ABSTRACT
The Liberty Riot, following the seizure of John Hancock’s sloop, Liberty, on 10 June 1768 for customs violations, forced Customs Commissioners to retreat to Castle William to save their skins. There they called for British troops to restore order in Boston. In February 1768, the Massachusetts General Court passed Sam Adams’s Circular Letter, to be distributed to other colonial assemblies, attacking the Townshend Duties and Declaratory Act. Colonial Secretary Lord Hillsborough responded in April by instructing Massachusetts Governor Francis Bernard to order the assembly to rescind the letter and other governors to order their assemblies not to endorse it on pain of dissolution. While acknowledging the practical problems of having colonial MPs, and offering some solutions to them, the Inquiry thus recommends a parliament partly from Europe and partly from America.
