have been sentenced to "sit an hour upon the gallows with a rope
about his neck;" but the governor and council objected to these
severities, and the Assembly forbore to impose them. The popular
indignation against the accused was extreme, and probably not without
cause.[89] There was no doubt an illicit trade between Boston and the
French of Acadia, who during the war often depended on their enemies for
the necessaries of life, since supplies from France, precarious at the
best, were made doubly so by New England cruisers. Thus the Acadians and
their Indian allies were but too happy to exchange their furs for very
modest supplies of tools, utensils, and perhaps, at times, of arms,
powder, and lead.[90] What with privateering and illicit trade, it was
clear that the war was a source of profit to some of the chief persons
in Boston. That place, moreover, felt itself tolerably safe from attack,
while the borders were stung from end to end as by a swarm of wasps;
and thus the country conceived the idea that the town was fattening at
its expense. Vaudreuil reports to the minister that the people of New
England want to avenge themselves by an attack on Canada, but that their
chief men are for a policy of defence. This was far from being wholly
true; but the notion that the rural population bore a grudge against
Boston had taken strong hold of the French, who even believed that if
the town were attacked, the country would not move hand or foot to help
it. Perhaps it was well for them that they did not act on the belief,
which, as afterwards appeared, was one of their many mistakes touching
the character and disposition of their English neighbors.

The sentences on Borland and his five companions were annulled by the
Queen and Council, on the ground that the Assembly was not competent to
try the case.[91] The passionate charges against Dudley and a petition
to the Queen for his removal were equally unavailing. The Assemblies of
Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the chief merchants, the officers of
militia, and many of the ministers sent addresses to the Queen in praise
of the governor's administration;[92] and though his enemies declared
that the votes and signatures were obtained by the arts familiar to him,
his recall was prevented, and he held his office seven years longer.

FOOTNOTES:

[77] _Vaudreuil et Beauharnois au Ministre, 17 Novembre, 1704._

[78] _Vaudreuil et Beauharnois au Ministre, 17 Novembre, 1704_;
_Vaudre