XXXVI. 1768. Sept. CHAP. ment of military power on the civil establishment. The Governor1 refused to receive this petition; and he admonished "the gentlemen assembled at Faneuil Hall, under the name of a Convention,"" to break up instantly and separate themselves, or they should be made to "repent of their rashness." The message was received with derision. In the same spirit, the Council, adhering to their purpose of conforming strictly to the Billeting Act, reduced to writing the reasons for their decision to provide no quarters in town till the barracks at the Castle should be full; and on the twenty-sixth of September communicated it to Bernard, published it in the Boston Gazette, and sent a copy to Lord Hillsborough. The law was explicit and unambiguous; and not only sanctioned but required the decision which they had taken. The paper of the Council proved a disregard for an Act of Parliament by the very persons who set up to enforce Parliamentary authority. On the side of the Province, no law was violated; only men would not buy tea, glass, colors, or paper; on the side of Hillsborough, Bernard and Gage, requisitions were made contrary to the words and the indisputable intent of the Statute. In the very beginning of the coercive measures, Boston gained a moral victory; it placed itself on the side of law; and proved its enemies to be lawbreakers. The immediate effect of the publication was, says Bernard, "the greatest 1 Bernard's Message, to Gentlemen assembled at Faneuil Hall. 2 Compare the Report on this subject of Francès to Choiseul, 4 November, 1768. 3 Samuel Adams to De Berdt, Oct. 1768. Supplement to Bernard to Hillsborough, No. 24, of 27 Sept. 1768. 2 XXXVI. 1768. blow that had been given to the King's Government." CHAP. "Nine tenths of the people considered the declaration of the Council just."1 "Throughout the Province Sept. they were ripe for almost any thing." The British Ministry, never dared seriously to insist on the provision for the troops required by the Billeting Act. The Convention, which remained but six days in session, repeated the Protest of Massachusetts against taxation of the Colonies by the British Parliament; against a standing army; against the danger to "the liberties of America from a united body of pensioners and soldiers." They renewed their Petition to the King, which they enjoined their Agent to deliver in person as speedily as possible. They resolved to preserve good order, by the aid of the civil magistrate alone. "While the people," said they, "wisely observe the medium between an abject submission under grievous oppression on the one hand, and irrational attempts to obtain redress on the other, they may promise themselves success in recovering the exercise of their just rights, relying on Him who ruleth according to his pleasure, with unerring wisdom and irresistible influence, in the hearts of the children of men.". They then dissolved themselves, leaving the care for the public to the Council. This was the first great example in America of 1 Hutchinson to T. Whately, Boston, 4 Oct. 1768. Andrew Eliot to T. Hollis, 27 Sept. 1768. Boston Gazette, 10 October, 1768, contains the letter from the Convention to De Berdt, dated Bos-18 VOL. VI. ton, 27 September, 1768, and sign- Compare Francès to Choiseul, CHAP. the Fabian policy; the first restoration of affairs by XXXVI. delay. Indiscreet men murmured; but the intelliSept. gent perceived the greatness of the result. When 1768. the Attorney and Solicitor-General of England were called upon to find traces of high treason in what had been done, De Grey as well as Dunning declared, none1 had been committed. "Look into the papers," said De Grey, "and see how well these Americans are versed in the crown law; I doubt whether they have been guilty of an overt act of treason, but I am sure they have come within a hair's breadth of it." 2 1 Opinion of De Grey and Dunning on the Papers submitted to them, Nov. 1768. 2 The Attorney General in the Debate of 26 Jan. 1769; Cavendish, i. 196. CHAPTER XXXVII. THE CELTIC-AMERICAN REPUBLIC ON THE BANKS OF THE MIS SISSIPPI. SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1768. CHAP. 1768. On Wednesday the twenty-eighth of September, XXXVII. just after the Convention broke up, the squadron from Halifax arrived, and anchored at noon in Nan- Sept. tasket Bay. It brought not two regiments only, but artillery also, which Bernard, by a verbal message, had specially requested. Dalrymple, the commander of the troops, "expressed infinite surprise that no quarters had been prepared." On Thursday, the twenty-ninth, a Council was summoned, at which Smith, the commanding officer of the fleet, and Dalrymple, were present. After much altercation, the Council adhered to the law; and the Governor to his declaration of a total want of power to do any thing in his province.1 "Since that resolution was taken to rise in arms in open rebellion," wrote Gage," "I don't see any cause to be scrupulous." On the following day the whole squadron was anchored near the 1 Dalrymple to Gage, 2 Oct. 2 Gage to Bernard, 2 Oct. 1768. CHAP. Romney,' off Castle William, in the hope to intimidate XXXVII. the Council; but without success. At that moment Sept. Montresor, the engineer, arrived express from General 1768. Oct. Gage, to assist in recovering the Castle, if he should find it in the hands of the rebels; and he brought an order to land not one but both the regiments within the settled part of the town of Boston itself. 4 The first of October, the order was to be executed. The Governor on the occasion stole away into the country, leaving Dalrymple to despise "his want of spirit," and "to take the whole upon himself," without the presence of a civil officer. As if they were come to an enemy's country, eight ships of war with tenders were placed off the wharves, with loaded cannon, and springs on their cables, so that they commanded the town; after this, the fourteenth and twenty-ninth regiments and a part of the fiftyninth, with a train of artillery and two pieces of cannon, effected their landing on the Long Wharf. Each soldier having received sixteen round of shot, they marched with drums beating, fifes playing, and colors flying, through the streets of the defenceless, unarmed, quiet town, which made not the least show of resistance, and by four in the afternoon they paraded on Boston Common. 5 "All their bravadoes ended as may be imagined," said an officer. "Men are not easily brought to |