. Life and times of Washington. esolute and daring of the Boston pa-triots, that the General Court should have the soldiersremoved to Castle William; but the meeting of that bodyappointed for the loth of January (1770), was proroguedby Hutchinson to the middle of March. This was said tobe done under an arbitrary instruction of Lord Hills-borough. A quarrel took place between the merchants who hadsigned the nonimportation, agreement and Hutchinson,whose sons had signed and broken it, by selling tea, inwhich the Lieutenant-Governor was obhged to yield. Thiswas thought by the British party to fur
. Life and times of Washington. esolute and daring of the Boston pa-triots, that the General Court should have the soldiersremoved to Castle William; but the meeting of that bodyappointed for the loth of January (1770), was proroguedby Hutchinson to the middle of March. This was said tobe done under an arbitrary instruction of Lord Hills-borough. A quarrel took place between the merchants who hadsigned the nonimportation, agreement and Hutchinson,whose sons had signed and broken it, by selling tea, inwhich the Lieutenant-Governor was obhged to yield. Thiswas thought by the British party to furnish a good occa-sion for an attack on the people by the troops; and ColonelDalrymple prepared his men for the purpose. But al-though repeated assemblages took place among the mer-chants and the people, Hutchinson was afraid to order anattack on them. Intelligence received from New York of repeated affraysbetween the people and the soldiers stationed there served * Bradford, History of Massachusetts, p. Hutchison, p. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. LIFE AND TIMES. 561 to increase the ferment in Boston. The soldiers in thelatter place were more licentious, and under less restraintfrom their officers, than they had ever been before; andthe boys and idlers exasperated them by calling- themrascals, bloody backs, and lobster scoundrels. Matterswere rapidly drawing to a crisis. On the 2d of March (1770), a private soldier of theTwentieth regiment, applying for employment at Graysrope-walk, was refused in an insul;ting manner, which ledto a boxing-match with one of the ropemakers, in whichthe soldier was beaten and driven away. He returned withother soldiers. A riot ensued, in which clubs and cutlasseswere employed, which was terminated by the interferenceof Mr. Gray and others. This trifling affair undoubtedlyhad an influence in producing the more serious colHsionwhich took place a few days afterward. In the meantime,the people of the surrounding country sympathized deeplywith the Bos
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