there was to exasperate, when the popular leaders were called upon
to meet a paroxysm without a precedent in the Colonies.

It seemed to the Patriots astonishing that the Ministry persisted in
keeping troops in Boston. There was no spirit of resistance to law;
there was no plot maturing to resist the Government; the avocations of
life went on as usual; the popular leaders, men of whom any community
might be proud, averred that their opposition to public measures had
been prudent and legal, and that they had not taken "a single step that
could not be fully justified on constitutional grounds"; and the demand
in the public prints was continuous to know what the troops were wanted
for, and how they were to be used. On the other hand, the ultra
Loyalists as continuously represented that the town was full of a
rebellious spirit, was a nest of disorder, and threatened the leaders in
it with transportation. Hutchinson seems to have apprehended that this
misrepresentation had been carried so far as to be suicidal; for he
advised Lord Hillsborough, that, "in matters that had no relation to the
dispute between the Kingdom and the Colonies, government retained its
vigor, and the administration of it was attended with no unusual
difficulty." This is to the point, and conclusive. This was the truth on
which the popular leaders rested; and hence it seemed to them a marvel
that the Ministry, to use the words of Samuel Adams, should employ
troops only "to parade the streets of Boston, and, by their ridiculous
merry-andrew tricks, to become the objects of contempt of the women and
children."

It would be a tedious and profitless task to go over the bickerings and
quarrels that occurred between the inhabitants and the soldiers. The
high-spirited citizens, on being challenged in their walks, could not
keep their temper; the roughs, here as in every place, would have their
say; and the coarse British soldier could not be restrained by
discipline; yet in all the brawls, for seventeen months, not a gun was
fired in an affray. Fist had been met with fist, and club with club; and
not unfrequently these quarrels were settled in the courts. The nature
of such emergency as would justify the troops in firing on the people
was acutely discussed in the newspapers, and undoubtedly the subject was
talked about in private circles and in the political clubs. "What shall
I say?" runs an article in the "Gazette." "I shudder at the thought.
Surely no pro