George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 6, 10th edition.

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Chapter XLI

Republicanism in the East and the West.—Hillsborough's Administration of the Colonies continued.

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May—August, 1769.

Massachusetts had not only like Virginia to

Chap. XLI.} 1769. May.

assert the rights of America, but also to effect the removal of the troops from Boston, into whose ‘very streets and lanes’ about two thousand men had been sent, in equal disregard of good policy¹ and of an Act of Parliament. For more than ten months, the Colony remained without an Assembly.

The servants of the Crown who had placed their

Feb.

hopes on the plan for transporting to England the principal Sons of Liberty, became irresolute and timid.² The secret Councils which Bernard now held with Hutchinson³ and Oliver and Auchmuty, ended only in ‘despair.’ They had furnished ‘ample information;’⁴ they had got ready to apply the statute of Henry the Eighth; and had persuaded themselves that inferior offenders would have consulted