stubborn little town on the sterile coast of the Massachusetts Bay. The odds against it were fearful; but it showed a life inextinguishable, and had been chosen to keep guard over the liberties of mankind. 1768. The Old World had not its parallel. It counted about sixteen thousand inhabitants of European origin, all of whom learned to read and write. Good public schools were the foundation of its political system; and Benjamin Franklin, one of their pupils, in his youth apprenticed to the art which makes knowledge the common property of mankind, had gone forth from them to stand before the nations as the representative of the modern industrial class. Dec. As its schools were for all its children, so the great body of its male inhabitants of twenty-one years of age, when assembled in a hall which Faneuil, of Huguenot ancestry, had built for them, was the source of all municipal authority. In the meeting of the town, its taxes were voted, its affairs discussed and settled; its agents and public servants annually elected by ballot; and abstract political principles freely debated. A small property qualification was attached to the right of suffrage, but did not exclude enough to change the character of the institution. There had never existed a considerable municipality, approaching so nearly to a pure democracy; and, for so populous a place, it was undoubtedly the most orderly and best governed in the world. Its ecclesiastical polity was in like manner republican. The great mass were Congregationalists; each church was an assembly formed by voluntary agreement, self-constituted, self-supported, and independent. They were clear that no person or church had power over another church. There was not a Roman Catholic altar in the place; the usages of "papists" were looked upon as worn-out superstitions, fit only for the ignorant. But the people were not merely the fiercest enemies of "popery and slavery," they were Protestants even against Protestantism; and, though the English church was tolerated, Boston kept up its exasperation against prelacy. Its ministers were still its prophets and its guides; its pulpit, in which, now that Mayhew was no more, Cooper was admired above all others for eloquence and patriotism, by weekly appeals inflamed alike the fervor of piety and of liberty. In the "Boston Gazette," it enjoyed a free press, which gave currency to its conclusions on the natural right of man to self-government. 1768. Dec. Its citizens were inquisitive; seeking to know the causes of things, and to search for the reason of existing institutions in the laws of nature. Yet they controlled their speculative turn by practical judgment; exhibiting the seeming contradiction of susceptibility to enthusiasm and calculating shrewdness. They were fond of gain, and adventurous, penetrating, and keen in their pursuit of it; yet their avidity was tempered by a well-considered and continuing liberality. Nearly every man was struggling to make his own way in the world and his own fortune; and yet, individually and as a body, they were publicspirited. In the seventeenth century, the community had been distracted by those who were thought to pursue the great truth of justification by faith to Antinomian absurdities; the philosophy of the eighteenth century had influenced theological opinion; and, though the larger number still acknowledged the fixedness of the divine decrees, and the resistless certainty from all eternity of election and of reprobation, some, even among the clergy, had modified the sternness of the ancient doctrine by making the self-direction of the active powers of man with freedom of inquiry and private judgment the central idea of a protest against Calvinism. Still more were they boldly speculative on questions respecting their constitution. Every house was a school of politics; every man was a little statesman, discussed the affairs of the world, studied more or less the laws of his own land, and was sure of his ability to ascertain and to make good his rights. The ministers, whose prayers, being from no book, caught the hue of the times; the merchants, cramped in their enterprise by legal restrictions; the mechanics, who by their skill in ship-building bore away the palm from all other nations, and by their 1768. Dec. numbers ruled the town; all alike, clergy and laity, in the pulpit or closet, on the wharf or in the countingroom, at their ship-yards or in their social gatherings, reasoned upon government. They had not acquired estates by a feudal tenure, nor had lived under feudal institutions; and, as the true descendants of the Puritans of England, they had not much more of superstitious veneration for monarchy than for priestcraft. Such was their power of analysis that they almost unconsciously developed the theory of an independent representative commonwealth; and such their instinctive capacity for organization that they had actually seen a convention of the people of the province start into life at their bidding. While the earth was still wrapt in gloom, they welcomed the daybreak of popular freedom, and looked undazzled into the beams of the morning. CHAPTER XXXIX. A WAY TO TAKE OFF THE INCENDIARIES. 1768. Dec. HILLSBOROUGH'S ADMINISTRATION OF THE COLONIES CONTINUED. DECEMBER, 1768-FEBRUARY, 1769. THE opinion of parliament was hardly pronounced, when Du Châtelet again pressed America on the attention of Choiseul. "Without exaggerating the projects or the union of the colonies," said he, "the time of their independence is very near. Their prudent men believe the moment not yet come; but, if the English government undertakes vigorous measures, who can tell how far the fanaticism for liberty may carry an immense people, dwelling for the most part in the interior of a continent, remote from imminent danger? And, if the metropolis should persevere, can the union, which is now their strength, be maintained without succor from abroad? Even if the rupture should be premature, can France and Spain neglect the opportunity which they may never find again? "Three years ago the separation of the English colonies was looked upon as an object of attention for the next generation; the germs were observed, but no one could foresee that they would be so speedily developed. This new order of things, which will necessarily have the greatest influence on the political system of Europe, will probably be brought about within a very few years.' "Your views," replied Choiseul, "are as acute as they are comprehensive and well considered. The king is perfectly aware of their sagacity and solidity; and I will communicate them to the court of Madrid." The statesmen of France had their best allies in the British ministry. "The matter is now brought to a point," said Hillsborough, in the house of lords. "Parliament must 1768. give up its authority over the colonies, or bring them to effectual submission. Your lordships will see it absolutely necessary not to recede an ace; for my part, I Dec. cannot entertain a thought of repealing the late acts, and hope nobody will move it, or so much as wish for it. Not the amount of the duties, which will not be more than ten thousand pounds per annum in all North America, but the principle upon which the laws are founded, is complained of. Legislation and taxation will stand or fall together. The notion of the Americans is a polytheism in politics, absurd, fatal to the constitution, and never to be admitted. The North Americans are a very good set of people, misled by a few wicked, factious, and designing men. I will, therefore, for the present only propose several resolutions which may show the sense of the legislature. If this is not sufficient, the hand of power must be lifted up, and the whole force of this country exerted to bring the colonies into subjection." The resolutions condemned the assembly of Massachusetts, its council, and still more its convention; approved of sending a military force to Boston; and foreshadowed the abrogation of the municipal liberties of that town, and a change in the charter of the province. Hillsborough was seconded by Bedford, who also carried an address to the king, to bring to "condign punishment the chief authors and instigators of the late disorders;" and, if sufficient ground should be seen, to put them on trial for "treason" before a special commission in England, "pursuant to the statute of Henry VIII." The resolutions and address were adopted, with no opposition except from Richmond and Shelburne. "The semblance of vigor," said Choiseul, "covers pusillanimity and fear. If those who are threatened with a trial for high treason are not alarmed, the terror and discouragement will affect nobody but the British ministers; the main question of taxing the colonies is as far from a solution as ever." Samuel Adams, whom it was especially desired to "take off" for treason, was "unawed by the menaces of arbitrary |