order, and stood under arms to defend themselves
against any further assaults, which there was
then great reason to apprehend. And now in-
deed dreadful evils might have ensued, and a
slaughter, less improperly to be stiled a
massacre
than the former, might in a few minutes have
been committed, if the principal persons of both
parties had not immediately interposed their au-
thority and influence to prevent any further mis-
chief. But by the endeavours of the
worthy
Lieutenant-governor
Hutchinson and the coun-
cil of the province on the one part, and of the
commanding officers of the two regiments on the
other, the people were persuaded to disperse, and
the soldiers to retire to their barracks.
After this account of the foregoing unfortunate
transaction, (which, when the reader shall have
compared it with the depositions from which it
is extracted, I flatter myself, he will judge to be a
fair one;) I presume that no impartial person will
be inclined to consider either the officer or sol-
diers who were concerned in it as guilty of wil-
ful murder of malice afore-thought. Whether
their conduct can be wholly justified in point of
law upon the principles of self-defence and the
obligations of military duty, I will not take
upon me to determine: I leave to others the dis-
cussion of those nice points of law. But if they
cannot be intirely justified, they ought at
least
to be considered as persons who has been pro-
voked by repeated insults and attacks to commit
a rash and hasty act of violence, and consequently