46 THOMAS HUTCHINSON 



Events, however, soon brought about practically 

 Hutchinson's removal. When in April Parliament 

 made up its mind, in retaliation for the Tea Party, to 

 annul the charter of Massachusetts and starve the 

 town of Boston into submission, it was clear that such 

 a man as Hutchinson would not serve the purpose.. 

 For such measures of martial law a soldier was likely 

 to be needed, and the work was intrusted to Thomas 

 Gage. This change afforded Hutchinson the oppor- 

 tunity he had for some time desired, of going to Eng- 

 land in the hope of doing something toward putting 

 an end to these dreadful quarrels and misunderstand- 

 ings. Of the retaliatory measures he profoundly dis- 

 approved, and could he but meet the king face to face, 

 he hoped that his plea for Massachusetts might prove 

 not ineffectual. When on the morning of the first of 

 June, 1774, he left his charming home in Milton, with- 

 out the slightest premonition that he was never to see 

 it again, it was in the spirit of a peacemaker that he 

 embarked for England, but there were many who saw 

 in it the flight of a renegade. It was not in a moment, 

 however, that this view prevailed. In spite of all the 

 bitter conflict and misunderstanding that had come to 

 pass, a character so noble as Hutchinson's could not 

 all at once lose its hold upon honest men and women 

 who had known him for years in the numberless little 

 details of life that do not make a figure in political 

 history. The governor's heart was cheered, even if 

 his forebodings were not quieted, by formal addresses 

 from some of the leading townsmen of Milton and 

 Boston, in which his many services to the common- 

 wealth received their full meed of affectionate acknow- 

 ledgment. But events were now moving fast, and 



