44 THOMAS HUTCHINSON 



minded citizens of Massachusetts was regarded by so 

 many other pure and high-minded citizens as little 

 better than a traitor. Acting upon this belief the 

 assembly, sometime before the crisis of the Tea 

 Party, had already despatched a memorial across the 

 ocean, beseeching his Majesty to remove Governor 

 Hutchinson and Lieutenant-governor Oliver from 

 office. 



In January, 1774, the petition was laid before the 

 privy council, in the presence of a large and brilliant 

 gathering of spectators. Never before had so many 

 lords been seen in that chamber at one time. The 

 Archbishop of Canterbury was there, and Lord Shel- 

 burne, and Edmund Burke; and there, too, were to 

 be seen the illustrious Dr. Priestley and youthful Jer- 

 emy Bentham. At the head of the table sat the Lord 

 President Gower, and in the chimney corner stood an 

 old man of eight and sixty, with spectacles and flow- 

 ing wig, dressed in a suit of dark Manchester velvet. 

 This was Dr. Franklin, to whose part it fell, as agent 

 for the Massachusetts assembly, to present its petition. 

 The news of the Boston Tea Party had just arrived 

 in London, and people's wrath waxed hot against the 

 Americans. The solicitor-general, David Wedder- 

 burn, instead of discussing the petition on its merits, 

 broke out with a scurrilous invective against Frank- 

 lin, whom he accused, if not of actually stealing the 

 Whately letters, at least of basely meddling with pri- 

 vate correspondence from the lowest of motives, to 

 get Hutchinson dismissed from office and secure for 

 himself the governorship of Massachusetts. Such a 

 man, said Wedderburn, has forfeited forever the re- 

 spect of his fellow-creatures, and should never dare 



