fore at the opening of the General Court in Massachusetts in June 1766, he assumed a tone of haughtiness and reproach, very different from the temper of the letter under the authority of which he acted.

He said that the justice and humanity of the requisition were so forcible they could not be controverted, and that the authority from which it came ought to preclude all doubts about complying with it. He added, "both the business and the time are most critical-let me entreat you to recollect yourselves, and to consider well what you are about-Shall the private interests, passions, or resentments of a few men, deprive the whole people of the great and manifold advantages which the favour and indulgence of their King and his Parliament are now preparing for them? Surely, after his Majesty's commands are known, the very persons who have created the prejudices and prepossessions I now endeavour to combat, will be the first to remove them."

This was surely the most improper time which his Excellency could have fixed upon, and the most exceptionable style which he could have chosen, to enforce the recommendation of the Secretary. He should have waited until some of the citizens who had suffered by the outrages of the populace-mob, it could not be called, for the multitude who joined in the violent expressions of their resistance to the law, embraced the first men of the town-he should have waited, we say, until some of these sufferers petitioned for reparation-or he should have procured them to petition, by promises of redress. It would then have been time enough, if he saw a disposition in the General Court to withhold relief, to have recommended their compliance, as an acceptable act of loyalty to

his Majesty. It could never have been the intention of his Majesty to command the General Court to open the purse of the Colony, so soon after it had been legally put beyond his authority, by a formal repeal of the previous tax upon it. Nor could Mr. Secretary Conway have contemplated such an use as the Governour chose to make of his separate Despatch.

The General Court as well as the whole people of the Province, were at this time well disposed to listen to conciliatory language from the Government or any of its agents. But they were too tremblingly alive to their own rights, and too conscious of their own strength, to be drilled into a measure which implied a want of faith in the integrity of their hearts or understandings. They therefore in their reply to the Governour's speech, address him in a tone at once indignant and sarcastick. They tell him that he has exceeded the authority given to him in the letter, and plainly hint that he is acting as the tool of some higher power. "If this recommendation (said they), which your Excellency terms a requisition, be founded on so much justice and humanity that it cannot be controverted—if the authority with which it is introduced should preclude all disputation about complying with it; we should be glad to know what freedom we have in the case. With regard to the rest of your Excellency's speech, (they continue) we are constrained to observe, that the general air and style of it savour much more of an act of free grace and pardon, than of a parliamentary address to the two Houses of Assembly; and we most sincerely wish your Excellency had been pleased to reserve it, if needful, for a proelamation."

VOL. I

13

The government of Great Britain could not have found an agent less qualified to foster and preserve a spirit of reconciliation in the Colonies, than his Excellency Governour Bernard. He was haughty, morose and tyrannical, and seemed to take delight in thwarting every measure of the Assembly, not proposed by his immediate friends and sub-agents.

This conduct on the part of the Governour, so far from subduing the spirits of what was called the American party, or the friends of Liberty, irritated them to more open hostility, and brought continual accessions to their numbers. The town of Boston was at this time represented by James Otis jun. Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams and John Hancock-men whose subsequent conduct proved, that they were not to be driven into any surrender of privilege. It was in the power of the Governour to have made them all fast friends of the King-but, happily for the independence of our country, he chose by every petty act of opposition to their patriotick views, to alienate their respect and affection, and confirm them in the glorious title of champions of freedom. At the meeting of the Assembly, Mr. Otis was chosen Speaker, but the Governour refused to confirm the choice-and thus, instead of paving the way, by a mere act of courtesy, for the gracious reception of his speech, aroused that spirit of animosity which dictated the reply just quoted. He in like manner refused to sanction the nomination of the Council, because the Crown officers had been left out. Hitherto the influence of the Governour over the Assembly had been greatly assisted by the secrecy with which the debates of that House had been carried on. He and his friends might promise or threaten, without fear of restraint from pub

lick indignation. But the friends of liberty were now so numerous in the House, that their doors were thrown open and a gallery ordered to be erected for the accommodation of their fellow-citizens. From this moment the Court party began to decline, and the cause of the people to acquire additional defenders.

In the course of the Session, an Act was passed granting compensation to the sufferers in the late riots, the principal of whom was his honour the Lieutenant Governour. But this act was accompanied by a declaration that it was a free gift of the Province, and not an acknowledgment of the justice of their claim. By the same act also a full pardon was extended to the rioters-two circumstances which gave a character to the act by no means acceptable to his Majesty.

In New York likewise there was a similar spirit of half-way accommodation manifested. The Legislature by a voluntary act, granted compensation to those who had suffered a loss of property in their adherence to the Stamp Act. But they refused to carry into execution the Act of Parliament for quartering his Majesty's troops upon them.

The people of Connecticut too, though they heartily partook of the general rejoicings at the repeal of the Stamp Act, showed by their election of a new Governour that they were not disposed to forgive their former one for his acquiescence in the requisitions of that odious Act.

CHAPTER V.

Repeal of the Stamp Act produces but a short calm-transactions in England Mr. Pitt taken into the Ministry-the strange mixture in his administration-Mr. Townsend made Chancellor of the Exchequer Mr. Pitt accepts the title and dignities of Earl of Chatham-Mr. Grenville's Prohibitory Act against New-York-its effects upon the other Colonies-arrival of British troops in Boston-consequences thereof.-Mr. Townsend's plan for taxing the Colonies.-Effects of his measures upon the Americans.-Death of Mr. Townsend, and appointment of Lord North-Lord Chatham resigns, and is succeeded by the Earl of Bristol Lord Hillsborough made Secretary of State for the Colonies.-Resolutions of Boston town meetings.-Circular Letter of the Massachusetts Assembly-The Farmer's Letters.— Governour Bernard dissolves the Legislature-effects of this violence.-Seizure of Mr. Hancock's sloop-riot in consequence thereof Board of Trade remove from Boston-Meeting at Faneuil Hall-Arrival of a British Squadron and two Regiments at Boston.-The Governour quarters them in Faneuil Hall-Resolutions of the merchants.-Letter of the Philadel phia merchants to their agents in London-Revival of the Statute of Henry VIII-Resolutions of the Virginia House of Burgesses the Governour dissolves them.--Other Assemblies also dissolvedConduct of Governour Bernard-his recall-and character-Different conduct of Governour Bottetourt-Lord Hillsborough's Circular.-Sentiments of the Philadelphia merchants on his conciliatory proposition.

THE universal joy which pervaded all ranks of people in America, as well as in England, on the repeal of the Stamp Act, was but of short continuance. In the first warmth of their transports, they had seemed to forget that Great Britain had, in fact, yielded nothing, or scarcely any thing, in the mere repeal of the Stamp Act, so long as they continued to maintain the right of Parliament to tax them. This right they ei