George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 6, 10th edition.

[230] was like the fortitude of veteran troops, who

Chap. XXXVIII} 1768. Nov.

wait unmoved by danger, till the word is given. ‘They act with highest wisdom and spirit,’ said Thomas Hollis;¹ ‘they will extricate themselves with firmness and magnanimity.’ But most men ex pressed contempt for them, as having made a vain bluster. The apparent success, of which the account reached London just four days before the meeting of Parliament, was regarded as a victory. Americans in London were told with a sneer that they should soon have the company of Otis and others.² No one doubted but that, on the arrival of the additional regiments sent from Ireland, he and Cushing, and sixteen other members of the late political assemblies, would be arrested.³ Hillsborough hastened to send Bernard's dispatches to the Attorney and Solicitor General, asking what crimes had been committed, and if the guilty were to be impeached by Parliament.⁴

The King, in his Speech⁵ on the eighth of November, railed at ‘the spirit of faction breaking out afresh in some of the Colonies.’ ‘Boston,’ said he, ‘appears to be in a state of disobedience to all law and government, and has proceeded to measures subversive of the constitution, and attended with circumstances that might manifest a disposition to throw off its dependence on Great Britain. With your concurrence and support, I shall be able to defeat the mis chievous designs of those turbulent and seditious per ’