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Rh the townspeople, and thus led to the famous "Tea-party" in 1773. The excitement and disorder that followed this affair practically terminated Governor Hutchinson's official career. In view of the warlike aspect of the colony, General Gage was sent to assume control, and Hutchinson sailed for England on June 1, 1774.

He was assured that when the trouble in the colonies should be quelled he should be reinstated in his office. For the best of reasons this promise was never fulfilled. In England he was treated with great honor and esteem, and enjoyed a pension from the crown. He was much consulted by the government as an authority on American affairs, but his opinions were often distorted by his prejudices; as, for example, when he expressed his conviction that the colonists would not fight against British forces, and that a few troops would be sufficient to quell them if they did resist. The loss of all his property in America reduced him to comparative poverty in his later days, which his pension did not adequately relieve. He lived in anxious contemplation of the course of events in his native land, but died in 1780, before the final collapse of the royal cause.

Governor Hutchinson's literary work, outside of the papers which he wrote in his official capacity, was chiefly in connection with colonial history and politics. The "History of Massachusetts Bay" was his greatest work. Of its three volumes, the first two, bringing the history down to 1750, were published between 1760 and 1770. The third volume, completing the work up to 1774, did not appear till after his death. The character of Thomas Hutchinson, both as a statesman and a historian, has generally been underrated in the United States on account of his tory polities. At the present time students are inclined to do more justice to him in both respects.