" [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 123.]
The outbreak met with general condemnation, and Dr. Mayhew, who saw he had
gone too far, tried to excuse himself:--
"SIR,--I take the freedom to write you a few lines, by way of condolence,
on account of the almost unparalleled outrages committed at your house
last evening; and the great damage which I understand you have suffered
thereby. God is my witness, that, from the bottom of my heart, I detest
these proceedings; that I am most sincerely grieved at them, and have a
deep sympathy with you and your distressed family on this occasion."
[Footnote: Mayhew to Hutchinson. _Life of Mayhew_, p. 420.]
Nevertheless, the repeal of the Stamp Act, which pacified the laity, left
the clergy as hot as ever; and so early as 1768, when no one outside of
the inmost ecclesiastical circle yet dreamed of independence, but when the
Rev. Andrew Eliot thought the erection of the bishopric was near, he
frankly told Hollis he anticipated war.
"You will see by this pamphlet, how we are cajoled. A colony bishop is to
be a more innocent creature than ever a bishop was, since diocesan bishops
were introduced to lord it over God's heritage. ... Can the A-b-p, and his
tools, think to impose on the colonists by these artful
representations.... The people of New England are greatly alarmed; the
arrival of a bishop would raise them as much as any one thing.
Pages:
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535