During 1768 and 1769 we find record of the workings of political sentiments in the colonies in abundant publications.[209] The most important development in 1769 came from some letters which had been addressed by Governor Bernard and General Gage to the ministry, and to which, in the exercise of his rights as a member of Parliament, Alderman Beckford had obtained access and taken copies, subsequently delivered by him to Bollan, who transmitted them to Boston, where they were at once printed. From these letters the public learned of the urgency which the governor had used with the government to induce it to institute more stringent measures of repression.[210] The publication of these letters led to the printing of _An appeal to the world; or a vindication of the town of Boston, from many false and malicious aspersions contain'd in certain letters and memorials, written by Governor Bernard, General Gage [etc.]. Published by order of the town_ (Boston, 1769),[211] and induced also a letter to the Earl of Hillsborough.[212] [Illustration: WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. Fac-simile of the engraving in Sedgwick's _Life of William Livingston_. Cf. Lossing's _Field-Book_, i. 330.] There are in the _Sparks MSS._ (no. xx.) copies of annotations which Franklin, then in London, made on the margins and fly-leaves of sundry pamphlets, which just at this time were engaging attention in London, and these comments show how the struggle was regarded by a mind of Franklin's astuteness, amid the influences of the British capital. Sparks printed parts of these annotations in his _Familiar letters and miscellaneous pieces by Dr. Franklin_, and again in his edition of _Franklin_, vol. iv.[213] Some letters which passed between Franklin and William Strahan in 1769 are also of great interest.[214] The Boston Massacre of March, 1770, was the violent culmination of prevailing passions, and was in a measure induced by the sacrifice of life which resulted from the boarding by a press-gang from the "Rose" frigate of a ship belonging to Hooper, of Marblehead,[215] and by the riotous proceedings which, in Jan., 1770, brought about the death of the boy Snider.[216] Soon after the affray of March, the town of Boston published a _Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston_ (Boston, Edes and Gill, 1770),[217] which depicted the condition of the people at the time, and gave an appendix of depositions, including one of Jeremy Belknap.[218] Copies were sent to England at once,[219] but the rest of the edition was kept back till after the trial, when "Additional Observations" were appended.[220] The volume, thus completed, was reprinted in New York in 1849, with notes and illustrations by John Daggett, Jr.; and again in Frederick Kidder's _History of the Boston Massacre_ (Albany, 1870), which is the most considerable monograph on the subject.[221] [Illustration: FROM BICKERSTAFF'S BOSTON ALMANAC, 1769.