LAST ROYAL GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS 39 



they dare to receive a penny from the royal treasury, 

 and at their head was Andrew Oliver's younger brother 

 Peter, chief justice of Massachusetts. As agent for 

 the colony, Franklin felt it his duty to give information 

 of the contents of the letters now laid before him. 

 Although they purported to be merely a private corre- 

 spondence, it appeared to him that they were written 

 by public officers to a person in public station, on 

 public affairs, and intended to procure public measures ; 

 their tendency, he thought, was to incense the mother 

 country against her colonies. Franklin was doubtless 

 mistaken in this, but he felt as Walsingham might 

 have felt on suddenly discovering, in private and con- 

 fidential papers, the clew to some popish plot against 

 the life of Queen Elizabeth. From the person who 

 brought him the letters he got permission to send 

 them to Massachusetts, on condition that they should 

 be shown only to a few people in authority, that they 

 should not be copied or printed, that they should 

 presently be returned, and that the name of the per- 

 son from whom they were obtained should never be 

 disclosed. This last condition was thoroughly ful- 

 filled. The others must have been felt to be mainly a 

 matter of form; it was obvious that, though they 

 might be literally complied with, their spirit would 

 inevitably be violated. The letters were sent to the 

 proper person, Thomas Gushing, speaker of the Massa- 

 chusetts assembly, and he showed them to Hancock, 

 Hawley, and the two Adamses. To these gentlemen 

 it could have been no new discovery that Hutchinson 

 and Oliver held such opinions as were expressed in 

 the letters ; but the documents seemed to furnish 

 tangible proof of what had long been vaguely sur- 



