[175] Russel.
[176] Minot. Belknap. Belsham. Russel.
[177] History of South Carolina and Georgia.
[178] After the expulsion of the French from Canada, a considerable degree of ill humour was manifested in Massachusetts with respect to the manner in which the laws of trade were executed. A question was agitated in court, in which the colony took a very deep interest. A custom house officer applied for what was termed "a writ of assistance," which was an authority to search any house for dutiable articles suspected to be concealed in it. The right to grant special warrants was not contested; but this grant of a general warrant was deemed contrary to the principles of liberty, and an engine of oppression equally useless and vexatious, which would enable every petty officer of the customs to gratify his resentments by harassing the most respectable men in the province. The ill temper excited on this occasion was shown by a reduction of the salaries of the judges; but no diminution of attachment to the mother country appears to have been produced by it.
[179] Belsham.
[180] Belsham. Minot.
[181] Minot.
[182] 100,000l. sterling.
[183] Mr. Pitt was not in the house; and Mr. Ingersoll, in his letter, states that Alderman Beckford joined General Conway. Mr. Belsham, therefore, who makes this statement, was probably mistaken.
[184] See [note No. III], at the end of the volume.