n officers if any
political arrest were made. Looking forward to the eventual rupture, the
resolves advised the towns to choose their military officers with great
care, and finally made provision to spread alarm or summon assistance at
a moment's notice.

Affairs had now reached a new phase. The barrier which Gage had erected
at the Neck had effectually cut him off from the province which he had
been sent to govern. From that time on he had no authority beyond the
range of his batteries.

Boston was his, to be sure. In spite of alarms (for once the field day
of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, the pride of the
province, aroused the fleet; and once the little navy was awake all
night against an attack that never came), in spite of such alarms, no
attempt was made upon his army or his ships. The town was quiet, and
Tory ladies and gentlemen were at last at ease. On the Mall they might
daily watch the parade of the troops, speak their minds about the
faction, and agree upon the cowardice of the provincials. Yet the Whigs
of Boston made no submission. They were, as Warren wrote of them,
"silent and inflexible." At the same time they had everything at stake.
Their leaders Hancock and Warren still lived openly among them, in the
face of the threat of arrest. The artisans, too, at this period put
behind them a great temptation. For many months they had been idle; now
within a few weeks the governor had commenced building barracks for the
troops, upon which Boston workmen were engaged. For the first time since
the Port Bill went into effect they were earning a comfortable living.
But now they refused to work longer for the king. In vain Gage appealed
to the selectmen and to Hancock. One and all the artisans withdrew, to
subsist, as before, upon the donations that still continued to come in
from the other towns and colonies.

Outside the barrier at the Neck was an unparalleled state of affairs. In
Massachusetts there was no legal government. The charter had been
abrogated, but the new system had been rejected by the people. There
were no judges and no courts, no sheriffs; there was no treasury, and no
machinery of government whatever. Consequently there was a striking
opportunity for lawlessness. Yet the quiet in the province was
remarkable. In the absence of executive and judicial officers, the
selectmen of the towns and the Committees of Correspondence took upon
themselves the work that was to be done, and did i