suffered so great a change that they don't appear to be the same persons. And I can no longer depend upon them for that assistance which I have been used to expect, and often to receive of them, in support of the rights of the Crown. They seem to have caught the general intimidation, to look upon the cause of the present Government to be desperate, and to think that it is high time that they should take care of their interests with the prevailing party of the people.'

The military dilemma was eventually solved. Early in September the Governor learned from a private communication that two regiments had been commanded to leave Halifax for Boston, and Mr. Hutchinson expressly states that these first troops were ordered by Government in England of their own mere motion.' Undoubtedly, however, the Governor's letters had been instrumental in producing the result, corroborated as they were by other letters from loyalists. Mr. Bernard, believing that the arrival of soldiers, if totally unexpected, might cause a revolt, communicated his news to a member of the Council, and before night it was known all over the town, producing great excitement. Hosmer tells the tale as follows:

In September the Senegal and Duke of Cumberland, ships of the fleet, set sail from the harbour, and Bernard caused the rumour to be spread abroad that they were going for troops. A town meeting was summoned, and Bernard, apprehending insurrection, caused the Beacon on Beacon Hill to be so far dismantled that signals could not be sent to the surrounding country.3

The Governor's own fuller narrative, sent to Lord Hillsborough, states that he had received information of a large meeting on Friday, the 9th, and of a small private gathering at the house of a chief of the anti-English party on Saturday, the 10th. This chief, as Bancroft notes, was

1 Life of Sir Francis Bernard. Also 'Letters to the Ministry': 'Copy of a Letter from Governor Bernard to the Earl of Hillsborough, dated Boston, September 9, 1768.'

2 Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., ch. ii.

3 Hosmer, Samuel Adams, ch. viii., The Arrival of the Troops.'

Bancroft, Hist. U.S., Epoch ii. ch. xxiv. From this chapter the further

THE MILITARY DILEMMA

139

Joseph Warren; at his house Samuel Adams and James Otis were, of course, present. 'And there,' continues Governor Bernard, 'it was resolved to surprise and take the Castle on the Monday night following.' He adds: 'I don't relate these accounts as certain facts, but only as reported and believed.'

1

Then follows some more trustworthy intelligence:

On Saturday night an empty turpentine barrel was put up upon the poll of the Beacon (which had been lately erected by the selectmen without consulting me). This gave a great alarm the next day, and the Council sent to me on Sunday afternoon to desire I would order a Council, which I held at a gentleman's house halfway between me and Boston. Here it was debated what means should be used to take the barrel down; and it was resolved that the selectmen should be desired to take it down, but they would not do it.

The Governor found other persons to undertake this service, and thus apparently disconcerted the confederates. The report of an intention to seize the Castle may have been an exaggeration; yet it is suspiciously evident that Mr. Bernard's prompt measures of repression gave great annoyance to the malcontents, who afterwards made his mere mention of this rumoured plot to the Ministry one of the articles of impeachment against the Governor. The halfway house to which he alludes was probably Judge Auchmuty's residence, but on this occasion the meeting, though not open to the public, was no more a 'secret conclave' than any other duly summoned Council, save that it was probably held in a private house-the day being Sunday-to avoid attracting attention, which was certain to be followed by a patriotic burst of virtuous indignation.

Governor Bernard having refused to accede to the demands of the confederates, as made known to him by a committee-namely, to give his reasons for expecting troops particulars related by Bancroft are taken and quoted until another reference is given.

''Letters to the Ministry': Copy of a Letter from Governor Bernard to the Earl of Hillsborough, dated Boston, September 16, 1768.'

and to call another Assembly without waiting for leave from the Crown-a second public meeting of the Opposition was held, without a day's delay, in Faneuil Hall on Monday, the 12th,1 which the Governor described in a subsequent portion of his letter to Lord Hillsborough, already quoted. Otis presided.

I should have mentioned before that in the middle of the hall where they met were deposited in chests the town arms, amounting, as it is said, to about 400. These, as I have before informed your Lordship, about four or five months ago, were taken out of the lumber-rooms, where they had lain for some years past, to be cleaned, and have since been laid upon the floor of the Town-hall to remind the people of the use of them. These arms were often the subject of discourse, and were of singular use to the orators in the way of action. As the subject of their debates turned upon arming the town and country against their enemies, the probability of a French war was mentioned as a pretence for arming the town, and a cover for the frequent use of the word enemy. It was said that the enemy would probably be here before the Convention met, that is, within ten days; it was moved that the arms should now be delivered out to oppose the enemy ; this was objected to, for that they might fall into hands who would not use them. But this flimsy veil was not always kept on; it was often said that they had a right to oppose with arms a military force which was sent to oblige them to submit to unconstitutional laws; and when it was required to be more explicit the chairman said that they understood one another very well, and, pointing with his hand, added, 'These are the arms; when an attempt is made against your liberties they will be delivered; our declaration wants no explication.' And, indeed, it does not.

When first it was moved that the Governor be desired to call an Assembly, it was said to be to provide for the safety of the province and put it in a posture of defence; it was thereupon observed that that would make troops necessary, and it was immediately struck out. One cried out that they wanted a head; this was overruled, for indeed it was too premature. Another, an old man, protested against everything but rising immediately and taking all power into their own hands. One man, very profligate

1 Bancroft mentions Monday, September 12, as the date of this meeting. Hist. U.S., Epoch ii. ch. xxiv.

A SELF-CONSTITUTED CONVENTION

141

and abandoned, argued for massacring their enemies; his argument was short. 'Liberty is as precious as life; if a man attempts to take my life, I have a right to take his. Ergo, if a man attempts to take away my liberty, I have a right to take his life.' He also argued that when a people's liberties were threatened they were in a state of war and had a right to defend themselves. And he carried these arguments so far, that his own party were obliged to silence him.

The dissolved House of Representatives now met as a self-constituted body in Faneuil Hall,1 embarrassing the Governor by its assumption of powers which he could not recognise, and manifesting great indignation that he refused to accede to its petition for summoning a new Assembly, although he was debarred from taking such a step until further instructions arrived from England. The Convention was, however, so far impressed by his determined attitude, that it dissolved itself at the end of six days, having behaved during its short session with comparative moderation, notwithstanding the efforts of the more violent members to alter its course.

To these agitators must be attributed the publication of a document, which the rest of the body did not, indeed, disavow, but permitted to come forth as 'The Result' of its conferences.

They brought into this result [writes Mr. Hutchinson] several expressions evidently intended as fleers upon the Governor, who had been bred to the law, and practised many years with reputation, both in the temporal and spiritual courts. Ignorance of the law,' they say, 'neither in a court temporal or spiritual,' is a proper plea or excuse. They would appear, not as 'attorneys,' 'proctors,' or 'pettifoggers,' but as plain honest men. were expressions in their result indecent and illiberal.2

These

And, moreover, the expressions just quoted showed want of knowledge or perverse inaccuracy as to the details of the

Hutchinson, Thomas Bernard, Bancroft, and other historians note these proceedings. Bancroft, indeed, admits most of the facts mentioned in the Governor's last-quoted letter to Lord Hillsborough.

2 Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., ch. ii.

Governor's career in England. But the writers had somehow learned that he was connected with bishops, and that was enough to arouse their anger.

To describe all the symptoms of agitation at this time would fill too much space. Meetings were frequent and stormy; a fast day was kept in the Congregational places of worship; resolves were made in many quarters against buying any article on which a duty had been imposed. During the whole of the crisis Samuel Adams stood forth as the advocate of desperate measures. In the words of Bancroft:

With the people of Boston, in the street, at public meetings, in the shipyards, wherever he met them, he reasoned that it would be just to destroy every soldier whose foot should touch the shore. . . . Not reverence for kings, he would say, brought the ancestors of New England to America. They fled from kings and bishops, and looked up to the King of kings. We are free, therefore,' he concluded, ' and want no king.'" 2

4

'On the 18th of September,' writes Thomas Bernard, 'the Earl of Hillsborough's letter arrived, with the intelligence that two more regiments were ordered from Ireland to Boston.'3 The British Government had, it appears, determined on sending the additional regiments 'when the news arrived of the seizure of the vessel from Madeira, and of the withdrawing of the Commissioners.' Mr. Hutchinson states that the Governor knew nothing of this decision until he was thus informed by the Secretary of State. He probably received the intelligence with mixed feelings, since, glad as he might have been to discover that American disturbances were at last considered seriously in England, and that assistance was coming, there was only too much reason to fear that this sudden announcement of

The particulars of Governor Bernard's small appointments of various sorts have been given in vol. i. ch. viii. and x.

2 Bancroft, Hist. U.S., Epoch ii. ch. xxiv.

• Ibid. 'Letter from the Earl of Hillsborough to Governor Bernard, dated

July 30, 1768,' quoted in the Life.

Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., ch. ii.