This was due to the open resistance to the execution of
the laws in Boston. Further, no meeting of freeholders or
inhabitants of townships may be held without consent of the
Governor after expressing the special business of such meeting
because there had been too many meetings passing dangerous and
unwarranted resolutions. Also, jurors were to be selected by
sheriffs rather than elected by freeholders and inhabitants.
The commander of the British troops in North America was made
Governor. King George thought that the colonists must be reduced
to absolute obedience, even if ruthless force was necessary. The
people of Massachusetts were incensed. They were all familiar with
the rights of Magna Carta since mandatory education taught them
all to read and write. (Every township of fifty households had to
appoint one to teach all children to read and write. Every one
hundred families had to set up a grammar school.) The example in
Massachusetts showed other colonies what England was prepared to
do to them. Also disliked was the policy of restricting settlement
west of the Allegheny mountains; the take over of Indian affairs
by royal appointees; the maintenance of a standing army of about
6,000 men which was to be quartered, supplied, and transported by
the colonists; and expanded restrictions on colonial paper
currencies.
The Virginia House of Burgesses set aside the effective date of
the port bill as a day of prayer and fasting, and for this was
dissolved by its governor.
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