congenial duty of 'honouring the king, and all that
are put in authority under him.'

Dr Myles Cooper, the president of King's College, took
up similar ground. God, he said, established the laws of
government, ordained the British power, and commanded
all to obey authority. 'The laws of heaven and earth'
forbade rebellion. To threaten open disrespect of government
was 'an unpardonable crime.' 'The principles of submission
and obedience to lawful authority' were religious duties.

But even Jonathan Boucher and Myles Cooper did not apply
these doctrines without reserve. They both upheld the
sacred right of petition and remonstrance. 'It is your
duty,' wrote Boucher, 'to instruct your members to take
all the constitutional means in their power to obtain
redress.' Both he and Cooper deplored the policy of the
British ministry. Cooper declared the Stamp Act to be
contrary to American rights; he approved of the opposition
to the duties on the enumerated articles; and he was
inclined to think the duty on tea 'dangerous to
constitutional liberty.'

It may be confidently asserted that the great majority
of the American Loyalists, in fact, did not approve of
the course pursued by the British government between 1765
and 1774. They did not deny its legality; but they doubted
as a rule either its wisdom or its justice. Thomas
Hutchinson, the governor of Massachusetts, one of the
most famous and most hated of the Loyalists, went to