The parliamentary response to the Boston Tea Party was swift and, in the opinion of the colonists, brutal. In the first half of 1774, that body passed a series of acts that were intended to redefine the relationship between Britain’s troublesome colony of Massachusetts Bay and Parliament itself. The Port of Boston Act closed Boston to shipping until the tea spoiled in the Boston Tea Party was paid for. The Massachusetts Government Act stripped the colony of many of the attributes of self-government by, for instance, removing the colony’s charter and limiting town meetings. In addition, the Administration of Justice Act removed many of the colony’s judges from colonial payrolls, arranging to pay them from imperial funds (and thus making those judges less vulnerable to pressure from colonial interests). Another act, the Quartering Act, gave the colony’s governor, a royal appointee, the power to house British troops on private property.