Life of Count Rumford. 59 



the intimacy ^n which he was supposed to stand with 

 the other, the return of the deserters, and any degree 

 of unpopularity which he may have had with his towns- 

 men, Thompson had probably spoken his mind with 

 some freedom, in a way to check the rising spirit of 

 the people, in palliation of the measures of the King 

 and ministry, and- in distrust of the ability and success 

 of the resistance which was to be made.. This, I am 

 inclined to thinh, was the extent of his " Toryism," 

 aggravated by his youth, and perhaps not relieved by 

 any modesty of utterance, caution, or deference. There 

 were- inflammable materials around him. There were 

 very many older and far more conspicuous men than 

 himself who, in the earliest stage of the revolutionary 

 struggle, were forced against their own inclinations to 

 take side with the royalist party, because they had 

 spoken some hasty or deliberate words of hesitancy, 

 and had been roughly treated for them. 



The actual rupture into hostilities against the British 

 authority and arms had come suddenly, especially in 

 New Hampshire, where, notwithstanding, it was de- 

 cisive. Governor Wentworth had himself been quite 

 popular in his Province. Before he had succeeded his 

 uncle in his office, he had been strongly opposed to 

 every measure of Great Britain which was regarded as 

 encroaching upon our liberties. He had even been 

 sent to England as the agent of the Assembly to pro- 

 cure the repeal of the Stamp Act ; and he had shown 

 a great deal of public spirit in his efforts and measures 

 to improve the Province by opening and settling its 

 interior and fostering its rising college. Mr. Thompson 

 might well allege, as he did, the fact that Governor 

 Wentworth, when he made him his friend, was warmly 



\ 



