[c.27 June 1768]
I have been concerned to find, that your friends here are much surprised and displeased at the charge you have made of the parliamentary duty on tea. I confess it is extremely disagreeable to me, and I earnestly entreat that you, sir, whom we esteem here as our very good friend, would not lend a helping hand to deprive us of the most valuable of all possessions, our liberty. But certainly an arbitrary ministry will for ever proceed to tax and distress us, if they find the merchants will condescend to become their collectors, and so make the collection of a duty easy, which otherwise they never can get in. And I am very sure, that nothing can prevent the people here from regarding the trade as their most deadly foe, if they join in making easy of execution those oppressive acts. This act, levying a duty on paper, glass, tea, &c. is so unjust, and so badly contrived, that it never can be executed; and you run no risk here, however the collectors may bully and make a noise; for it is certain they do not know what to demand, and dare not detain a ship on account of these duties.
R. H. Lee
We, who subscribe this paper, do oblige ourselves to pay to J. R. Esq. Merchant, in London, or his order, on demand, for the quantity of tea by each of us subscribed for. But it is on this express condition that we desire the tea to be sent, that Mr. R. does not make the charge of the late parliamentary duty on tea, as we prefer our liberty to the gratification of our palates, and do not choose to drink our destruction in a cup of tea. Given under our hands and seals, this 27th June, 1768.
[Signatures omitted.]
Printed in James Curtis Ballagh, The Letters of Richard Henry Lee, Volume 1, 1762 - 1778, p. 28. Original transcription taken from R. H. Lee, Memoir of the Life of Richard Henry Lee and his Correspondence, 1:55.