“That government was insufficient to restrain, suppress or punish the several mobs, which had been assembled since the fourteenth of August, 1765; and that at the time of the commissioners retiring to the castle, there was no probability that the same authority could have had any greater force: “That they could not have returned to town, and executed their commission with safety, at any time after they withdrew, before the arrival of his majesty’s troops: “And that they knew of no better measure that they could have taken, than retiring to Castle William.” Mr. _Temple_ was excepted, for he was not obnoxious to the populace, being averse to the establishment of the board of commissioners, which lessoned both his salary and his power. He wished the dissolution of it and to be restored to his former place of surveyor general of the customs. Though the rest of the commissioners could not have returned to have executed their commission with safety, they might most probably have returned and been safe, had they declined executing the same, which however was not to be expected. They continued at, but were not confined to the castle. They rode adout the country at pleasure, without any interuption from the people. [June 15.] The commissioners wrote to general Gage, colonel Dalrymple, and commodore Hood, desiring troops to support them in their office. Whatever this application might contribute toward the sending of them, yet it certainly did not give rise to it. Measures had been taken to procure them long before. Mr. _Paxton_, when in London the preceding year, told Mr. _Bollan_ repeatedly, that Mr. _Hutchinson_ and some other of his friends were of opinion, that standing troops were necessary to support the authority of the government at Boston; and that he was authorised to inform him of this their opinion. Most probably he was authorised to inform others also. Mr. _Bollan_ was against sending troops, and when there was a talk of doing it, endeavoured to prevent it, and freely related to a gentleman of considerable influence, what some of the principal merchants said, that they who should send over the standing troops, would certainly be cursed to all posterity.[98] But the disposition of some to try the experiment was strengthened by a letter from the commissioners to the lords of the treasury, received before the riot happened; and rendered efficacious upon the arrival of governor _Bernard_’s letters at the secretary’s office, especially that of March, giving an aggravated detailed account of a terrible disturbance on the joyous anniversary of the repeal of the stamp act, which general _Gage_, in his letter of October to Lord _Hillsborough_, declared, from the best intelligence he could procure, to have been trifling. When the matter came to be considered, it was agreed to send troops to Boston. Accordingly, Lord _Hillsborough_, in his secret and confidential letter to Gen. _Gage_, [June 8.] wrote, “I am to signify to you his majesty’s