the extent of the vascillation of the ministry, who, in line upon line, approved of all his proceedings, with the exception of the conciliatory reply to the June town-meeting. As in England he reviewed his career, he wrote, with an increase of wisdom, but with evident chagrin, "I was obliged to give up, a victim to the bad policy and irresolution of the Supreme Government."

It was now semi-officially announced,' that the lieutenant-governor would administer the functions of the executive office until the return of the chief magistrate to his post. These officials had been personal friends and political associates. Indeed, so close had been their private and public relations, that Bernard ascribed the origin of his administrative difficulties to his adoption of the quarrels of Hutchinson. The governor, in urging his friend as his successor in office, represented that Hutchinson was well versed in the local affairs; knew the motives of the governor; warmly approved of the policy of the ministry; had been, on critical occasions, a trusted confidential adviser; and, in fact, had become so thoroughly identified with public affairs, that, of the two officials, he (Hutchinson) was the most hated by the faction. The governor favored this appointment as a measure that would be equivalent to an indorsement of his own Administration. "It would be," he said, a peculiarly happy stroke; for, while it would dis

1 We are assured that the order for Sir Francis Bernard, Bart., to return to England, is expressed to be, to attend the king as governor, to report to him the present state of the province; that it contains directions for the administration of the Government during his absence; and that there is no intimation of any intention at present of superseding his commission. We hear that he proposes to embark about the end of July. Boston Post Boy, June 19, 1768.

courage the Sons of Liberty, it would afford another great instance of rewarding faithful servants to the Crown."

Thomas Hutchinson, descended from one of the most respected families of New England, and the son of an honored merchant of Boston, was now fiftyseven years of age. He was a pupil at the Old North Grammar School, and was graduated at Harvard College. He then entered upon a mercantile life. He was not successful as a merchant. Thus early, however, he evinced the untiring industry that marked his whole career. He had a decided political turn, and, with uncommon natural talent, had the capacity and the ambition for public life. An irreproachable private character, pleasing manners, common-sense views of things, and politics rather adroit than hightoned, secured him a run of popular favor and executive confidence so long, that he had now (1769) been thirty-three years uninterruptedly engaged in public affairs; and he confessed to his friends that this concern in politics had created a hankering for them which a return to business-pursuits could not over

come.

His fame at the beginning of the Revolutionary controversy was at its zenith; for, according to John Adams, "he had been admired, revered, rewarded, and almost adored; and the idea was common, that he was the greatest and best man in America." He had reason to be gratified at the tokens of public approbation which he had received. He had been so faithful to the municipal interests as a selectman, that the town had intrusted him with an important mission to England, which he satisfactorily executed; his wide

commercial knowledge, familiarity with constitutional law and history, decided ability in debate, and reputed disinterestedness, had given him large influence as a representative in the general court; he had evinced as councillor an ever-ready zeal for the prerogative, and won the most confidential relations with so obsequious a courtier as Bernard; as judge of probate, he was attentive, accurate, kind to the widow, and won general commendation; and, as a member of the superior court, he administered the law, in the main, satisfactorily. He had been chief justice for nine years, and for eleven years the lieutenant-governor. had also prepared two volumes of his History, which, though rough in narrative, is a valuable authority; and his volume of "Collections" was now announced.

He

He was, and had been for years, the masterspirit of the Tory party. It is an anomaly that he should have attained to this position. He knew, from practical knowledge as a merchant, the intolerable injustice of the old mercantile system; and yet he sided with its friends. He had dealt, as a politician, to a greater degree than most men, with the rights and privileges which the people prized, conceded that they had made no ill use of them, and yet urged that they ought to be abridged. As a patriot, when he loved his native land wisely, he remonstrated against the imposition of the Stamp Tax; and yet he grew into one of the sturdiest of the defenders of the supremacy of parliament in all cases whatsoever. He exhibited the usual characteristics of public men, who, from unworthy considerations, change their principles and desert their party. No man urged a more arbitrary course; no man passed more discreditable judg

ments on his patriot contemporaries; and if, in this way, he won the smiles of the court which he was swift to serve, he earned the hatred of the land which he professed to love. The more his political career is studied, the greater will be the wonder that one who was reared on republican soil, and had antecedents so honorable, should have become so complete an exponent of arbitrary power.

Hutchinson was not so blinded by party spirit, or by love of money or of place, as not to see the living realities of his time: for he wrote that a thirst for liberty seemed to be the ruling passion, not only of America, but of the age; and that a mighty empire was rising on this continent, the progress of which would be a theme for speculative and ingenious minds in distant ages. It was the vision of the cold and clear intellect distrusting the march of events and the capacity and intelligence of the people. He had no heart to admire, he had not even the justice to recognize, the greatness around him that was making an immortal record; the sublime faith, the divine enthusiasm, the dauntless resolve, the priceless consciousness of being in the right, that were the life and inspiration of the lovers of freedom. He conceded, however, that the body of the people were honest, and said they acted on the belief, inspired by wrong-headed leaders, that their liberties were in danger. While, with the calculation of the man of the world, he dreaded, and endeavored to stem, still, with a statesman's foresight, he appreciated, and held in respect, the mysterious element of public opinion. He felt that it was rising as a power. He saw this power already intrenched in the impregnable lines of

exultingly say that the Union was broken, and express the hope that it would never be restored. His reasonings and prophecies on this theme, seen for years in his letters, are solid compliments to the foresight and statesmanship which kept the popular movement true to the idea, as a kindling guiding-star, that the American people, though cast by circumstances into the forms of separate communities, were destined by the law of geographical affinity and of material interests, to be infolded in one Union, to live under one constitution, and to have but one national flag.

Warren had much political intercourse with Hutchinson during the succeeding five years. Their aims were as divergent as their principles were antagonistical, and their career presents striking contrasts. Indeed, seldom are seen more marked exhibitions of wisdom in youth, and folly in age, than are supplied in the views of Warren, as, at twenty-five, he analyzed the genius of his countrymen, and labored with the steady aim of preserving their rights; and the utterances of Hutchinson, as, at threescore, he aimed at preserving the colonies in a state of dependence on England, and urged the necessity of an abridgment of colonial liberties. Warren's thought was suited to the condition of the people, and in harmony with the • progressive spirit of the age; Hutchinson, siding more and more with the principles and designs of a cold and selfish British aristocracy, urged, as applicable to communities enjoying well-nigh the entire cluster of the liberties, a policy that must be judged incompatible with the spirit of a free Government.

When Hutchinson became the acting governor, the ministry had announced that they intended to pro