with a petition from the said Jesse Savil, and another petition from several of the inhabitants of Gloucester, complaining of this riot; all which I laid before the council, for their advice. The council, being informed that some of the persons complained of had been convicted of the like offence in June last, at the supe rior court held at Ipswich, advised me to lay the papers before the house of representatives. The secretary carried them down, and I sent a short message to you at the same time. Had you passed over this message without any notice, or had you only signified to me, that you thought the laws in being sufficient for preventing riots, you would have heard nothing more from me upon the subject; but, under colour of answering my message, you have sent me a long remonstrance, a very small part of which can with any propriety be said to be an answer to the message I sent you. You charge me with endeavouring, as chief justice in the year 1768, to procure the admission of troops into the manufactory-house, in a manner plainly against law. This is a heavy charge, but it is highly injurious, and without the least foundation. As I am informed that the clerk of the house has already furnished one of the printers with a copy of your remonstrance, I am obliged, in order to prevent or remove the obloquy which must otherwise lie upon me, to relate the circumstances of the affair you refer to. The governor had for some days been endeavouring to prevail on the council to join with him in providing quarters for the troops: at length, the council advised that a house belonging to the province should be cleared, in part whereof one Mr. Brown remained a tenant at sufferance, and into other parts whereof, certain persons, some of them of bad fame, had intruded. The governor had been informed that these people had been instigated to keep possession of the house by force, notwithstanding the advice of council. On Wednesday the 19th of October, he desired me to go to the house and acquaint the people with the vote or advice of council, and to warn them of the consequences of their refusal to conform to it; and he said he thought it probable they might be prevailed on to remove, and all further trouble would be prevented. The sheriff was directed to attend me. I went and acquainted Mr. Brown with the determination of the governor and council, and told him that, in my opinion, they had the authority of government, in the recess of the general court, to direct in what manner the house should be improved, and advised and required him to remove without giving any further trouble. He replied, that without a vote of the whole general court, he would not quit the house. I told him he made himself liable for the damage which must be caused by his refusal, and he and his abettors must answer for the consequences. I remember that two persons were in the house, and, whilst I was speaking to Mr. Brown, came into the yard. One of these persons, whose name I afterwards found to be Young, inserting himself

in the business, I asked him what concern he had in the affair. His reply was, that he came there as a witness. Nothing material passed further, nor was anything said of my appearing as chief justice. I returned to the governor, and informed him of the refusal of the people to quit the house; and upon his asking my opinion what was the next proper step, I acquainted him that the superior court was to be held at Cambridge, the Tuesday following, and that I thought it advisable to let the affair rest, and I would then consult with the other justices of the court upon it. I supposed it would rest accordingly, and went the same day to my house in the country, where I remained until Friday, when I came again to town, and then was first informed that the sheriff had entered the house by force. I do not remember any sort of attempt by the sheriff to take possession of the house by force, while I was present. Your message is drawn in such a manner as to lead the reader to think, that what you call the besieging and imprisoning these families in the manufactory-house, and my appearing there with the sheriff, were parts of one and the same action, and that the latter preceded the former. The least I can say is, that it was incautious and unkind in you to receive and suffer to be published for truth, upon such slight evidence, what most certainly is not true, and to charge me with illegality, when no part of my conduct upon that occasion was illegal, or in any degree unwarrantable or out of character.

Your examining into my actions before I came to the chair, must raise a very strong presumption that you have nothing material to allege against me since that time; for my nonfesance in not laying before you facts notorious throughout the province, and into which a due inquiry was making in a regular way, can never justly be imputed to me as a fault; and though you profess your dislike of sitting at Cambridge, yet when you consider, that I can see nothing in the constitution of the government, nor in law, to make it necessary for the court to meet at any one certain place, and that I know it is his majesty's pleasure I should meet you at Cambridge, I flatter myself you will concur with me in opinion, that I am under obligations to hold the court there; especially if you attend to my commission, which has been published, and is on record; for in express words I am authorized and empowered to exercise and perform all and singular the powers and authorities contained in the commission to the governor, according to such instructions as are already sent, or hereafter shall from time to time be sent to him, or as I shall receive from his majesty. Your exception, therefore, if it has any grounds, ought to be made to the commission, and not to my acts in the due execution of it. There are no other parts of your remonstrance which can with any propriety be applied to me; they extend much further, to the authority of the king, and of the parliament. I am sure no advantage can arise from

my

my engaging in a controversy with you upon those points. I have industriously avoided it. I have avoided giving you any occasion for it: I wish you had avoided seeking the occasion. It is incumbent on me to transmit this remonstrance to be laid before his majesty, when I transmit the other proceedings of the session. I shall do it without any comment: it needs none. T. HUTCHINSON.

Council Chamber,
Cambridge.

R.-Page 290.

Instructions from the town of Boston to their Representatives. May 15, 1770.

Gentlemen,

THE town of Boston, by their late choice of you to represent them, in the ensuing general court, have given strong proof of their confidence in your abilities and integrity. For no period, since the perilous times of our venerable fathers, has worn a more gloomy and alarming aspect. Unwarrantable and arbitrary exactions made upon the people, trade expiring, grievances, murmurs, and discontents, convulsing every part of the British empire, forbode a day of trial, in which, under GOD, nothing but stern virtue and inflexible fortitude can save us from a rapacious and miserable destruction. A series of occurrences, many recent events, and especially the late journals of the house of lords, afford good reason to believe, that a deep-laid and desperate plan of imperial despotism has been laid, and partly executed, for the extinction of all civil liberty:-and from a gradual sapping the grand foundation, from a subtle undermining the main pillars, breaking the strong bulwarks, destroying the principal ramparts and battlements, the august, and once revered fortress of English freedom-that admirable work of ages-the British constitution— -seems just tottering into fatal and inevitable ruin. The dreadful catastrophe threatens universal havock, and presents an awful warning to hazard all, if peradventure, we, in these distant confines of the earth, may prevent being totally overwhelmed and buried under the ruins of our most established rights. For many years past, we have, with sorrow, beheld the approaching con

flict;

flict; various have been the causes which pressed on this decisive period; and every thing now conspires to prompt a full exertion of our utmost vigilance, wisdom, and firmness:-and as the exigencies of the times require, not only the refined abilities of true policy, but the more martial virtues, conduct, valour, and intrepidity; so, gentlemen, in giving you our suffrages, at this election, we have devolved upon you a most important trust; to discharge which, we doubt not, you will summon up the whole united faculties of both mind and body.

We decline, gentlemen, a minute detail of many momentous concernments, relative to which, it is believed, no instructions need be given; but we shall express our thoughts on such matters, as, we suppose, you will choose to have our explicit sentiments.

A grievance which will early present itself, in the ensuing sessions (and to redress which, you are to take all proper spirited methods), is, that of holding the general court at Harvard College, not only against ancient usage and established law, but also against the welfare of that seminary of learning; the happy advancement of which, this province ever had, and still have, so

much at heart.

We would have you, gentlemen, particularly scrutinize into the wise and cautious transactions of our worthy fathers, in 1721. They, it should be known, in that year, though not directly called to weigh the high importance of the question, yet, on this very matter, behaved with a political foresight and sagacious circumspection, truly admirable and worthy imitation: the small pox, then, almost as pestilential as the plague, rendered the meeting of the general court, in Boston, morally impossible: yet so convinced was the governor of the province of his own defect of authority to remove the general assembly out of town, that when all the members daring to attend the court, in that infectious season, were assembled, in the council chamber, unable to make a quorum of the lower house, they were expressly assured, by his excellency, that the proposed adjourning, into the country, should not be drawn into precedent. Accordingly, a reliance doubtless being had on such solemn assurance, no objections appear entered on record against the adjournment, when, through a providential calamity, a transaction of business, in the proper place, was become really impracticable. No proverb is more familiar, than that necessity knows no law; and the court, without doubt, on this natural consideration, was immediately adjourned out of this town. Yet so universally sensible were the people of that day, and especially the three branches of the legislature, that an act of the whole court, even when such a fatal emergency had forced the adjournment, was thought absolutely requisite to legalize and capacitate for their procedure to publick business-and accordingly a vote passed the honourable house to that purpose, the same was concurred in by his majesty's council, and approved and

formally

formally assented to, by the commander-in-chief:-all which ap pears on the publick records of the province. Now we should be glad to be informed, how these proceedings, in essence, sense, and spirit, differ from a full, ample, and final denunciation of the law establishing the seat of government.

We are not ignorant, that in 1728-9, a controversy was forced on relative to this point. This dispute had its rise, like many of modern date, in consequence of ministerial instructions, which, to borrow a phrase of the then house, " are not pleasant to

mention."

We are not unacquainted, that his majesty's attorney and solicitor-general were, at this time, consulted, relative to our legal seat of government. We also know, that the then governor (Burnet) treating upon the same subject, informed the house of representatives, that "the king determined the point, according to the attorney and solicitor-general's opinion, that the sole power of dissolving, proroguing, and adjourning the general court or assembly, as to time or place, is in his majesty's governor, and that the reasons against it, from the tenth of king William the third, had no real foundation; there being no clause in that act, laying any such restraint upon the governor."

Here, it should be well observed, is not barely a tacit, but an express declaration, that "the sole power of dissolving, &c." is devolved entirely upon," and exclusively vested "in the governor." From hence, in our opinion, this consequence unavoidably follows, that no instructions, orders, or mandates whatever ought to direct and control such power, solely, in the governor. For it is not merely absurd in theory, and most mischievous in practice, that an authority incapacitated, by distance, to judge of local and other critical circumstances, should have a power to fix such an important movement; but moreover it is palpably contrarient to the plain words of the preceding determination.

We freely own, it would have given us more satisfaction to have seen this opinion under the hands of those lawyers. But we would, here, gentlemen, direct you carefully to notice and remember, that as we always expect to defend our own rights and liberties, so we are unalterably fixed to judge for ourselves of their real existence, agreeable to law. Yet as we believe this same opinion is far from being well grounded, so we now offer a few comments thereon, for your future consideration. But let it be recorded, that we enter upon this task, protesting against the pretended right or power of any crown lawyer, or any exterior authority upon earth, to deter mine, limit, or ascertain all or any of our constitutional or charteral, natural or civil, political or sacred, rights, liberties, privileges, or immunities. These words, "there being no clause, in that act, (10th of William) laying any such restraint upon the governor," contained in the aforecited opinion, are, we conclude, intended to convey, that as the king's prerogative to remove the general

court,