22 THOMAS HUTCHINSON 



diately chosen a member of the council. People soon 

 found, to their amazement, that a good hard dollar had 

 much greater purchasing power than a scrap of dirty 

 paper worth about nine cents ; and it was further 

 observed that, when an inferior currency was once out 

 of the way, coin would remain in circulation. The 

 revival of trade was so steady and so marked that the 

 tide of popular feeling turned, and Hutchinson was as 

 much praised as he had before been abused. His 

 services at this time cannot be rated too highly. To 

 his clear insight and determined courage it was largely 

 due that Massachusetts was financially able to enter 

 upon the Revolutionary War. In 1774 Massachusetts 

 was entirely out of debt, and her prosperity contrasted 

 strikingly with the poverty-stricken condition of Rhode 

 Island, which persisted in its issues of inconvertible 

 paper. It was then that the West India trade of 

 Massachusetts, a considerable part of which had hith- 

 erto been carried on through Newport, was almost 

 entirely transferred to Boston and Salem. 



About this time Hutchinson was cherishing an in- 

 tention of giving up all mercantile business and deal- 

 ing but little more with practical politics. On the 

 summit of Milton Hill, seven miles south of Boston, 

 in one of the most charming spots in all that neigh- 

 bourhood, he had built a fine house, which still stands 

 there, though largely reconstructed. Sitting at its 

 broad windows, or walking upon the velvet lawn 

 under the shade of arching trees, one gets entrancing 

 views of the Neponset River, with its meadows far 

 below, and of the broad expanse of the harbour 

 studded with its islands and cheery with white-winged 

 ships. To this earthly paradise, Hutchinson, having 



