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 36 William (then called Smith Street). The statue was in the attitude of one delivering an oration, the right hand holding a scroll partly open, where might be read "Articuli Magna-Charta Libertatum." On the south side of the pedestal the following inscription was cut in a tablet of white marble: "This statue of the Right Honorable William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, was erected as a publick testimony of the grateful sense the Colony of New York retains of the many eminent services he rendered to America, particularly in promoting the repeal of the Stamp Act." This statue remained standing in its original position until 1789, but having been beheaded and disfigured by the British during their occupation of the city, it was finally removed by a city ordinance. It is now preserved in the refectory of the New York Historical Society.



The decade from 1765 to 1775 was one of variable excitements, and Wall Street was the troubled heart of them all. It was in the city hall that the great Tea Meeting startled the inhabitants in 1773 (December 17), when General Lamb read to the assembled throng the Act of Parliament relating to the payment of the duty on tea, and called for an expression of opinion, as to whether obedience should be rendered. The prolonged shouts of "No! No! No!" three times repeated, jarred the old edifice from floor to rafter, and left no doubt as to the sense of the meeting. This was but a few hours after three hundred and forty chests of the condemned tea had been consigned to the briny depths of Boston harbor. Had the tea-vessel destined for New York not been diverted by contrary winds, history might have had still further revolutionary proceedings to chronicle. It so chanced that spring came in advance of the tea; but not a pound was allowed to come into the city. The ship and its cargo were sent ignominiously back from whence they came, in the most public manner, the bells ringing from every steeple in New York during the sublime ceremony. Another vessel, whose captain denied the presence of tea in his