Extracts from a document requesting legal advice sent to the Attorney and Solicitor General from William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, February 1774, Catalogue Ref: CO 5/160
The document included a narrative of events and questions concerning the punishment of those involved in the Boston Tea Party. The document recorded that ‘advice [was] received from Boston in letters from Governor Hutchinson, Admiral Montague and the Commandant of the King’s troops at Castle William and the information taken here of Captain Scott, lately arrived from thence, contain the following facts…’
Transcript
Whitehall 5th February 1774
Attorney and Solicitor General
Gentlemen
I am commanded by the King to transmit to you the enclosed narrative of facts relating to some of the late transactions of Boston in North America, accompanied with the two Questions thereupon.
This is the King’s Pleasure that you do take this Case into your immediate and mature consideration and Report to me for His Majesty’s Information your answer to the Questions proposed.
The state of His Majesty’s Colonies in America, under the Insults that have been offered to the Authority of this Kingdom, requires the most serious deliberation and speedy decision. It is therefore His Majesty’s Pleasure that you should transmit your answer to me with all possible dispatch, to the end that the measures His Majesty may think proper to pursue may not fail of their Effect through any Delay that can be avoided.
…
Dartmouth
- Why has George III requested information from the Attorney and Solicitor General?
- Why has Lord Dartmouth made this request on behalf of the King?
- How would you describe the tone and attitude in this document?
- What does it suggest about the British reaction to the Boston Tea Party?