ne, that in all
probability would be done.

For the time more was to be feared from the viceroys of the provinces
than from the Home Government. Mr. Secretary Conway addressed a
circular letter to the governors of the different colonies, reproving
the colonists, indeed, for the recent disturbances, but with a measured
mildness of reproof that seemed carefully calculated not to give
needless offence or cause unnecessary irritation. "If by lenient
persuasive methods," Conway wrote, "you can contribute to restore the
peace and tranquillity to the provinces on which their welfare and
happiness depend, you will do a most acceptable and essential service
to your country." An appeal so suave, advice so judicious, did not
seem the less prudent and humane because the Secretary insisted upon
the repression of violence and outrage and reminded those to whom his
letter was addressed that if they needed aid in the maintenance of law
and order {106} they were to require it at the hands of the commanders
of his Majesty's land and naval forces in America. If all the
gentlemen to whom the Secretary's circular was addressed had been as
reasonable and as restrained in language as its writer, things might
even then have turned out very differently. It was not to be expected,
and the colonists did not expect, that outrage and violence were to go
unchallenged and unpunished, and it is probable that few even in
Massachusetts would have objected to the formal expression of thanks
for firmness and zeal which was made by Conway to the governor of that
colony. But the temperance that was possible to Conway was impossible
to Bernard. Bernard was one of the worst of a long line of
inappropriate colonial governors. He was a hot-headed, hot-hearted man
who seemed to think that to play the part of a domineering, blustering
bully was to show discretion and discernment in the duties of his
office. He always acted under the conviction that he must always be in
the right and every one else always in the wrong, and he blazed up into
fantastic rages at the slightest show of opposition. As this was not
the spirit in which to deal with the proud and independent men of
Massachusetts, Governor Bernard passed the better part of his life in a
passion and was forever quarrelling with his provincial legislature and
forever complaining to the Home Government of his hard lot and of the
mischievous, mutinous set of fellows he had to deal with.

When Bernar