The stationing of troops in _Boston_ might afford greater personal security to the commissioners than what they could otherwise have enjoyed, and might induce them or their underlings to exceed the bounds of their commission, or of prudence, but could not prevent smuggling, or protect informers from insult and abuse. Even skippers, bound to different parts of the colony, had their vessels stopt and libelled, for having uncleared articles of trifling consequence on board. Persons who ventured to lodge informations, when discovered, were often subject to a treatment which gave them a ridiculous appearance, and laid them under a difficulty to clear themselves of the dress imposed upon them. They were stripped, well tarred, and then covered with feathers. The punishment took so with the lower class of people, that afterward it was not confined to informers, but was also applied by them to others who offended their dread majesty. There was a degree of intemperance and indiscreetness on the part of the commissioners and custom-house officers, which tended to irritate; whereas the utmost lenity and forbearance were requisite in order to general tranquility. Mr. _Eliot_, at _New-York_, where smuggling was as prevalent as at Boston, found it necessary to wink at many irregularities, that he might prevent disturbances and ill humor among the body of merchants. The commissioners expressed their dissatisfaction, and wanted him to alter his line of conduct: he stated the case to a friend at home, and by his influence was secured from such like directions in future. They transmitted to Britain such representations of Mr. _Otis_, jun. as provoked him to insert a publication in the Boston gazette, which brought on an affray at the coffee-house between him and Mr. _Robinson_, one of the commissioners, from the latter’s attempting to pull the other by the nose, because of some expressions in the said publication. Mr. Robinson being in danger of coming off with the worst, several of the company fell upon Mr. Otis; some of whom held him, while others struck him with canes or different weapons. A friend passing along, observed what was doing, pressed in and rescued Mr. Otis, though he himself suffered considerably from the assailants. The noise soon drew multitudes about the house, when Mr. Robinson and his associates prudently retreated by means of a backdoor.[101] This procedure of the revenue officers (for no military one was present) opened a large field of altercation and multiplied quarrels, which were before too frequent between the king’s officers and the leaders of opposition.