sent. The house in their answer, object strongly to this intrusion, and conclude by saying, "If the honourable gentleman was introduced by your excellency, we apprehend that the happiest means of supporting the authority of the government, or maintaining the honour of the province, were not consulted therein. But if he came in and took his seat, of his own motion, we are constrained to say, that it affords a new and additional instance of ambition, and a lust of power, to what we have before observed." The governor afterwards requested that the question might subside for a time. He, meanwhile wrote to obtain instruction from the ministry in support of it.

The legislature now felt it to be their duty to watch over all the measures of government, and to resist every invasion of the principles of the charter, lest an infringement in one particular, should be made a precedent for another. Their well founded suspicion of the dangerous innovations meditated by governors Bernard and Hutchinson, made them more pertinaciously resist every unconstitutional step on their part, however slight it might appear. They therefore appointed a committee, Otis being chairman, to prepare a letter to the agent, that would enable him to meet the representations of the governor. After displaying fully the constitutional objections, and enumerating the precedents in support of them, they make the following personal objections. "We cannot but think this attempt of his honour the more unnatural, as he has so long enjoyed every honour and favour in the power of his

any man.

native country to confer upon him. Some of his high offices are so incompatible with others of them, that in all probability they never will hereafter be, as they never were heretofore, thus accumulated by This gentleman was for years together, lieutenant governor, counsellor, chief justice of the province, and a judge of probate. Three of these lucrative, as well as honorary places, he now enjoys, and yet is not content. It is easy to conceive how undue an influence the two first must give." The office of a chief justice is most certainly incompatible with that of a politician. The cool and impartial administration of common justice, can never harmonize with the meanders and windings of a modern politician. The integrity of the judge may sometimes embarrass the politician, but there is infinitely more danger in the long run, of the politician's spoiling the good and upright judge. This has often been the case, and in the course of things may be expected again."

At this same session a question arose respecting a small body of troops that arrived in the harbour. The house requested to know of the executive, if any expenses had been incurred on account of the province, and by whose orders, and if any more troops were expected? He replied, that they had been put into quarters at the castle and supplied with fuel and candles by order of the governor and council; and that he knew nothing of any other troops coming here, except from private report. The house remonstrated against this measure, as

appropriating the money of the province without its consent, and obnoxious to the same objections that operated againt the late stamp act. He, in answer stated, that what he had done, was a matter of course, and that within forty-eight hours, he had communicated it to them, not being able to do it sooner. It is easy to see that in other times, such an affair as this would not have been noticed, but the most rigid adherence to constitutional principles was now sternly maintained. It was probably also their intention to keep public sentiment alive to the design of quartering a military force upon them, with which they were threatened. Otis, Hawley, Adams, &c. were on the committee, which sufficiently proves the importance attached to the subject by

the house.

At the session in May, after delivering his speech, which was short, the Governor sent a message to inform the house, that a small detachment consisting of a lieutenant and twenty-seven men, belonging to a regiment at Halifax, had arrived in the harbour; and by advice of council, he wished the house would make provision for them. This shewed the dispute of the former session was not without its use. It was in consequence resolved, "that such provision be made for these men, while they remain here, as has been heretofore usually made for his majesty's regular troops, when occasionally in this province; and that the commissary general be, and he is hereby directed to see that this resolve be put in execution,"

Chapter XXX.

New Duties Imposed-Board of Commissioners EstablishedTown-meetings on these Subjects-Committee of the Legislature on Public Affairs-Extracts from their Report.

In the year 1767, Parliament passed the act, laying a duty on certain articles imported into the colonies, and established a board for the management of the customs, vested with the power of appointing as many subordinate officers as they might think proper. This act excited great alarm, and the vexations and inconveniences that followed it, were very truly anticipated. A town meeting was held in Boston, in October, to consider the state of affairs. Of this meeting, Otis was the moderator. He had been gradually relinquishing his professional practice, and the care of his private concerns, to devote himself almost exclusively to those of the public, which grew rapidly more arduous and interesting. Whether in the legislature or out of it, his name appears the first in every remonstrance and struggle against arbitrary measures, that were almost daily assuming more form and consistence. To assist these new acts for raising a revenue, the people resolved in their primary meetings, to disuse the articles taxed. At this meeting in Boston, which is an example of them all, resolves were passed, unanimously, against the consumption of the obnoxious

merchandise, in favour of economy, particularly in certain parts of dress, against expensive funerals and mourning; and to encourage as much as possible the use of domestic manufactures, such as woollen, linen, paper, glass, &c. Committees of the most respectable citizens were appointed to promote these views, and the foundation laid by voluntary agreements, for the subsequent non-importation acts. These measures created some alarm among the manufacturers in England, and gave rise to inquiries as to the expediency of sacrificing such a valuable trade as that with the colonies, for the sake of these new duties, and whether it was not risking the substance in trying to grasp its shadow. The agents of the government were constantly endeavouring to furnish the means of counteracting these inauspicious doubts; which were confidently used by the adherents of the ministry, both in parliament and in the newspapers, to satisfy the public that there was no danger. Governor Bernard represented some of these measures to be, "the last efforts of an expiring faction," at the very period, when the inhabitants of all the colonies were becoming more alarmed, irritated, and unanimous.*

The following extract from a communication in the Boston Gazette, of May 3d, 1768, alludes to some of these representations, particularly in regard to the Boston town-meeting, of the preceding October. Alderman Trecothick mentioned in it, was a man of great wealth, and connected by marriage with some families in Boston. He was opposed in his election, by the ministerialists; and one prominent objection to him was, that he had been in this country, and would be partial to the Americans. A writer in one of the English papers at the time, seized hold of this circumstance, with masterly ad