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
Queries
1. Do the Acts & Proceedings stated in the foregoing case, or any of them amount to the crime of High Treason?
2. If they do, who are the persons chargeable with such Crime and what will be the proper and legal method of proceeding against them?
- What is the role of the Attorney General in the British state?
- Why did George III want the Attorney General to answer these two questions following the events of the Boston tea Party?
- How would you define the term ‘high treason’?
- How was justice administered in the colony of Massachusetts?
- Could the colony have heard a case of High treason? Explain your answer.