the State of Massachusetts, met at Faneuil Hall, in that town; but this assembly, which had excited great alarm among the friends of government, merely recommended moderate measures, and then dissolved itself. The day after the breaking up of this convention, the troops arrived, and landed without opposition under the protection of the guns of the armed vessels in the harbor.

The intelligence of the refractory spirit thus manifested by the inhabitants of Boston, produced such irritation in the British parliament, that in February, 1769, both Houses concurred in an address to his Majesty, prompting him to vigorous measures against all persons guilty of what they were pleased to denominate treasonable acts; and beseeching him, in pursuance of the powers contained in an obsolete statute of the 35th of Henry VIII., to seize the offenders, and cause them to be tried by a special commission within the realm of Great Britain. This imprudent suggestion was encountered by strong resolutions on the part of the provincial assemblies; and the colonists again had recourse to non-importation agreements, and, in some instances, sent back to Great Britain cargoes of goods which had actually arrived.

Thus the distresses of the British manufacturers were renewed; and ministers were induced, by their earnest remonstrances, to repeal all the newly imposed duties, except that on tea. This reservation being a practical assertion of the right of parliament to impose internal taxes on the American States, was very odious to the colonists, who, however, relaxed their associations so far as to allow the importation of all articles except tea, the use of which commodity they forbore, or supplied themselves with it by smuggling.

3

SECTION VI.

PETITION AND REMONSTRANCE, 1773.

Thus was tranquillity restored to most of the colonies. But the presence of the troops in the town of Boston was a perpetual source of irritation in the province of Massachusetts. The Bostonians regarded the soldiers with an evil eye, as the instruments of tyranny designed to be used for the destruction of their liberties, and availed themselves of every opportunity which occurred to annoy and insult them. In resisting a violent act of aggression, a party of the military were obliged to fire on the populace, of whom three were killed and five dangerously wounded. In times of public excitement, nothing is more irritating to the populace, and nothing more painful to men of cultivated minds, than the interference of the military. When that interference is attended with fatal consequences, the frenzy of the people rises to the utmost height. Such was the case with the inhabitants of Boston. On hearing of the melancholy event, some obscure individuals caused the drums to beat to arms, and the townsmen assembled to the amount of some thousands. They were, however, happily appeased by the intervention of several patriotic leaders, whose zeal was allayed by prudence, and in consequence of whose interference with the Lieutenant-Governor the obnoxious troops were sent out of the town. Artful means were, however, resorted to for the purpose of keeping alive their resentment. On the morning of the day appointed for the burial of the slain, most of the shops in Boston were shut. The bells of that town, of Charlestown, and Roxbury, rung out muffled peals. Mournful processions moving from the houses of the murdered dead, as they who had fallen by the fire of the military were denominated, united with the

This event occurred on the evening of March 5, 1770. There was a regiment of British troops quartered in barracks in Brattle Street, and another regiment in Water Street and Atkinson Street. Frequent altercations had taken place between the soldiers and the inhabitants. On this evening a sentinel, who was stationed near the Custom House, was assailed by a number of persons, and a sergeant's guard was sent to his relief, followed immediately after by Capt. Preston. A crowd soon assembled about the place, and the soldiers were assaulted by missiles of wood, and pieces of ice, and dared to fire. The soldiers, after standing their ground for some time, fired upon the r assailants. Three men in the crowd were immediately killed, and two others were mortally wounded. Capt. Preston and the soldiers were tried for murder. The captain and six men were acquitted, and two of the men were found guilty of manslaughter.

corpses at the spot where they had met their fate. Here, forming into a body, they marched six a-breast, followed by the carriages of the gentry, through the main streets to the place of interment.

Immediately after the affray, which was productive of such sad consequences, Captain Preston, the officer who commanded the party who had fired upon the people, had been committed to prison, together with a number of private soldiers who were implicated in that act. The firing had taken place on the 5th of March, and though the trial of the accused did not take place till the following November, there might have been reason to apprehend that, in appearing, for a decision on a case of life and death, before a Boston jury, they would run the greatest hazard of falling victims to infuriated prejudice. But, in this instance, the Bostonians gave evidence of their English descent. In capital cases, Englishmen, in modern times at least, have almost uniformly exercised an impartial administration of the law. Such was the temper which was manifested by the court and jury on the trial of Captain Preston and his comrades. After a patient investigation of the case, all the prisoners were acquitted of murder, and two, being found guilty of manslaughter, were immediately burnt in the hand and discharged. It is a fact not to be omitted, that they were defended, and zealously defended, by the celebrated John Adams and Josiah Quincy, than whom there did not exist more ardent advocates of the cause of American freedom. The former of these gentlemen, in warning the jury against giving way to popular impressions, expressed himself in the following energetic terms :—

*It is also a fact worthy of notice, that the counsel for the crown, Samuel Quincy, Esq. Solicitor-General, was the brother of Josiah Quincy, and on the termination of the siege of Boston, in 1776, he left the country with other loyalists, and held the office of attorney for the erown in the island of Antigua, until his death, in 1789.