Men of spirit may be drawn, when they will not be forced—Sir Francis, instead of aiming his censures at individuals, directed them against whole bodies. Thus he charged the council with servility to the populace, the pleasing of whom, he said, was the rule of their conduct, and also both houses of the general assembly expressly, in his speeches, with oppugnation against the royal authority, declaring that they had left gentlemen out of the council, only for their fidelity to the crown. Such charges strengthened the hands of those whom he most opposed, by touching the honor of the whole. Had they been true, they should have been suppressed or mentioned only in private; but though the substance of them even was true, when applied to individuals, it might be otherwise when applied to the body, the majority of whom might act upon different principles. Political leaders frequently throw out motives, by which to catch and conduct the well-intentioned, differing from those by which they themselves are actuated. Sir Francis did not possess those mollifying arts which the ferment of the times required; and was more ready to aggravate disorders than to apologize for them. It was common for him in his official letters, to stile the opposition the faction, even while he owned that it comprehended the majority of the assembly. A parental governor would have thrown in many hints to have lessened the displeasure of persons in power, on account of offences committed at three thousand miles distance, under an enthusiastic attachment to the cause of liberty, at a period when divers outrages were perpetrated at home, by mobs in various parts of the kingdom. He evinced too great an inclination to make the worst of every thing; and at times hearkened to and transmitted the strangest rumours. He was a principal instrument in bringing the troops to Boston. It was a favorite measure with him and the lieutenant governor long before it was executed. While he professed himself a friend to the province, he was endeavoring to undermine its constitution, and to obtain an essential alteration in the charter, through an appointment of the council by the king, instead of its continuing in the election of the general court, where the representatives of the people necessarily carried it, whenever they united.