in which it was stored.  Yet they secretly made sales, broke the lock, and delivered the teas.  This was done when the non-importation agreement was the paramount measure,—­when fidelity to it was patriotism, was honor, was union, was country,—­and when all eyes were looking to see Boston faithful.  “If this agreement of the merchants,” said “Determinatus” in the “Boston Gazette,” “is of that consequence to all America which our brethren in all the other governments and in Great Britain itself think it to be,—­if the fate of unborn millions is suspended upon it, verily it behooves not the merchants only, but every individual of every class in city and country to aid and support them, and peremptorily to insist upon its being strictly adhered to.  And yet what is most astonishing is, that some two or three persons, of very little consequence in themselves, have dared openly to give out that they will vend the goods they have imported, though they have solemnly pledged their faith to the body of merchants that they should remain in store till a general importation takes place.”  The merchants met in Faneuil Hall in a large and commanding gathering; for it was composed of the solid men of the town.  After deliberation, they proceeded in a body to the residence of the Lieutenant-Governor to remonstrate against the course of his sons.  Meantime, the ultra Loyalists pressed him to order the troops to disperse the meeting; the Commissioners savagely urged, that “there could not be a better time for trying the strength of the government”; and others said, “It were best to bring matters to extremities.”  The commanding officers of the troops now expected work, and prepared for it.  Dalrymple dealt out twelve rounds of cartridges to the men.  But Hutchinson involuntarily shrank from the bloody business of this programme.  He tried other means than force.  He appealed to the justices of the peace, and through the sheriff he commanded the meeting, in His Majesty’s name, to disperse.  But the intrepid merchants, in a written paper, in Hancock’s handwriting, averred that law warranted their proceeding; and so they calmly adhered to the action that patriotism dictated.  Hutchinson at length sent for the Moderator, William Phillips, of fragrant Revolutionary renown and of educational fame, and stipulated to deposit a sum of money to stand for the tea that had been sold, and to return the balance of it to the store.  The concession was accepted.  In explanation of his course, and with special reference to the action of the Commissioners in this case, Hutchinson pleaded a want of power, under the Constitution, to comply with their demand.  “They did not consider the Constitution,” he remarked, “and that by the Charter I can do nothing without the Council, the major part of whom are against me, and the civil magistrates, many of whom made a part of the body which was to be suppressed; so that there could not have been a worse occasion [to call out the troops], and I think anything tragical would have set the whole Province in a flame, and maybe spread farther.”