In England the reverse effects were signalized with equal vehemence.

The Mock Indians were denounced as incendiaries, and the town meetings were condemned as "nurseries of sedition." Parliament passed four penal laws, the first of which punished Boston by transferring its port to Salem and closing its harbor.

The second law suspended the charter of the Province and added several new and tyrannical powers to the British Governor and to Crown officials.
On September 5, 1774, the first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia.

Except Georgia, every Colony sent delegates to it.

The election of those delegates was in several cases irregular, because the body which chose them was not the Legislature but some temporary body of the patriots.