Note 261 — Chapter I · (continued 2)

An account of it is given in Israel Mauduit's edition of The letters of Gov. Hutchinson, etc. (London, 1774), with an abstract of Wedderburn's speech. There is a description of this scene in Bowring's Memoir of Jeremy Bentham (p. 59; cf. Monthly Mag., Nov. 10, 1802, and Sparks's Franklin, iv. 451). Gage wrote from London to Hutchinson, Feb. 2, 1774, that no man's conduct was ever so abused for so vile a transaction as Franklin's. There is a letter of Burke on the hearing (Sparks MSS., xlix. ii.). There is a contemporary double-folio print, Proceedings of his majesty's Privy Council on the address of the Assembly of Mass. Bay to remove the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, with the substance of Mr. Wedderburn's speech (Mass. Hist. Soc.). The whole proceedings are given in Franklin before the Privy Council in behalf of the Province of Mass. Bay, to advocate the removal of Hutchinson and Oliver (Philad., privately printed, 1859). Arthur Lee has a word to say on the scene (Life of A. Lee, i. 240, 273). Franklin is said to have worn a suit of Manchester velvet during this castigation from Wedderburn, which he did not put on again till he signed the treaty of alliance with France in 1778 (Mahon, v. 328).