1 8 THOMAS HUTCHINSON 



peace whom Belcher had displaced. A considerable 

 part of his fortune melted away in a moment, so that 

 his famous son, who was that summer in the graduat- 

 ing class at Harvard, may be said in a certain sense 

 to have inherited his quarrel with the British gov- 

 ernment. It is interesting, in this connection, to re- 

 member how, three years later, as a candidate for the 

 master's degree, young Samuel Adams chose as the 

 subject of his Latin thesis the question, " Whether it 

 be lawful to resist the supreme magistrate if the com- 

 monwealth cannot otherwise be preserved ? " and this 

 bold question he answered in the affirmative, while the 

 new royal governor, Shirley, as guest of the college on 

 Commencement Day, sat on the platform and heard 

 him. The question as to the authority of Parliament 

 over the colonies, which had for a moment attracted 

 attention as long ago as 1644, was now more warmly 

 agitated. The friends of the Land Bank loudly de- 

 nounced the declaratory act of 1 740 as a violation of 

 the chartered rights of Massachusetts, and the bitter 

 feelings engendered by this affair must unquestionably 

 be set down among the causes of the American Revo- 

 lution. Hutchinson's conduct at this time was emi- 

 nently wise and patriotic. On theory he was then, as 

 always, a firm believer in the ultimate supremacy of 

 Parliament over every part of the British empire. He 

 understood better than most Americans of his day 

 that the supremacy of the crown was figurative rather 

 than real. He believed that if sovereignty over the 

 whole did not reside somewhere, the unity of the 

 empire was virtually at an end ; and where else could 

 such sovereignty reside if not in Parliament ? At the 

 same time he shared with many other able and thought- 



