: V. 1757. in question. This proceeding served rather to increase than CHAP. to appease the British commander, who immediately signified his displeasure to Pownall; observing that the assembly had no proper concern with the dispute, and that "in time of war, the rules and customs of war must govern ;" and acquainting him that the troops had received their orders and were already advancing upon Boston. A rash demonstration not more odious to the colonists than humiliating to the arms of Britain, whose troops, driven from their outposts, and defeated by the enemy, were now exhibited in the act of a retrograde movement against the people whom they had been sent to protect, and whose militia had in reality protected them. The assembly of Massachusetts, animated rather than daunted by this emergency, voted an address to the governor, which breathed the genuine spirit of their forefathers. They again asserted that the act of parliament to which the controversy had reference, did not extend to the British colonies and plantations : and that they had therefore enlarged the barracks at the castle, that the British troops might not be devoid of suitable accommodation, and had also framed a law for the convenience of the recruiting service, with as close conformity to the act of parliament as the nature and condition of the country and its inhabitants would admit. They maintained that the law which they had enacted was requisite to enable the provincial magistrates to execute the powers which it conferred upon them, and declared that they were always willing to enact such regulations when the troops to be quartered or recruited were necessary for their protection and defence. They protested that they were entitled to all the rights and liberties of Englishmen that by the provincial charter, there was committed to them every power and privilege requisite to their free and unrestricted administration of their own domestic government: that as they were supported under all difficulties and animated to resist an invading enemy to their last breath by the consciousness of enjoying these advantages, so they would be proportionally dispirited and enfeebled, by the loss or diminution of them. In conclusion, they declared that it would doubtless be a great misfortune to them if their adherence to these rights and privileges should deprive them of the esteem of Lord Loudoun ; but that they would still BOOK have the satisfaction of reflecting that both in their words and X. actions they had been governed by a sense of duty to his 1757. majesty, and of fidelity to the trust reposed in them. This language at once so spirited, temperate, and judicious, probably saved the province from a scene fraught with mischief and peril to its liberties. Expressions of fear or humiliation would have tempted Lord Loudoun to persevere; and demonstrations of resistance would have deprived him of any decent pretext for receding. The address of the assembly was forwarded to him by Governor Pownall, who farther tendered his own personal assurance that the colonists had honestly endeavoured to give to the recruiting service every facility which was compatible with the peculiar circumstances of the country. This assurance, unless interpreted with very considerable latitude, was hardly correct: for, doubtless, with the Americans, the quartering of British regiments in their towns, and the attempts to recruit them from the colonial population were generally unpopular. In every part of America, the superiority arrogated by the British troops over the provincial forces, created disgust: and the puritan and republican sentiments of the New Englanders in particular, were offended by the loose manners of the English officers, and the conversion of their own fellow-citizens into the disciplined stipendiaries of monarchical authority. Lord Loudoun, however, though perfectly aware that no alteration of circumstances had occurred since he had commanded the troops to march, thought proper to lay hold of the overture for reconciliation which had thus been afforded; and accordingly hastened to signify in a Dec. 26. despatch to Pownall, that as he could now "depend on the assembly making the point of quarters easy in all time coming," he had countermanded his previous orders for the military occupation of Boston. He condescended at the same time to make some courteous remarks on the zeal which the province had evinced for his majesty's service; but withal, he complained that the assembly seemed willing to enter into a dispute upon the necessity of a provincial law to enforce a British act of parliament. The communication of Lord Loudoun's despatch to the general court of Massachusetts, produced from this body a remarkable message to the governor, which at a later period attracted a good deal of controversial criticism: very V. 1757. different meanings being attached to it by the friends of Ame- CHAP. rican liberty, and by the individual, and the political partizans of the individual, who composed it. In this message, which was the composition of Thomas Hutchinson, a gentleman of consideration who had filled high official situations in Massachusetts for several years,1 the two houses (the assembly and council) composing the general court, after thanking the governor for his good offices in their behalf, denied the justice of Lord Loudoun's complaint; and protested that their legislative ordinance had been intended not to give force to an act of parliament, but to regulate a case to which no act of parliament was applicable. "We are willing," they declared, by a due exercise of the powers of civil government (and we have the pleasure of seeing your excellency concur with us) to remove, as much as may be, all pretence of necessity of military government. Such measures, we are sure, will never be disapproved by the parliament of Great Britain, our dependence upon which we never had a desire, or thought, of lessening." "The authority of all acts of parliament," they added, "which concern the colonies, and extend to them, is ever acknowledged in all the courts of law, and made the rule of all judicial proceedings in the province. There is not a member of the general court, and we know no inhabitant within the bounds of the government, that ever questioned this authority. To prevent any ill consequences which may arise from an opinion of our holding such principles, we now utterly disavow them, as we should readily have done at any time past, if there had been occasion for it; and we pray that his lordship may be acquainted therewith, that we may appear in a true light, and that no impressions may remain to our disadvantage." This document, prepared by a man of considerable ability, who had not yet made or at least declared his election between the interests of British prerogative and American liberty, was afterwards, in consequence of the rupture between the parent state and her colonies, subjected to much ingenious but disproportioned comment and observation: each of two political parties affecting to regard it, as, in some mea 1 Hutchinson has already been introduced to our notice. It was he who was afterwards so celebrated and unfortunate as the governor of Massachusetts in the commencement of the revolutionary controversy. X. 1757. State of parties in land. BOOK sure, a treaty between Britain and America, and each seeking to twist every sentence of it into a deliberate recognition or disclamation on the part of America, of the supremacy claimed by the British parliament. It will lose much of the significance which these reasoners have imputed to it, if we consider what was and what must have been the state of political parties and party feeling in New England at this period. From New Eng- the first establishment of British colonies in this quarter of America, a contest had prevailed between provincial liberty and the imperial power of Britain. Even before the British Revolution, two parties had sprung up; of which the one counted among its numerous votaries, the jealous, the uncompromising, and the headstrong, while the other was reputed to number in its smaller phalanx the more prudent, cautious, and timorous friends of American liberty. This distinction of parties was not terminated by the revolution, though it was interrupted for a short time by Lord Bellamont's administration. Various causes had since contributed to perpetuate and even to inflame its violence, and alter its character. The conduct of Shirley had been so popular, even while his language had proclaimed his attachment to royal prerogative, that of late years the progress of political dissension in Massachusetts had been less noted than it deserved. Pownall, attaching himself to the opponents of Shirley, and throwing himself upon them for support, at once incited this party and their adversaries to make a fuller and more unguarded declaration of their sentiments than either had previously ventured to express. The one party was unwilling to believe that its principles tended to promote American slavery: the other (excepting, perhaps, a few bold enthusiasts) durst not believe that its opinions conducted, at least immediately, to American independence. All parties were constrained, in theory, to admit the sovereignty of Britain and its legislature over America: and even those of the Americans who were most forward to claim for themselves the rights of Englishmen, recognised, in this expression, the dependence upon Britain incident to a component part and member of the British empire. But the politicians belonging to what was now called the popular party in America, cherished sentiments very discordant with this. theory: they regarded their provincial institutions with jealous V. 1757. attachment, and the power and pretensions of Britain with CHAP. jealous apprehension. Fear cannot long prevail without begetting anger and hatred; and the policy of Britain had inspired well-grounded fears in the breast of every friend of American liberty. Both in Britain and in America, it was felt, rather than avowed, that the increasing numbers and strength of the colonists demanded some change in the relations that had hitherto subsisted between them and the parent state; and the opposite views on this subject which each party, more or less justly, imputed to the other, served to exasperate the mutual jealousy of the partizans of British. prerogative and American liberty. The circumstances and events of the war with France had also contributed to strengthen this opposition of sentiment. While one party regarded with alternate alarm, impatience, and contempt, the formidable discipline and equipment of the British troops, their arrogant assumption of superiority, and their signal inefficiency against the common enemy; the other was struck with awe and admiration by the display of British pomp, profusion, and power; and of these last, if some were additionally impressed with the prudence of moderating every demonstration of American patriotism that might be offensive to Britain, others, doubtless, were inspired with the hope of participating in the profits and dignities which they beheld lavished by that great empire on her servants, and which the prospect of a change in the institutions of America rendered more likely to be attainable by provincial functionaries. In seasons of passion and agitation, the popular party, who formed a great majority of the inhabitants, were apt to express the political sentiments which they cherished, with an energy unguarded by the limits of the political theory which they confessed; but in seasons of more calmness and deliberation, they could not refuse to avow their subjection to British sovereignty, and to disclaim any sentiments inconsistent with this principle. The agitation occasioned by Lord Loudoun's hostile menaces having subsided, it was impossible for the Massachusetts assembly to decline that recognition of their obedience to the parent state which Hutchinson introduced into the message which he composed for them; and they were the more willing to disclaim the imputations of Lord Loudoun, and to avoid the displeasure of the |