Editing Intolerable Acts (section)

==Passage==
On 16 December 1773, a group of [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot]] colonists associated with the [[Sons of Liberty]] destroyed 342 chests of tea in [[Boston, Massachusetts]], an act that came to be known as the [[Boston Tea Party]]. The colonists partook in this action because Parliament had passed the [[Tea Act]], which granted the [[British East India Company]] a monopoly on tea sales in the colonies, thereby saving the company from bankruptcy. This made British tea less expensive. In addition, there was added a small tax.{{fact|date=December 2023}} This angered the colonists. News of the Boston Tea Party reached England in January 1774. Parliament responded by passing four laws. Three of the laws were intended to directly punish Massachusetts. This was for the destruction of private property, to restore British authority in Massachusetts, and to otherwise reform colonial government in America.

On 22 April 1774, Prime Minister [[Frederick North, Lord North|Lord North]] defended the programme in the [[House of Commons of Great Britain|House of Commons]], saying:

<blockquote>The Americans have tarred and feathered your subjects, plundered your merchants, burnt your ships, denied all obedience to your laws and authority; yet so clement and so long forbearing has our conduct been that it is incumbent on us now to take a different course. Whatever may be the consequences, we must risk something; if we do not, all is over.<ref>Reid, ''Constitutional History,'' 13. For the complete quote in context, see William Cobbett et al., eds., [https://books.google.com/books?id=-14TAAAAYAAJ ''The Parliamentary History of England: From the Earliest Period to the Year 1803''] (London, 1813) 17:1280–1281.</ref></blockquote>