1st of August, unexpectedly to
himself, Barnard was recalled. He had expected to be appointed Governor
of Virginia; but on his arrival in England he found that the British
Ministers had promised the London-American merchants that they would
never employ him again in America.[310] He answered the purposes of the
corrupt Ministerial oligarchy in England, to mislead the Sovereign on
one hand and oppress the colonists on the other. But for him there would
have been no ships of war or military sent to Boston; no conflicts
between the citizens and soldiers; probably no revolutionary war.
Barnard's departure from Boston was signalized by the ringing of bells,
and firing of cannon, and bonfires at night. He was succeeded in the
government by Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, a man who had rendered
great service to his native country by his History, and his labours in
the Legislature for ten years, but who had become extremely unpopular by
his secret support of the English Revenue Acts and duplicate policy of
Barnard, whom he at length equalled in avarice and deception, and
greatly excelled in ability.

One of the most effective and least objectionable means of obtaining the
repeal of the Revenue Acts was the agreement not to purchase or import
goods of British manufacture or goods imported from British ports. At
best the revenues arising from the operation of these Acts would not
amount to L20,000 a year. They were maintained in England as a badge of
the absolute authority of Parliament; they were resisted in America as a
badge of colonial independence of taxation--without representation.
There was no crime, political or moral, in refusing to buy goods of any
kind, much less goods burdened with what they considered unlawful
duties. Mr. Bancroft remarks:

"The agreement of non-importation originated in New York, where it was
rigidly carried into effect. No acrimony appeared; every one, without so
much as a single dissentient, approved of the combination as wise and
legal; persons in the highest stations declared against the Revenue
Acts, and the Governor wished their repeal. His acquiescence in the
association for coercing that repeal led the moderate men among the
patriots of New York to plan a union of the colonies in an American
Parliament (similar to that which now exists in the Dominion of Canada),
preserving the Governments of the several colonies, and having the
members of the General Parliament chosen by their respective