"The objectors say the tea duty will be a means of supporting the Parliament of Great Britain in raising money from us. How it can affect this matter I am utterly at a loss to comprehend. Have not large quantities of tea for some years past been imported into this Province from England, both on account of the dealers in tea there and the merchants here, all which have paid the American duty? How in the name of common sense does it differ, unless it be in favor of America, for a New England merchant to have his tea shipped from Great Britain, on his own account, or receive it on commission from the grocers there, and on its arrival, paying the customary duty, than if it had been shipped by the East India Company, who were the original importers? What consistency is there in making a clamour about this small branch of the revenue, whilst we silently pass over the articles of sugar, molasses and rum, from which more than three-fourths of the American revenue has and always will arise, and when the Act of Parliament imposing duties on these articles stands on the same footing as that respecting tea, and the moneys collected from them are applied to the same purposes? Many of us complain of the Tea Act, not only as it affects our liberties, but as it affects our purses, by draining us annually of a large sum of money. But if it be considered that by this step the East India Company have taken of sending their tea to market themselves at their own cost, and the saving that is thereby made to the merchants here of commissions, freight and charges of importing it, which will be equal to the whole annual tax that has yet been paid, it must silence that complaint." "Z." [43] Nathaniel Hatch, of Dorchester, graduated at Harvard University, in 1742, and subsequently held the office of Clerk of the Courts. He accompanied the British troops to Halifax, in 1776; was proscribed and banished in 1778, and in 1779 was included in the Conspiracy Act, by which his estate was confiscated. He died in 1780. [44] The proposition to burn the tea is referred to by Wyeth. See ante p. LXXI. [45] This letter, with all its extravagance and exaggeration, undoubtedly expresses the popular feeling, the public sentiment of the time. It is easy to see from its style, as well as from the sentiments it contains, that it could have emanated from none of the popular leaders. These, however strongly they felt in relation to ministerial aggression, were, though direct and forcible in their utterances, invariably discreet and temperate in their tone and language.