[154] upon the common, viz.:—That I will not execute any precept that shall be sent me under the new Acts of Parliament for altering the Constitution of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, and that I will recall all the venires that I have sent out under the new establishment. Cambridge, Sept. 2d 1774. David Phips. A true copy. Test, Nath. Cudworth, CL. Which was accepted as satisfactory.1About 8 o'clock, his Honor Lieut. Governor Oliver set off from Cambridge to Boston, and informed Governor Gage of the true state of matters and the business of the people;—which, as his Honor told the Admiral, were not a mad mob, but the freeholders of the County,—promising to return in two hours and confer further with them on his own circumstance as President of the Council. On Mr. Oliver's return, he came to the Committee and signified what he had delivered to the body in the morning, viz. that as the commissions of Lieut. Governor and President of the Council seemed tacked together, he should undoubtedly incur his Majesty's displeasure, if he resigned the latter and pretended to hold the former; and nobody appeared to have any objection to his enjoying the place he held constitutionally; he begged he might not be pressed to incur that displeasure, at the instance of a single County, while any other Counsellor held on the new establishment. Assuring them, however, that in case the mind of the whole Province, collected in Congress or otherwise, appeared for his resignation, he would by no means act in opposition to it. This seemed satisfactory to the Committee, and they were preparing to deliver it to the body, when Commissioner Hallowell came through the town on his way to Boston. The sight of that obnoxious person so inflamed the people, that in a few minutes above 160 horsemen were drawn up and proceeding in pursuit of him on the full gallop. Capt. Gardner of Cambridge first began a parley with one of the foremost, which caused them to halt till he delivered his mind very fully in dissuasion of the pursuit, and was seconded by Mr. Deavens of Charlestown, and Dr. Young of Boston. They generally observed that the object of the Body's attention, that day, seemed to be the resignation of unconstitutional counsellors, and that it might introduce confusion into the proceedings of the day if any thing else was brought upon the carpet till that important business was finished;
