138 



nlshed with the "Anguilla clearances" to enter with their cargoes 

 without inquiry, for a considerable time ; but, on a sudden, hbels were 

 filed, and prosecutions were commenced in the court of admirjilty 

 against those who had been concerned in such evasions of the statutes, 

 and ruinous forfeitures of propeity and renewed clamors were the con- 

 sequences. 



We pass to other topics. In 1762, the fishing towns of Massachu- 

 setts, alarmed at the news that the French had captured St. John, 

 Newfoundland, petitioned the governor and council to fit out a ship and 

 a sloop, then in the service of the province, to protect their vessels. 

 Both vessels, in accordance with these petitions, were provided with 

 additional men and means of defence, and sent to sea. The expense 

 thus incurred became the subject of legislative inquiry, and was ob- 

 jected to because the executive branch of the government had appro- 

 priated the pubfic money without the consent or knowledge of the rep- 

 resentatives of the people. The debate in the House was angry and 

 protracted. James Otis, the popular leader, used expressions never 

 before uttered in the colonies ; and, soon after the close of the session, 

 published a pamphlet, in which he justified himself for his conduct on 

 the occasion, and deiended with great ability the principles for which 

 he had contended as a member of the House. " This production has 

 been considered the original source from which all subsequent argu- 

 ments against taxation were derived ;" while the whole anair created 

 an intense excitement, and, in the judgment of the biographer of Otis, 

 exerted very great influence in causing the Revolution. 



It is a singular fact, that the fisheries furnished the advocates of the 

 supremacy of Parliament with one of their best illustrations. They 

 stated that the authority of the imperial legislature was indispensable 

 in many cases, and that without it the colonies would often be involved 

 in conflicts injurious to each other's interests. Governor Hutchinson, 

 in his rsniiarks upon the question, said, substantially, that it had been 

 generally thought a public benefit to prevent fishing vessels from depart- 

 ing on their voyage until the month of April; but that if any colony 

 engaged in the business failed to conform to a law imposing such a 

 regulation, others that comphed with it would suffer, because their fish, 

 later caught, must, of necessity, be later in market ; and he declares 

 that a motion had actually been made in the legislature of Massachu- 

 setts, a few years previously, for parliamentary interposition in this 

 behalf, which filled, not in consequence of any objection to the princi- 

 ple involved in the motion, but because a majority of the members dis- 

 approved of the restraint itself, and were willing that fishing vessels 

 slioulil di'part from port before April, and whenever their owners and 

 masiers thought proper. 



In 1772, a fishing vessel, having one passenger on board, sailed from 

 Boston for Chatham, Cape Cod. The morning after her departure she 

 was discovered without her crew, who, as the passeng* r said, were all 

 murdered soon after leaving Boston, by a party of men who came on 

 board in a boat, despatched from ;in armed schooner. This parly, he 

 further averred, phmdei-ed the fishing vessel, lashed her helm with her 

 sails standing, and abandoned her; while he, supposing that they be- 

 longed to a. King's cruiser, and would impress him, concealed himself 



