Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/322

 The case of the armed revenue schooner the Gaspé, excited fresh animosity. This vessel had proved very active in enforcing the revenue laws, and was consequently a source of annoyance to the shipping employed in Narragansett Bay. It was determined to destroy this vessel, and when a favorable opportunity offered, she was boarded—June 10th—while aground in a shoal place, and burned, by a party from Providence. Although a reward of £600 was offered for the discovery of the perpetrators of this outrage, and a free pardon to any accomplice, no evidence could be obtained against the parties concerned; a fact which shows, significantly enough, that opposition to the measures and policy of the English government was a settled matter on the part of the colonists.

The unpopularity of Hutchinson was not a little increased by a rather remarkable incident which occurred at this time. Franklin, who was now agent of Massachusetts, had had put into his hands, in some unexplained way, certain letters of Hutchinson and Oliver, written to a member of Parliament, since deceased. In these letters, Hutchinson had spoken very freely of the character and conduct of the popular leaders, and of the necessity of energetic measures being adopted to prevent the progress of " what are called English liberties." Franklin sent these letters to Massachusetts, with the express injunction under which he had laid himself, that they should not be copied or published. The effect produced, by these letters, on the public mind, when, soon after, they had found their way into print, was tremendous, and the General Court, in June, addressed a petition to the king for Hutchinson's speedy removal. Franklin, in the summer of the following year, was violently assailed before the privy council, by Wedderburne, the advocate for Hutchinson, and was charged with being a man of letters indeed, a homo trium literarum! the sting of which biting sarcasm for a long time rankled in the philosopher's mind. The petition for Hutchinson's removal was voted scandalous and vexatious, and Franklin was dismissed from his office of postmaster general.