But one of the most dangerous movements of this year was a claim advanced by Governor Hutchinson to the command of the Rhode Island forts and militia. This claim Rhode Island had contested when advanced by former governors, nor was she disposed to yield to it now. Still less was she disposed to accept a proposal which at this time came from Bristol under the signature, "A Friend to Property," to divide Rhode Island between Massachusetts and Connecticut, or ask that she should be made a royal government upon the ground that "an elective legislature must always be a source of disorder and corruption" in a small state. That Rhode Island was not disorderly nor corrupt was proved by the conduct of her courts. A merchant of Wrentham named David Hill was detected by the New York Committee of Inspection "in selling goods included in the non-importation agreements." By the persuasion of the committee he was prevailed upon "to deposit his goods with a merchant till the revenue acts should be repealed." But the suspicions of the people were excited, and they seized the goods and destroyed them. Hill finding in Rhode Island "property belonging to some of the committee," sued them in the Rhode Island courts, asserting that in giving up his goods he had acted upon compulsion. The sympathies of the courts and the people were against him. But, guided by the law and the evidence the Court of Common Pleas awarded him heavy damages and the Superior Court confirmed the award. In the next year when a new election came round and the voice of the people was heard, they also confirmed it by reëlecting the same men for judges. These righteous judges were Stephen Hopkins, James Helme, Benoni Hall, Metcalf Bowler and Stephen Potter. While these things were a doing the insolence of the officials employed in enforcing the revenue laws reached its highest point. The suppression of smuggling in Narragansett Bay was entrusted to Lieutenant Duddingston, of the Royal Navy, with two armed vessels--the Gaspee, a schooner of eight guns, and the Beaver. Not contented with performing the duties of his office, still vexatious even when considerately executed, he multiplied its annoyances by a thousand acts of petty tyranny. He stopped vessels of every kind without discrimination--ships just from sea, and market boats on their way to Providence and Newport with their perishable freights, and to increase the indignity refused to show his commission or the authority by which he acted. Admiral Montague, who commanded on the station, justified him in his oppression. Complaints were sent to England, but the day of complaint was past.