh plans of Lord Hillsborough.
So extreme were Hillsborough's proposals, however, that even King George balked at imposing
them.
Several economic developments in Great Britain during early 1769 soon swung the ministry
to decide on the repeal of the Townsend duties. There was, in the first place, the threatening
Wilkite agitation and the mammoth Wilkite petition movement, joined in by the radicals,
Whigs and Chattemites, which challenged the government and which was at least partly linked
with the American Cause.
Secondly, the war crisis with Spain and France over the Falkland Islands coupled with troubles
in unhappy Ireland made the government anxious to find some peaceful solution to the problems
in America.
Beset by conflict at home and abroad, Britain was now anxious to secure her colonial flank.
3. British merchants and manufacturers were beginning to complain bitterly as a result
of the success of the spreading non-importation boycott in America. Total American imports
from Britain had fallen from over 2.15 million pounds in 1768 to under 1.35 million pounds
the following year.
All of this was a potent combination.
The result was a decision by the Grafton Ministry in May 1769 to repeal all the Townsend taxes
except the duty on tea.
Repeal would be moved in the forthcoming 1770 session of parliament.
The crucial and fateful vote in the cabinet was how far to go.
The liberals, led by Grafton, Camden and Conway, advocated total repeal of the Townsend duties.
The Tories, led by North, Hillsborough and the Bedfordites, insisted on keeping the tax
on tea, and they prevailed in the cabinet by a one-vote majority. North's arguments
were shrewd enough. The other goods taxed were products of British manufacture, so that
that the duties lowered the sales of British manufacturers and merchants, and also dangerously
stimulated the emergence of competing manufacturers in the colonies. But tea was not of English
manufacture, and certainly could not be grown in America. Furthermore, tea furnished by
far the major part of the revenue from the Townsend duties. North's arguments were also
is so cunningly strategic. Retention of the T-tax would continue to assert Parliament's
sovereign right to impose such taxation, and the removal of all the duties except that on
T would split the American resistance movement, weaken its resolve, and wreck the boycott
without yielding the principal or the major towns in tax. The policy would thus deprive
by the radical American leadership of its mass base.
The tactlessness of the proposed repeal was accentuated by Hillsborough's letter to the
colonial assemblies announcing the cabinet decision.
Stress was laid on a provocative assertion of the power of parliament rather than on
a desire for conciliation with the colonies.
When Parliament opened again in early January 1770, the debate over repeal became part
and parcel of a determined liberal opposition mounted against the ministry. The opposition
was also based on taking up the cause against Wilkes's expulsion from Parliament. The Whigs
and the Chattamites launched the attack, and the ensuing polarization of opinion led to
to the resignation of the liberal-oriented cabinet members, beginning with Camden and
ending with the Duke of Grafton, the Prime Minister himself.
The determined opposition push failed and precipitated the backlash of a counterrevolution,
with all the Tory forces in England banding together in a new unity born of fear for their
Lord North added the Prime Ministerial Post to his own offices at the end of January,
and this cemented Tory rule by coalescing the Tory factions.
Unity was completed some months later by the death of Grenville, which permitted the old
On March 5, coincidentally the day of the Boston Massacre, Lord North moved the repeal
of all the Townsend taxes except the tea tax.
He scorned the idea of repealing the tea duty as appeasement of the colonies.
America must fall at the feet of Britain before any further conciliation would be made.
Parliament agreed to the repeal the same day and final action was taken in mid-April.
The Liberals, however, had not given up in their defense of Americans against Great Britain.
The Whigs, led by Barlow, Tricothick and especially Edmund Burke, moved to censure British colonial
policy when news of the Boston Massacre arrived in Britain. Burke charged that American rebelliousness
was brought about precisely because of British severity and intransigence. Burke's and Chatham's
Center resolutions, however, failed by a wide margin and provoked threats of impeachment
or treason trials against Seville, Rockingham, Richmond and other Whig leaders.
During June and July 1770, the North Ministry consolidated its hard line against the colonies.
The center of the British Navy in America was deliberately shifted from Halifax to Boston
Harbor.
The fort at Castle William was permanently garrisoned with British instead of American
troops, although no troops were moved back into Boston itself.
The Mutiny Act, however, was allowed to lapse without being renewed.