It was a question put by the chief magistrate of this province to the officer who commanded on that bloody evening. “Did you not know that you should not have fired without the order of a civil magistrate”. And it was sworn in court in the case of Capt. Preston, that he answered, “I did it to save my Sentry”: But whatever his answer was, or however “unsatisfactory” to his Honor, the question plainly implies that it was the judgment of his Honor, that the soldiers could not justify themselves in firing upon the people without the order of the civil magistrate. Yet they did fire without such orders, and killed five of his Majesty’s good subjects; most, if not all of whom were at that time, for aught that has yet appear’d, in the peace of God and the King! They not only fired without the orders of the civil magistrate, but they never called for one, which they might easily have done--They went down of their own accord, arm’d with musquets, and bayonets fix’d, presuming that they were cloath’d with as much authority by the law of the land, as the Posse Comitatus of the country with the high sheriff at their head--How little regard is due to the word fo a m--r, who would fain have flatter’d us into a belief that the troops were sent here to aid the civil magistrate, and were never to act without one? And let me observe, how fatal are the effects, the danger of which I long ago mention’d, of posting a standing army among a free people! If his Honor was not mistaken in his judgment, and I presume he was not, viz. that it was unlawful for them to fire without the order of the civil magistrate, they were certainly from the beginning, at least very imprudent and fool-hardy, in going down, arm’d as they were, with weapons of death, without the direction of the civil magistrate; especially, if they intended to fire, as I think it is manifest they did.-- When Captain Preston was asked, Whether the soldiers intended to fire, he answer’d they could not fire without his orders: No one will pretend that they had not strength or skill to pull their trickers; but by the rules of the army, their own rules, they were restrained from firing till he first gave them orders: Yet contrary to those very rules they all did fire; all but one, and he did all he could to fire, for his gun flush’d in the pan--it is said that when it was urg’d by the council for the crown, that by the rules of law they ought to have retreated if they were in danger of their lives; it was answered, that by the rules of the army they were chain’d as it were to their post--that they dared not to retreat without the orders of their captain--that in so doing they would have ‘expos’d themselves to a sentence of death in a court martial:’--Yet we have it from great authority that they would have been distracted if they had not fired, upon a supposition that they were in danger; altho’ by the same rules of war they could not have fired any more