g the former and breaking in the windows of the
latter, in detestation of the hated Stamp Act and of the principle that
property might be taken without consent. Mr. Oliver hastened to resign
his office, which doubtless led many people to think the methods taken
to induce him to do so were very good ones and such as might well be
made further use of. It was in fact not long afterwards, about dusk of
the evening of the 26th of August, that a mob of men, more deliberately
organized than before, ransacked the office of William Story, Deputy
Registrar of the Court of Admiralty, and, after burning the obnoxious
records kept there, they forcibly entered the house, and the cellar too,
of Benjamin Hallowell, Comptroller of the Customs. "Then the Monsters,"
says Deacon Tudor, "being enflam'd with Rum & Wine which they got in sd.
Hallowell's cellar, proceeded with Shouts to the Dwelling House of the
Hon-l. Thos. Hutchinson, Esq., Lieut. Governor, & enter'd in a voyalent
manner." At that moment the Lieutenant-Governor was sitting comfortably
at dinner and had barely time to escape with his family before the
massive front door was broken in with axes. As young Mr. Hutchinson
went out by the back way he heard someone say: "Damn him, he's upstairs,
we'll have him yet." They did not indeed accomplish this purpose; but
when the morning broke the splendid house was seen to be completely
gutted, the partition walls broken in, the roof partly off, and the
priceless possessions of the owner ruined past repair: mahogany and
walnut furniture finished in morocco and crimson damask, tapestries and
Turkey carpets, rare paintings, cabinets of fine glass and old china,
stores of immaculate linen, India paduasoy gowns and red Genoa robes, a
choice collection of books richly bound in leather and many manuscript
documents, the fruit of thirty years' labor in collecting--all broken
and cut and cast about to make a rubbish heap and a bonfire. From the
mire of the street there was afterwards picked up a manuscript history
of Massachusetts which is preserved to this day, the soiled pages of
which may still be seen in the Boston library. Mr. Hutchinson was no
friend of the Stamp Act; but he was a rich man, Lieutenant-Governor of
the province, and brother-in-law of Andrew Oliver.

Government offered the usual rewards--which were never claimed--for
evidence leading to the detection of any persons concerned in the riots.
Men of repute, including the staunches