tion but to comply, or leave the province. On this removal the ferment began to subside. In the mean time, captain Preston and the other prifoners, after a full and fair trial, were by a verdict worthy of the highest praise honorably acquitted, two only excepted, who were found guilty of manslaughter. Mr. Quincy and Mr. Adams, counsel for the prifoners, and themselves warm partisans of liberty, exerted their utmost ability in their defence." "We must," faid one of these gentlemen, addressing the jury, " steel ourselves against prepoffeffions which contaminate the fountain of juftice. To your candor and impartiality I submit the prisoners and their cause. The LAW, in all viciffitudes of government, fluctuations of passion, or flights of enthusiasin, will preserve a steady undeviating course. To use the words of a patriot, a hero, a martyr to liberty, ALGERNON SYDNEY, 'Tis mens fine affectu; without any regard to persons it commands that which is good, and it punishes that which is evil; it is deaf, inexorable, inflexible. On the one hand, it is inexorable to the cries and lamentations of the prisoners; on the other, it is deaf, deaf as an adder, to the clamours of the populace." On the 31st May, 1770, the assembly of Massachusetts was convened at Cambridge. The house immediately prefented a remonftrance to the governor against its being held there, or at any other place than Boston, and, by a majority of ninety voices, voted it to be a grievance, and refolved not to proceed to business; on which the governor prorogued them to the month of July. On re-assembling, they persisted in their former resolution, and were again prorogued to September. In an address to the governor, previous to the last prorogation, the assembly, with minds apparently opprefsed by gloomy and prophetic forebodings, insisted upon the right of the people to appeal to heaven in difputes between them and persons in power, when there is an abuse of power. <<< We would, however, say they, by no means be understood to suggest that this people have occasion at prefent to proceed to to such extremity; yet grievances and cruelties too many to be enumerated, too melancholy to be much longer borne by this people, we have seen brought upon us." On the third meeting of the aflsembly, September 26, the governor informed them that the garrifon at the castle in the pay of the province, was to be withdrawn by order of his majesty, and the fortress to be garrifoned by regular troops; and that his orders were, to deliver it up to such officer as general Gage should direct to take the command of it. The assembly in reply obferved, "If the custody and government of the fortress be now lodged with the military power, independent of the fupreme civil magiftrate within this jurifdiction, it is fo effential an alteration of the constitution as must juftly alarm a free people." The house, from the neceffity of the cafe, now proceeded to business; and before the prorogation, they established a "committee of correspondence, to communicate with fuch committees as may be appointed by other colonies." In the month of April, 1771, the general court was again convened at Cambridge; and against this obnoxious exertion of power the affembly again remonstrated, and entered their proteft. The governor informing the house, that by his majesty's instructions he was forbidden to give his affent to any act subjecting the commiffioners of the customs, and other officers of the crown, to be taxed by the usual assessors for the profits of their commiffions, the house in language daring and indignant replied: "We know of no commiffioners of his majesty's customs, nor of any revenue his MAJESTY has a right to establish in North America. We know and feel a tribute levied and extorted from those, who, if they have property, have a right to the absolute disposal of it." The feffion passed heavily in sullen filence, or angry recri mination. On the succeeding year, May 1772, the general court being again convened at Cambridge, the governor acquainted the house, that his majesty had made provision for his support; on which the house, by a message to the governor, declared, declared, "that the making provision for his excellency's support, independent of the grants and acts of general affembly, and the governor's receiving the fame, is an infraction upon the rights of the inhabitants granted by the royal charter." An unfortunate incident about this time took place at Rhode Island, which proved a new source of animofity and discord. Lieutenant Duddington, commander of the Gafpee armed fchooner, an officer very obnoxious by his extraordinary zeal and vigilance in the execution of the revenue laws, falling in with the Providence packet, employed in the tranfportation of goods and passengers to Newport, ordered by signal the master to lower his colors; which being difregarded, he fired a shot at the packet and chased. It being near high water, the packet stood close in with the land, designing that the Gafpee should be run aground in the chase. The Gaspee accordingly was foon fast: and, the tide having now done flowing, could by no means disengage herself. So favorable an opportunity of revenge on a man universally detested, could not easily again occur. In the night a number of whale-boats filled with armed men boarded the schooner, and after some resistance made themselves masters of the vefsel, which they immediately set on fire and burnt with all her stores; and though a reward of 500l. was offered for the discovery of these daring offenders, no evidence could be obtained against them. This event gave rise to an act of the British parliament, by which wilfully and malicioufly to destroy his majesty's ships, ammunition, or stores, is made capital, and subjects the offender, as well in America as England, to a trial at the pleasure of his majesty in any county of Great-Britain. Such are the progressive steps by which Tyranny forges his chains, and peoples his dungeons. A government which has loft the confidence of its subjects is urged to oppreffion not less by neceffity than inclination. The judges of the fuperior court of the Massachusetts province, though removeable at the pleasure of the crown, had hitherto hitherto depended on the general affembly for the continuance of their salaries; but they had now falaries settled upon them by his majesty, so that the balance of the constitution was in this respect entirely fubverted; both the weights of justice, as was observed, being by this means put into the same scale. Of all the arbitrary innovations of the British government, none excited greater resentment, or was deemed more dangerous, than this. Nothing, indeed, could be more opposite to the genius of the British conftitution, which regards the independency of the judicial power on the executive as one of the most important bulwarks of liberty. Committees of correfpondence had been recently established in the different towns and townships throughout the province; and the spirit which now pervaded the continent may be conjectured from the resolutions passed by the municipal bodies, amongst which, those of the town of Petersham may be cited as exhibiting a curious specimen of that religious enthusiasm by which the inhabitants of New England were once so strongly marked, and which combined with political enthusiasmand experience shows how easily they coalefce-gives to the human mind, perhaps, the utmost momentum and energy of which it is capable. I. Resolved, that with the governor appointed from Great Britain during pleasure, with a large stipend dependent upon the will of the crown, with all officers, civil and military, subject to his appointment or consent, with a cattle in the hands of a standing army stationed in the very bowels of the land, no people can ever be truly free. II. That the parliament of Great Britain ufurping and exerçifing a legislative authority over, and extorting an unrighteous revenue from these colonies, is against all divine and human laws. The late appointment of salaries to be paid to our fuperior court judges, whose creation, pay, and commiffion depend on mere will and pleasure, completes a system of bondage equal to any ever fabricated by the combined efforts of the ingenuity, malice, fraud, and wickedness of man, III. That it is the opinion of this town, that a despotic arbitrary bitrary government is the kingdom of this world, as fet forth in the New Testament, and has a direct tendency. to fink a people into a profound state of ignorance and irreligion; and that if we have an eye to our own and pofterity's happiness, not only in this world but in the world to come, it is our duty to oppose such a government. The inhabitants of Petersham conclude with a declaration, "that it is highly becoming towns and individuals to humble themselves before Almighty GOD, ferioufly to commune with their own hearts, and feek carefully with tears for the causes of the prevailing distresses of the land; and they express their confidence that God will not fuffer this land, where the gospel hath flourished, to become a flave of the world. He will stir up witnesses of the truth, and in his own time spirit his people to stand up for his caufe, and deliver them. In a fimilar belief that patriot of patriots the great Algernon Sydney lived and died, and dying breathed a like sentiment and prophecy touching his own and the then approaching times-a prophecy however not accomplished until a glorious REVOLUTION." The extravagant and exaggerated language of these resolutions is itself a most striking evidence of that diseased and dangerous state of the public mind which could prompt these effufions of enthusiastic zeal. By a long series of acts of irritation and oppreffion on the part of Britain, a fpirit of resentment, scarcely short of phrenfy, was excited throughout America. All feemed to feel the influence of "the madding hour;" and by the natural and determinate operation of a system detested and detestable, a system by which the present reign has been so confpicuoufly and fatally marked, was this change wrought in a loyal, orderly, and peaceable people, diftinguished above, all others, for their love of liberty and hatred of licentiousness-all ranks and conditions of whom gloried in their connection with Britain, rejoiced in her friendship and protection, and triumphed in her profperity. |