648 | To the Earl of Hillsborough

    No 10. Supplement

    Boston July 11 1768

    My Lord

    I find myself obliged to add a supplement to my Letter No 101 which I sent away to day by a Brig to Liverpool, the duplicate whereof will be inclosed with this. I had there informed your Lordship that 30 hogsheads of Molasses which had been seized for illicit trade, together with the Schooner it was in had been taken from thence out of the Custody of the Custom house officers who had the care of it. This Very Molasses was on the next day returned & put on board the Schooner again. The Account I have of this affair is this: The people of the Town were dissatisfied that the assurances which they had made, that the Sloop, which had been seized before this & put in the Custody of the Man of War, would have been safe, if she had been left at the Wharf in the care of a single Officer, should be so ^soon^ falsified.2 The select Men of the Town therefore sent for the Master of this schooner3 & upon his denying that he knew any thing of the Molasses, told him that would not pass: for no body would take away his Molasses without his privity; they thereupon ordered him to return the Molasses directly under pain of displeasure of the Town: which was immediately done. I dare say, neither the Custom house officers nor the Judge of the Admiralty, nor the Chief Justice nor the Governor could have prevailed upon any one to run the risk of informing where this Molasses was consigned or to assist in recovering it, if it had been against the humour of the people. But to serve a purpose of the people The Selectmen in a Summary Way can do the business in a trice. So We are not without a Government: only it is in the hands of the people of the Town, & not of those deputed by the King or under his Authority

    I am with great respect, My Lord, Your Lordships most obedient & most humble Servant

    Fra Bernard

    The right honble The Earl of Hillsborough

    The Letter to your Lordship is not printed in this days paper as was expected.4 I inclose a Letter from Maryland which gives great pleasure to the faction.5

    ALS, RC     CO 5/757, ff 307-308.

    Minor emendations not shown. Endorsed: Boston July 11. 1768 Govr. Bernard. (No. 10 Supplement.) R 24th August. A32. Enclosures: duplicate of No. 646; a copy of the Boston Evening-Post, 11 Jul. 1768, CO 757, f 309. Variants: CO 5/766, f 268 (L, RLbC); BP, 7: 1-2 (L, LbC); T 1/465, ff 192-193 (L, Copy); Letters to the Ministry (1st ed.), 41-42; Letters to the Ministry (repr.), 55-56. Hillsborough replied with No. 679.