[July 4.] The governor informed the house, that by his majesty’s instruction, he was forbidden giving his consent to such an act as subjects the officers of the crown to be taxed, by the assessors in the towns where they reside, for the profits which they receive from their commissions, although their offices have no relation to the province, so that the tax-bill must be qualified. [5.] The house, by message, expressed their surprise and alarm at the reason assigned for his not assenting to the tax-bill, and said, “We know of no commissioners of his majesty’s customs, nor of any revenue his majesty has a right to establish in _North-America_. We know and feel a tribute levied and extorted from those, who, if they have property, have a right to the absolute disposal of it.” Had it been known, how insignificant the taxes were which the officers of the crown were required to pay, it is hard to conceive how wisdom could have dictated such instruction, and have ventured to give a fresh disgust to those, who were already too much irritated. However, the governor’s instructions did not oblige him to confine the general court to _Cambridge_, and he might have removed them to _Boston_; but by showing a firmness in opposing their desires, while they protested against the restrant they were under, he meant to recommend himself to the ministry. By the same intention he was induced, in a great measure, to refuse his consent to the grants made to Mr. _Bollan_ and Mr. _De Berdt’s_ executors by this assembly, as he had done in respect to those made by the preceding. These refusals served to keep up the animosity. The disposition to import goods into the Massachusetts, in defiance of the laws of revenue and trade, and to support such practices by open violences upon the officers, whose duty it was to carry the laws into execution, broke out upon many occasions; and, as usual, the magistrates declined giving their assistance and support, being in principle opposed to such laws, as fundamentally defective in point of rectitude. The like disposition to import goods prevailed in the other colonies; but there was no call to go into the like open violences.