Britain, and called upon the Ministry to resent it upon a system, or to resign their offices.  Lord Barrington, who approved of the soldiers’ retiring to the Castle, said, that, “where there was no magistracy there should be no soldiers; and if they intended to have soldiers sent there again, they should provide for a magistracy, which could not be done but by appointing a royal Council, instead of the present democratical one.”  The Government were perplexed; but the expectation was general, that General Gage, without waiting for orders from the Government, would send a reinforcement to Boston, and order the whole of the troops into the town.  “Every one,” Governor Bernard wrote, “without exception, says it must be immediately done.  Those in opposition are as loud as any.  Lord Shelburne told a gentleman, who reported it to me, that it was now high time for Great Britain to act with spirit.”  The Governor advised Hutchinson, that, should it turn out that he had been successful in preventing Captain Preston from being murdered by the mob, “Government might be reconciled to the removal of the troops.”  There was much outside clamor, and those who indulged in it could not reconcile to themselves “six hundred regular troops giving way to two or three thousand common people, who, they say, would not have dared to attack them, if they had stood their ground”; and this class regarded the affair “as a successful bully.”  Colonel Barre, in the House of Commons, disposed of the question in a few words:  “The officers agreed in sending the soldiers to Castle William; what Minister will dare to send them back to Boston?”

These events stirred the public mind in the Colonies profoundly.  The Spirit evinced by the people of Boston in the whole transaction raised the town still higher in the estimation of the Patriots; annual commemorative orations kept alive the tragic scene; and thus the introduction of the troops, the question involved in their removal, and the massacre and triumph of the people, contributed powerfully to bring about that change in affections and principles which finally resulted in American Independence.

* * * * *

WET-WEATHER WORK.

BY A FARMER.

IV.

We are fairly on English ground now; of course, it is wet weather.  The phenomena of the British climate have not changed much since the time when the rains “let fall their horrible pleasure” upon the head of the poor, drenched outcast, Lear.  Thunder and lightning, however, which belonged to that particular war of the elements, are rare in England.  The rain is quiet, fine, insinuating, constant as a lover,—­not wasting its resources in sudden, explosive outbreaks.