the Assembly, far from betraying any
slackness, was worthy of a military dictatorship. All ordinary business
was set aside. Bills of credit for L40,000 were issued to meet the needs
of the expedition. It was ordered that the prices of provisions and
other necessaries of the service should stand fixed at the point where
they stood before the approach of the fleet was known. Sheriffs and
constables, jointly with the Queen's officers, were ordered to search
all the town for provisions and liquors, and if the owners refused to
part with them at the prescribed prices, to break open doors and seize
them. Stringent and much-needed Acts were passed against harboring
deserters. Provincial troops, in greater number than the ministry had
demanded, were ordered to be raised at once, and quartered upon the
citizens, with or without their consent, at the rate of eightpence a day
for each man.[161] Warrants were issued for impressing pilots, and also
mechanics and laborers, who, in spite of Puritan scruples, were required
to work on Sundays.

Such measures, if imposed by England, would have roused the most bitter
resentment. Even when ordered by their own representatives, they caused
a sullen discontent among the colonists, and greatly increased the
popular dislike of their military visitors. It was certain that when the
expedition sailed and the operation of the new enactments ceased, prices
would rise; and hence the compulsion to part with goods at low fixed
rates was singularly trying to the commercial temper. It was a busy
season, too, with the farmers, and they showed no haste to bring their
produce to the camp. Though many of the principal inhabitants bound
themselves by mutual agreement to live on their family stores of salt
provisions, in order that the troops might be better supplied with
fresh, this failed to soothe the irritation of the British officers,
aggravated by frequent desertions, which the colonists favored, and by
the impossibility of finding pilots familiar with the St. Lawrence. Some
when forced into the service made their escape, to the great indignation
of Walker, who wrote to the governor: "Her Majesty will resent such
actions in a very signal manner; and when it shall be represented that
the people live here as if there were no king in Israel, but every one
does what seems right in his own eyes, measures will be taken to put
things upon a better foot for the future."[162] At length, however,
every preparati