Old Boston Days & Ways. Mary Caroline Crawford

      CHAPTER IV. WHEN EARL PERCY LIVED OPPOSITE THE COMMON

      OF course the enforcement of the Boston Port Bill worked great hardship to the town. Boston was preeminently a trading center and, with its commerce cut off, its warehouses empty and its ships idle at the wharves, thousands were thrown out of employment. The other towns along the coast line refused, however, to take advantage of Boston's plight, and relief was freely sent to the boycotted city.

      The legislature met now at Salem, for rebellious Boston could no longer be the seat of government, and to it came, soon after Gage had taken possession, a messenger to dissolve its sessions.

      The members, however, held the door against this messenger and, before he had had a chance to deliver his lord's decree, a call to the other colonies had been sent out, — and the first step toward the initial meeting of the Continental Congress had been taken. To its sessions in Philadelphia John and Samuel Adams were sent as delegates, the absence of the former giving us the first of those remarkable letters from Abigail Adams to which reference will be made later, and that of the latter supplying to Dr. Joseph Warren the opportunity to draw up at Milton, in the county of Suffolk, a series of resolves which fairly set on foot the Revolution.

      These resolves, nineteen in number, were by far the boldest doctrines ever adopted or promulgated in America, and probably did more than any one other thing to bring matters to a crisis. They declared that the sovereign who breaks his compact with his subjects forfeits their allegiance. They arraigned as unconstitutional the repressive acts of Parliament, and rejected all officers appointed under their authority.

      They directed collectors of taxes to pay over no money to the royal treasurer. They advised the towns to choose their officers of militia from the friends of the people.

      They favored a provincial congress, and promised respect and submission to the Continental Congress. They determined to act upon the defensive as long as reason and self-preservation would permit, but no longer.

      They threatened to seize every crown officer in the province as hostages if the governor should arrest anyone for political reasons.

      They also arranged a system of couriers to carry messages to town officers and corresponding committees. They earnestly advocated the well-known American principles of social order as the basis of all political action; exhorted all persons to abstain from riots and all attacks upon the property of any person whatsoever; and urged their countrymen to " convince their enemies that in a contest so important, in a cause so solemn, their conduct should be such as to merit the approbation of the wise, and the admiration of the brave and free of every age and country."

      No sooner had General Gage heard of the adoption of these resolves than he sent to England for more troops, and began that campaign of confiscation which ended in the fight of Lexington and Concord. Before we proceed to discuss the natural and inevitable outcome of these resolves let us, however, examine a little the state of mind of those other officers who were associated with Gage in the difficult task of putting down the Bostonians.

      The most interesting personality in the group was he whom we in America know best as Earl Percy, a man whose father had voted against the Stamp Act, who was himself opposed to the American war, but who yet felt it to be his duty to come to America with his regiment when orders to that effect were given. To this man we are able to come pretty close to-day for we are so fortunate as to have now available, — through the diligent scholarship of the late Edward Griffin Porter and the careful editing of Charles Knowles Bolton, — a number of letters sent by Percy to his kinsfolk in England during the period of his Boston service. On the voyage over he had written: "Surely the People of Boston are not Mad enough to think of opposing us," but three months later (July 5, 1774) we find him recording a fear " that we shall be obliged to come to extremities ... so extremely violent and wrong-headed are the people." A few days later he adds that "as General Gage received orders to remain at Salem, I have been left commanding officer of the camp.

      . . . The people here talk much & do little; but nothing, I am sure, will ever reestablish peace & quiet in this country, except steadiness & perseverance on the part of the Administration. . . . The people in this part of the country are in general made up of rashness & timidity.

      Quick and violent in their determinations, they are fearful in the execution of them unless, indeed, they are quite certain of meeting little or no opposition, & then, like all other cowards, they are cruel and tyrannical. To hear them talk you would imagine that they would attack us & demolish us every night & yet, whenever we appear, they are frightened out of their wits.

      They begin to feel a little the effects of the Port Bill & were they not supported by the other Colonies, must before this have submitted.

      One thing I will be bold to say, which is, that until you make their Committees of Correspondence and Congresses with the other Colonies high treason & try them for it in England, you must never expect perfect obedience & submission from this to the Mother Country."

      "This is the most beautiful country I ever saw in my life," writes Percy, under the head, "Camp of Boston, Aug. 8, 1774," "& if the people were only like it, we shd do very well.

      Everything, however, is as yet quiet, but they threaten much. Not that I believe they dare act."

      A week later, he felicitates himself upon having acquired, in the town of which he was now practically the ruler, " a good house to dine in (for we are all obliged to remain at other times & sleep in camp). By this convenience I am enabled to ask the officers of the Line & occasionally the Gentlemen of the country, to dine with me; & as I have the command of the Troops here, I always have a table of 12 covers every day. This, tho' very expensive, is however, very necessary."

      In a delightful little brochure called "Earl Percy's Dinner Table," Harold Murdock has pictured for us a typical dinner company at the headquarters of this hospitable host, — situated then at the corner of Winter and Tremont Streets, though there is evidence that, at one time, the young officer was entertained by William Vassall, on Pemberton Hill, in what was later known as the Gardiner Greene mansion. Mr. Murdock is a modern writer and there is no authentic document to support the list of "those present" which it has pleased him to draw up. But, so carefully and conscientiously has his little sketch been prepared, that I am very glad of his permission to quote from it here: "The house occupied by Percy . . .had been built early in the century, and its windows looked out upon the open pasturage of the Common. Through the thin foliage of those youthful elms which Mr. Paddock planted, loomed the crest of Beacon Hill, with its gaunt signal drawn like a gibbet against the sky, while more to the west and down the slope there was a glimpse of the bright waters of the Charles, with the wooded heights of Brookline and Newton beyond. The location was most convenient for the Earl, who was always within a stone's throw of the camps. It is pleasant to see him crossing the Common each afternoon to do the honors of his mansion, and day by day and week by week it is interesting to watch his guests passing in and out of the great door.

      It opens to officers in scarlet and gold, and to officers in the blue of the Royal Navy, to gentlemen in silks and brocades and to gentlemen in velvet and lace. Old Dr. Caner goes up the path, leaning upon his stick, the great coach of Colonel Royall lumbers up to the garden gate, the chaise of Judge Lee waits in Winter Street to carry His Honor back to Cambridge.

      "And now, as the darkness of an early spring day comes on, let us in imagination look into Earl Percy's dining-room and see what passes there. The newly lighted candles are burning brightly on the broad table around which the Earl's eleven guests are sitting at their ease, all but three in the