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��Early History of the Bermuda Islands.
��sonable conduct, commented on it in his message to the assembly in no measured terms. Some intercepted correspondence with the rebels added fuel to the flame, and on the fifteenth of August, I 781, he addressed them in a speech which could not fail to be offen- sive, although it contained much sound argument. This was followed by a mes- sage more bitter and acrimonious, all of which they treated with silent contempt, until the twenty-eight of September, when they discharged their wrath in an address, in which the Governor was handled most roughly for his attacks on the inhabitants of these islands. In return he addressed a message, equally uncourteous in its tone, and dissolved the house.
The arrival of William Bro\\Tie, whose administration commenced the fourth of January, 1 782, put an end to Mr. Bruere's rule.
The high character of the new Gov- ernor had preceded him in the colony, and he was joyfully received on his ar- rival. He was a native of Salem, Massa- chusetts, and was high in office previous to the Revolution, was Colonel of the Essex regiment, judge of the Supreme Court, and Mandamus Counselor. After the passage of the Boston Port bill, he was waited on by a committee of the Essex delegates, to inform him, that " it was with grief that the country had viewed his exertions for carrying into execution certain acts of parliament calculated to enslave and ruin his native land ; that while the country would con- tinue the respect for several years paid him, it resolved to detach, from every fu- ture connection, all such as shall persist in supporting or in any way countenanc- ing the late arbitrary acts of Parliament ; that the delegates in the name of the country requested him to excuse them from the painful necessity of consider-
��ing and treating him as an enemy to his country, unless he resigned his office as Counsellor and Judge." Colonel Browne replied as follows :
" As a judge and in every other capac- ity, I intend to act with honor and in- tegrity and to exert my best abilities ; and be assured that neither persuasion can allure me, nor menaces compel me, to do anything derogatory to the char- acter of a Counselor of his Majesty's province of Massachusetts." — William Browne.
Colonel Browne was esteemed among the most opulent and benevolent indi- viduals of that province prior to the Revolution ; and so great was his popu- larity that the gubernatorial chair of Massachusetts was offered him by the " committee of safety," as an induce- ment for him to remain and join the " sons of liberty." But he felt it a duty to adhere to government ; even at the expense of his great landed estate, both in Massachusetts and Connecticut, the latter comprising fourteen valuable farms, all of which were afterwards confiscated.
By preferring to remain on the side representing law and authority, and un- willing to adopt the course of the revo- lutionists, this courtly representative of an ancient and honorable family, this sincere lover of his country, this skilled man of affairs, this upright and merciful judge, once so beloved by his fellow townsmen, drew upon himself their wTath, and he fled from his native coun- try never to return again. First he sought refuge in Boston in 1774, then in Halifax, and from there he went to England in 1776, where he remained till 1 781, when he was appointed Gov- ernor of Bermuda, as a slight return for his great sacrifices and important ser- vices in behalf of the Crown. Colonel Browne married his cousin, the daughter
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