tters to a friend in that province, with a strict injunction against
their being printed, as he had given a promise to the friend who had
furnished him with them to that effect. Their contents, however,
soon became known, and the legislative assembly obliged Franklin's
correspondent to produce them, and having resolved that the tendency of
them was to overthrow the constitution and to introduce arbitrary power
into the province, the house of assembly drew up a petition to the
king, charging the governor with betraying his trust, and slandering the
people under his government; declaring him an enemy to the colony; and
praying for the instant dismissal of both Hutchinson and Oliver, the
governor and deputy-governor of the province. Copies of this petition,
and also of the letters which gave rise to it, were soon scattered over
all the continent, from the Lawrence to the Mississippi, and from the
shores of the Atlantic to the regions of the far west; and their effects
soon became manifest. Long before this, in 1772, the people of Rhode
Island had insulted the British flag by boarding, capturing, and burning
a British ship of war, and though government had offered a large
reward with pardon, if claimed by an accomplice, for the discovery and
apprehension of any persons engaged in the outrage, all the offenders
had escaped with impunity. Opposition to the British government, now
that the letters transmitted by Franklin had inflamed the public mind,
grew more bold. In the midst of the discontent two ships arrived at
Boston with the cargoes of tea which Lord North had allowed the East
India Company to export duty free. Anterior to their arrival, meetings
had been held and mobs raised, to terrify the consignees into an
engagement not to receive the tea, and when they arrived, another
meeting of the inhabitants of Boston and all the neighbouring towns was
called to prevent its being landed. At this meeting a resolution was
passed, asserting among other things that the tea ships were sent for
the purpose of enslaving and poisoning all free-born Americans, and that
the tea which came charged with a duty to be paid in America should not
be landed, but be sent back in the same bottoms. The consignees offered
to store the teas till they could receive further instructions; but
this moderate offer was rejected with disdain, and a strong body of
Bostonians armed with muskets, rifles, swords, and cutlasses, were sent
down to Griffin's whar