=132. The Boston Massacre.=—In 1768 the king sent over two regiments of soldiers to Boston for the special purpose of enforcing the obnoxious acts. In March, 1770, there was a spirited quarrel between some citizens and the soldiers in one of the streets of Boston, whereupon the troops fired upon the crowd, killing five and wounding seven others. This event, commonly known as the “Boston Massacre,” greatly widened the breach. An immense concourse gathered the next day in the Old South Meetinghouse. Samuel Adams was sent to Governor Hutchinson[64] to demand, in the name of three thousand freemen, the removal of the soldiers from the town. The governor thought it prudent not to refuse, and sent the troops to an island in Boston Harbor. THE TAX ON TEA. [Illustration: OLD SOUTH CHURCH, BOSTON.[65]] =133. Partial Repeal of the Townshend Acts.=—These events convinced Parliament that the Townshend Acts could not be enforced; but the government only repeated the course taken in repealing the Stamp Act. Instead of annulling the obnoxious provisions outright, they repealed the tax on all the articles except tea, but they held to the duty on this one article in order to maintain the principle. They ingeniously tried to make the tax on tea acceptable by remitting the usual duty which had to be paid on tea sent to America, when in transit it arrived in England. But it was not the cost of the tea that the Americans objected to; it was the principle of taxation. =134. General Treatment of the Tea.=—As the British had no doubt the Americans would receive the tea under these conditions, large cargoes were sent to various American ports. The government commissioners appointed to receive this tea soon found that the people everywhere refused it. In Charleston large quantities were stored and afterward sold to the public; at Annapolis the tea was burned; at Philadelphia and at New York, after browbeating the commissioner into resigning, the people compelled the ships to return to England.