48 THOMAS HUTCHINSON 



in feeling uneasy about the vindictive acts of April, 

 and expressed, in guarded but emphatic terms, his dis- 

 approval of them and his wish that they might be 

 repealed ; but the king and Dartmouth felt sure that 

 Gage would soon mend matters so that there would 

 be no need for further harshness, and it was intended 

 that Hutchinson should presently return to Boston 

 and resume the office of governor. The king did not 

 regard him as superseded by Gage, and it is accord- 

 ingly right to call Thomas Hutchinson the last royal 

 governor of Massachusetts. A few weeks later the 

 king offered him a baronetcy, which he refused. He 

 cared little for such honours or emoluments as Eng- 

 land could give him. His heart was in Massachusetts. 

 Better a farmhouse there, he said, than the finest palace 

 in the Old World. Life in London was, nevertheless, 

 made pleasant for him by the society of the most cul- 

 tivated and interesting people, and he was everywhere 

 treated with the highest consideration. He now de- 

 voted his working hours to "the third volume of his 

 history, covering the period from 1750 to 1774. This 

 was, from the nature of the case, largely a narrative of 

 personal experience, and in view of what that experi- 

 ence had been, its fairness and good temper are simply 

 astonishing. The volume remained in manuscript until 

 1828, when it was published in London by one of the 

 author's grandsons. His diary and letters covering 

 the period of his life in London have been published 

 in two volumes by a great-grandson, since 1884, and 

 amply confirm the most favourable view that can be 

 taken of his character and motives. These documents 

 give a most entertaining v ; ew of the state of opinion 

 in London, as the fragmentary tidings of the war found 



