steer clear of political matters, to keep to the
line of their profession, and to make the best of an irksome duty. They
lived on good terms with the popular leaders, were invited to visit the
common-schools with the Selectmen, appeared at the public festivals,
and, on their departure, were handsomely complimented in both the Whig
and Tory journals for the manner in which they had discharged their
duties. They were, however, no mere lookers-on, and their official
representations and conclusions were no more far-reaching than those of
their superiors. Hood, from Halifax, wrote in harsh terms of Boston,
although he put on record severe and true things of that chronic local
infliction, the Commissioners of the Customs. His official letters,
printed this year, were open to sharp criticism, which they received in
the journals. Not, however, until the publication of the Cavendish
Debates was it known that General Mackay, who was regarded as uncommonly
liberal, received every personal attention, and was the most
complimented by the press, stood up in the House of Commons, soon after
his arrival in England, and maligned Boston in severe terms. He charged
the town with being without government; said it was tyrannized over by a
set of men hardly respectable, in point of fortune; and even had the
hardihood to say that some of the troops he commanded there had been
sold for slaves!

Boston, now a subject of speculation in Continental courts, as well as
of abuse in Parliament, was destined to undergo a still severer trial
for the succeeding seven months, from August, 1769, to March, 1770,
during the continuance of the two remaining regiments. This was an
eventful period, characterized by violent agitation in the Colonies to
promote a repeal of the revenue acts and an abandonment of the
intermeddling and aggressive policy of the Ministry; and it was marked
by uncommon political activity in Boston. The popular leaders, as
though no British troops were lookers-on, and in spite, too, of the
protests and commands of the crown officials, steadily guided the
deliberations of the people in Faneuil Hall; and at times the disorderly
also, in violations of law and personal liberty that can never be
justified, intrepidly carried out their projects. The events of this
period tended powerfully to inflame the public mind. The appeals of the
Patriots, through the press, show their appreciation of the danger of an
outbreak, and yet their determinati