38 THOMAS HUTCHINSON 



the mother country without severing its connection 

 with her; and he had therefore reluctantly come to 

 the conclusion that Massachusetts must submit to " an 

 abridgment of what are called English liberties." In 

 this there was nothing that he had not said again and 

 again in public, and amply explained in his famous 

 message to the assembly. But Oliver went farther, 

 and urged that judges and other crown officers should 

 have fixed salaries assigned and paid by the crown, so 

 as to become independent of popular favour. Paxton 

 enlarged upon the turbulence of the people of Boston, 

 and thought two or three regiments needful for pre- 

 serving order. The letters were written independently 

 on different occasions, and the suggestions were 

 doubtless made in perfect good faith. In June, 1772, 

 Thomas Whately died, and all his papers passed into 

 the custody of William, his brother and executor. In 

 the following December, before William Whately had 

 opened or looked over the packet of letters from 

 Massachusetts, it was found that they had been pur- 

 loined by some person unknown. It is not certain 

 that the letters had ever really passed into William 

 Whately 's hands. They may have been left lying in 

 some place where they may have attracted the notice 

 of some curious busybody, who forthwith laid hands 

 upon them. This has never been satisfactorily cleared 

 up. At all events they were carried to Dr. Franklin, as 

 containing political intelligence that might prove im- 

 portant. Franklin was then the agent at the British 

 court, representing Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New 

 Jersey, and Georgia. The dispute over the salaries of 

 the judges was then raging in Massachusetts. The 

 judges had been threatened with impeachment should 



