"While these roaring Lions and ranging Bears were in the midst of their Ravages; it was in the Month of April when we had News by the Edges concerning a Descent made upon England by the Prince of Orange for the Rescue of the Nations from Slavery and Popery; then a strange Disposition entred into the Body of our People to assert our Liberties against the arbitrary Rulers that were fleecing them. But it was much feared by the more sensible Gentlemen at Boston, that an unruly Company of Soldiers, who had newly deserted the Service in which they had bin employed for the Eastern War, by the gathering of their Friends to them to protect them from the Governor, who, they tho't, intended Nothing but Ruine to them, would make a great Stir, and produce a bloody Revolution. And therefore the principal Gentlemen in Boston met with Mr. Mather to consult what was best to be done; and they all agreed, if possible, that they would extinguish all Essays in our People to an Insurrection; but that, if the country People to the Northward, by any violent Motions push'd on the Matter so far as to make a Revolution unavoidable, then to prevent the shedding of Blood by an ungoverned Multitude, some of the Gentlemen present would appear in the Head of what Action should be done; and a Declaration was prepared accordingly. "On April 18, the People were so driving and furious, that unheaded they began to seize our public Oppressors: upon which the Gentlemen aforesaid found it necessary to appear that by their Authority among the People the unhappy Tumults might be a little regulated. And thro' the Goodness of God, although the whole Country were now in a most prodigious Ferment and Thousands of exasperated People in Arms were come into Boston, yet there was no Manner of Outrage committed; only the _Public Robbers_ that had lorded it over Us were confined. 'Twas then Mr. Mather appeared--He was the Instrument of preventing the Excesses into which the _Wrath of Man_ is too ready to run. He came, and like a Nestor or Ulisses reasoned down the Passions of the Populace. Had he lisped a Syllable for it, perhaps the People would, by a sudden Council of War, have try'd, judg'd and hang'd those ill Men who would have treated him otherwise. Nevertheless he set himself both publicly and privately to hinder the Peoples proceeding any further than to reserve the Criminals for the Justice of the English Parliament. "Now the Persecution which was intended for Mr. Mather was diverted; for on that very Day that he was to be committed to _Half a Year's Imprisonment_,[30] those that would have wrong'd him were justly taken into Custody: And yet so generous was he as not only to expose his Name, but even his Life unto the Rage of the Multitude for the saving of some that would have hurt him: Tho' he had no Thanks for his Ingenuity.