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 1772-s] Franklin before the Privy Council. 157 behalf of the Crown. His attitude was that of an unscrupulous partisan, prosecuting Franklin for theft. Franklin's conduct may have been dis- honourable ; but some consideration was due to one who had spent his life in the public service, who had been a laborious and devoted friend to America, and assuredly not a disloyal citizen of Great Britain. In alienating him, Wedderburn was alienating one who could do invaluable service as the representative and mouthpiece of colonial opinion in its less violent form. But Wedderburn was restrained neither by decency nor by policy. Himself the shiftiest of politicians, the most unscrupulous of self-seekers, he could not urge the plea of being carried away by moral indignation. The temptation of letting off rhetorical fireworks and displaying powers of sarcasm overpowered all sense either of propriety or policy. The Privy Council, by its approval of his conduct, degraded itself from a judicial tribunal into a body of partisans; and, when Franklin left the meeting, the loyalty which the events of the last six years had been undermining was finally shattered. Henceforth, as his writings plainly show, his attitude towards England was one of dislike and contempt, kept in check only by con- siderations of what was expedient for America. There is a certain irony in the fact, that one of the most serious incidents in the whole course of the colonial dispute, and one which perhaps more than any other precipitated the conflict, was due to what can hardly be called an administrative blunder. A Bill for the relief of the East India Company was introduced by Lord North in 1772, and somewhat extended in 1773. On neither occasion does it seem to have met with any opposition. The Bill provided that the East India Company might export tea to America direct, without passing through an English seaport, and that if it was landed in England and re- exported to America the duty, a shilling on every pound of tea, should be remitted. The measure was no doubt primarily designed for the good of the East India Company, but it was also a substantial benefit to the colonies. Before Townshend had imposed his tax the total duty on tea imported from the East to America was a shilling a pound. It was now to be only threepence a pound in America ; and the tea could therefore be sold proportionately cheaper. It is to be observed that this benefit was limited to the British colonies in America, There can be no doubt that North intended the measure as a conciliatory one ; and, but for the preceding disputes, it would have been accepted as such. But the colonists had come to regard the fiscal system adopted towards them as part of a comprehensive attack on their liberties. They coupled the question of taxation with the declared project of a civil-list and with the rumoured project of an episcopate. It was immaterial, from their point of view, whether a special incident of taxation pressed a little more or a little less hardly. Thus the very measure which was designed to promote peace CH. v.