subject, making salient points, imparting his own spirit, and with clearness, precision, and force, saying much in a few words. His vein of the poetic and his nervous style were calculated to strike the public mind. His productions contain many point

ed sentences. Dr. Eliot calls him a fine writer. Many of his articles appeared in the "Gazette." A Tory informer, after mousing about Edes and Gill's printing-office, in search of matter to use in court, in the case of the arrest of the popular leaders, made affidavit that Warren had burned his manuscripts.

Governor Bernard watched the newspapers narrowly, and represented in his official letters that they teemed with matter against the new revenue laws precisely of the same nature as that which preceded the former insurrection, meaning the popular action against the Stamp Act; and that they were calculated and designed to raise the mob against the new establishment. Six years later, he prepared an elaborate narrative of the transactions in Boston, which begins as follows: "The success which had attended the flagitious publications in the Boston newspapers, on the subject of the Stamp Act, in exciting the popular tumults which followed the promulgation of that law, was too obvious to escape the attention of those who wished to see the same opposition given to the subsequent revenue laws; and therefore, when it became known that such laws were proposed, at least as soon as they were published, and the concomitant establishment of the commissioners of the customs had taken place, the press again teemed with publications of the most daring nature, denying the authority of

the supreme legislature, and tending to excite the people to opposition to its laws."1

Bernard advised Lord Shelburne, Oct. 15, 1767, that he had received the new revenue acts, and that they had been printed in the journals; and he persistently represented that the patriots designed to oppose them by an insurrection. He specified the occasions on which he expected the insurrection to begin, as when the commissioners of the customs should land, or when the revenue acts should go into effect; but he had no proofs of the existence of the disloyal designs which he denounced; and it is difficult not to believe that he feigned the fear which it suited his purposes to express. A town-meeting was held in Faneuil Hall, Oct. 28, when the passive mode of meeting the acts by a non-importation and nonconsumption agreement was adopted. At the adjournment of this meeting, Nov. 20, the day on which the new revenue laws went into effect, there was a seditious hand-bill posted under Liberty Tree. "Under the tree," Bernard wrote, "was stuck up a paper so highly seditious, that it would be undoubtedly deemed in England an overt act of high treason. It contained an exhortation to the Sons of Liberty to rise on that day, and fight for their rights; stating, that, if they assembled, they would be joined by legions; that, if they neglected this opportunity, they

1 Governor Bernard's Letter Books, vol. viii. In 1774, by command of the king, he laid before the privy council, for their use, an elaborate narrative, entitled, "State of the Disorders, Confusion, and Misgovernment which have prevailed, and do still continue to prevail, in his Majesty's Province of Massachusetts Bay in America," since the repeal of the Stamp Act. This narrative was accompanied by a list of three hundred and sixteen documents; the date of the last one being a letter of Thomas Hutchinson, of Jan. 28, 1774.

would be cursed by all posterity.' 9991 This circumstance drew from James Otis, who was the moderator, an extempore speech, strongly denunciatory of mobs, in which he urged that the opposition to burdensome measures should be strictly constitutional;2 and, in the course of it, he reminded the people that their forefathers of the reign of Charles I., for fifteen years, offered prayers to their God and petitions to the king, for a redress of grievances, before they resorted to force; and, in closing, he exhorted all good citizens to assist the civil magistrate in preserving the peace. The speech was received by all parties with great applause; the obnoxious paper was removed and disavowed by the patriots, who said that it was the device of their enemies; and the meeting voted,

1 Bernard to Lord Shelburne, Nov. 21, 1767.

2 This important speech is not mentioned in Tudor's "Life of James Otis." There is a report of it in the "Evening Post," Nov. 23, 1767. After stating that a resolution was offered in support of good order, the "Post" proceeds: “On this occasion, the moderator made a speech to the following purpose:

"That many people seemed to have blended two things together in their minds which were totally distinct, — that is, the duties laid upon many articles imported, and the office of the commissioners of the customs, -as though the commissioners had occasioned those duties, and that we must get rid of the latter in order to avoid the former; that it was absurd to suppose that the commissioners had the least hand or influence in laying or procuring those duties; that we had from the first, and for a long course of time, acknowledged the authority of the custom-house officers appointed by the Crown, and sent among us; that we had often desired the establishment of a board of commissioners in the plantations, and complained that, for want of it, we were deprived of many advantages which our fellow-subjects in Great Britain enjoyed, who, if oppressed by any undue severities of the subordinate officers, might have immediate redress by application to that board, which we could not by reason of our distance; that we ought, therefore, to consider the establishment of that board here as a favor and a great advantage, and treat the commissioners with all due respect; that if the duties were thought burthensome, and we had just reason to complain of them, we ought to behave like men, and use the proper and legal measures to obtain redress; that the means were in our power; access to the throne was always open; that there was no doubt but our humble and dutiful petitions and remonstrances would, sooner or later, be heard, and meet with success, if supported by justice and reason, but, let our burthens be ever so heavy, or our

unanimously, a resolution against mobs. But this did not stop the flow of Bernard's misrepresentation. In January, 1768, he wrote: "It seems to me unavoidable that the whole power of the Government must be in the hands of the people before June next, unless some relief, I know not what, comes from England. I can't stand in the gap again, unless I am assured of being supported from home. If I am left to myself, I must deliver up the fort, and make the best terms I can." He said that the memorable "Circular Letter," in which Massachusetts, in February, proposed united action to the colonies, was designed to raise a general flame.

In the mean time, he kept on complaining of the

grievances ever so great, no possible circumstances, though ever so oppressive, could be supposed sufficient to justify private tumults and disorders, either to our consciences before God or legally before men; that our forefathers, in the beginning of the reign of Charles I., for fifteen years together, were continually offering up prayers to their God, and petitions to their king, for redress of grievances, before they would betake themselves to any forcible measures; that to insult and tear each other in pieces was to act like madmen, and would have no tendency to obtain redress of any of our grievances, if we had any to complain of; that it was observable, that, during the course of the revolution which placed King William on the throne, there were no tumults or disorder; and, when the whole city of London was in motion, only a single silver spoon was stolen, and that they showed such resentment to this as immediately to hang up the person who was guilty of the theft.

"Upon the whole, he concluded by recommending a quiet and proper behavior, and that the inhabitants of the town would show their dislike and abhorrence of all tumults and disorders, and do all in their power to assist the civil magistrates in preserving peace and good order.

"This speech was much to his honor, and greatly applauded; and is thought would have a very good effect. The conduct of the gentlemen selectmen, on this occasion, was also greatly applauded."

This report elicited from Otis a card in the "Boston Gazette" of Nov. 30, 1767, in which, with explanations as to what he said as to the commissioners, he renews with emphasis his detestation of mobs. This speech and an extract from the speech made by Josiah Quincy, jun., in the Old South Church, Dec. 16, 1773, on the Tea Question, are the only reports, of any length, of all the speeches made in the Boston public meetings from 1768 to 1775.

1 Letter, Jan. 14, 1768.

work of the press. He sent cuttings from it to the ministry, and sometimes files of the "Gazette;" and he suggested that legal proceedings should be commenced against the profligate and flagitious popular printers.1 Lord Shelburne received the suggestion of a prosecution of the journals with great coldness; and in allusion to an observation of Bernard, that their mischievous matter was contemptible in ability and impotent in influence, Lord Shelburne said, with singular good sense, that contemptible writings were rendered more abortive by being left to oblivion; and he gave sound advice in relation to appearing as his majesty's governor in any case as the prosecutor.2

The popular leaders had accurate information of the course of Bernard; and the following article, written by Warren, appeared in the "Boston Gazette," on the twenty-ninth day of February, 1768: 3—

"MESSRS. EDES AND GILL, Please insert the following:

"MAY IT PLEASE YOUR We have for a long time known your enmity to this province. We have had full proof of your cruelty to a loyal people. No age has, perhaps, furnished a more glaring instance of obstinate perseverance in the path of malice than is now exhibited in your. Could you have reaped any advantage from injuring this people, there would have been some excuse for the manifold abuses with which you have loaded them. But, when a diabolical thirst for mischief is the alone motive of your conduct, you must not wonder if you are treated with open dislike; for it is impossible, how much soever we endeavor it, to feel any esteem for a man like you. Bad as the world may be, there is yet in every breast something which points out the good man as an object worthy

1 Letter, Jan. 30, 1768.

2 Shelburne to Bernard.

8 This article is marked "Dr. Warren," in Harbottle Dorr's file of the "Boston Gazette," in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society; and it is ascribed to him in "Rees's Cyclopædia" and Loring's "Boston Hundred Orators."