put the most unfavourable construction on whatever was said or done by the colonists.
Conway had in June, pursuant to the resolution of the two Houses, directed the several colonial governors to recommend their assemblies to compensate the sufferers by the riots. Bernard, Governor of Massachusetts—then, as usual, engaged in a variety of petty disputes with the House of Assembly—took occasion to use the word "require" instead of "recommend" in his address to that Assembly, although the former word had been abandoned by the House of Lords after a long struggle with the House of Commons on the exact wording of the resolution.[1] Indignation was universal, and when in October the Assembly received petitions from the sufferers, Joseph Hawley of Northampton proposed to grant relief only on condition of a general pardon to the rioters. An adjournment took place in order to give time to the members to consult their constituents. Meanwhile the Rockingham Administration had fallen, and the agent of Massachusetts informed his employers that the attitude of the new Secretary of State was very conciliatory, for he had told him "to assure the Assembly of Massachusetts that they might be perfectly easy about the enjoyment of their rights and privileges under the present administration."[2]
Shelburne at once redeemed the pledges he had given. "His Majesty," he writes to Bernard, " is extremely sorry to observe any degree of ill-temper remaining in his Colony of Massachusetts Bay, or that points should be so improperly agitated as to tend to the revival of disputes which every friend to America must wish to be forgotten. They have seen the Parliament of Great Britain give due attention to all well-founded complaints of the Provinces, notwithstanding they appeared to them in some parts not so properly urged. Though the Legislature will certainly on all just occasions exercise and enforce its Legislative power
