distinction of "whig" and "tory" was often justly made, and veritable tories there were in all parts of the country; yet all were not tories that suffered as such. The enthusiasm of the whigs was not so blinding as to prevent all distinction between real and suspected opponents, but was an occasional blur before their eyes that prevented them sometimes from distinguishing nicely. Instances during the Revolution, illustrating the truth of this remark will occur to many of our readers. We should notice these mistakes of some of the Revolutionary patriots, in justice to the memory of men equally patriotic with them, though less excitable; men who were tories only in the imagination of the whigs. In the midst of the excitement of 1774 two of our townsmen were mobbed by a party of soldiers from Gorham. One of these, afterwards an inhabitant of the town, was Dr. Abiathar Alden, an undisguised tory, and a very unfortunate one. He was originally from Plymouth Colony, and about 1765, established himself in Saco, where he acquired a small practice as a physician, which, however, was soon lost when his offensive politics came between him and his patients. While living at Saco in this unpleasant condition, a party of thirty or forty soldiers went from Gorham "at the ill-judged instigation, it is said, of Col. Phinney," for the purpose of bringing the Doctor to account for his toryism. Taking him out of his house, and placing him on the top of a hogshead, they stood around with their guns pointed towards him, and required a recantation of his opinions, on pain of instant death if he should refuse. They then read to him a confession, stating that he had done wrong in justifying the proceedings of Parliament, expressing his sorrow for every act of opposition to the whigs of which he had been guilty, and promising that for the future he would be peaceable in his deportment, and aid the cause of liberty as much as might be in his power. After signing this confession, he was compelled to say: "This I heartily promise

and bind myself to, and am very thankful for my life." He was then set at liberty, a hotter tory, undoubtedly, than ever before. Immediately afterwards he removed to this town, and took the house next to Mr. King's on the Landing road.

During June 1774 Mr. King sent a vessel, under the command of Capt. Mulberry Milliken, to Salem with a load of lumber. On the 14th of May previous, General Gage had entered Boston, and on June 1st that port was closed according to the act of Parliament. Capt. Milliken, however, obtained a license in Salem, from some one in authority under Gage, to carry his lumber around to Boston; and as it was wanted there to build barracks for the King's troops, he sold it for a very satisfactory price. This transaction took place without the consent of Mr. King, he being entirely ignorant of it. Capt. Milliken acted altogether on his own responsibility, and was the only person concerned to whom any blame could be justly attached. But Mr. King's prudence had never allowed him to commit himself to the whole extent of the principles of the most ardent whigs; so that he had been for some time regarded by them with a good deal of suspicion, though they had not as yet been able to discover any pretext upon which they could attack him with the least show of justice. When then it was ascertained that his lumber had been converted into barracks "for the Regulars," an occasion was no longer wanting to them. Matters having been arranged with Col. Phinney and his Gorham junto, a company of forty men from that town, under the command of one Capt. Whitmore, marched to Dunstan to call Mr. King to account. Dr. Alden happening to be in Saco that day, heard there of the intended movement towards Dunstan, and immediately started for home to give Mr. King timely notice of their approach. Whitmore and his company were refreshing themselves at the bar of Milliken's Tavern, on the * Folsom's Saco and Biddeford p. 288.

corner of the Landing road when the Doctor appeared on his foaming horse evidently the bearer of some important news. The soldiers recognized their late victim, and, unable to resist the temptation to try the strength of his newly professed principles, stopped him in the road, rolled out a hogshead, and called on him to mount it and repeat his recantation. At first he refused to kneel, but the cocking of few muskets quickly brought him to his knees, and constrained him to comply with all their orders, in spite of a burning sense of their injustice.* Having amused themselves to their satisfaction with Dr. Alden, the soldiers proceeded to the Landing, where their Captain held a parley with Mr. King, and adjusted as well as he could their differences of opinion. To satisfy the soldiers, however, who seemed unwilling to let him off without an explanation in their own hearing, Mr. King was compelled to mount a table in front of his house, and to read (which he was allowed to do in a standing posture) a statement prepared by himself for the occasion. In the course of his reading he expressed the opinion, that the few and scattered inhabitants of this country had nothing to hope for in a contest with the first nation of the Old World, adding, that it was only his deep conviction of the truth of this, that kept him aloof from the whigs.

While

* "Is Dr. Alden with you? I heard of his being armed; hope he is upon no Quixotic plan. If the Dr. had not been possessed of the heroism and intrepidity of that renowned knight he would have yielded up the ghost before this." (Rufus King's letters to Dr. R. Southgate, 1777.)

As Mr King did not live to witness the result of the Revolution, he remained firm in this opinion until his death, and consequently, distrustful of the strong measures of opposition that were then being generally adopted by his countrymen. The only expression of his sentiments, respecting revolutionary topics, to be found amongst his papers is contained in the following, written in his own hand on a scrap of paper, and found in the midst of a parcel of old deeds and letters. As an argument from antiquity, against the expedient of calling in foreign aid in the Revolutionary struggle, it is very interesting." When foreign Nations pinched in War called on the Roman

repeating this part of his statement there was a rattling of arms amongst the soldiers, the meaning of which the Captain readily interpreted; and, rudely addressing Mr. King, said: "Down upon your knees, Sir, and erase that sentence; these soldiers can't endure the sentiment." Mr. King submitted, and the mob went away, apparently as well satisfied as if they had overcome the whole army of British soldiers, and so saved their country. The effect of this scene upon Mr. King was sad indeed to his friends, as it hastened the death of this truly excellent man. Being possessed of much loftiness of spirit, and a high sense of personal honor, the mortification to

Senate for aid, 'tis true she seldom failed to send them what she called, and they received as such; but it is as true that she thereby seldom failed to make the Conquerors, as well as the Conquered, her own Subjects or Tributaries in the End. Mankind are the same still, and our only Safety is in remaining firm to that Stock of which we are a Branch; and as a Prudent Man that guards against a Pestilential Air when a plague is in the City, so should we guard against those false Patriots of the present day who advise us to resist, break off and prevent that grand circulation whereby we are become a great Plant, contributing to the Strength and Glory of the Stock, whose Branches cover in every Quarter of the Earth and with our own united force able to repel at least, if not totally conquer, any unity or power that can be formed against us on Earth or Sea. When ancient Rome was in her glory, each private Senator looked down with contempt upon the greatest crowned Head amongst the Nations that surrounded her ; yet Rome in her Glory was but a small Republick when compared with the Strength, and Extent of Dominions possessed by the British Empire. Can we then who are the happy subjects, inhabiting a country nowise inferior to the Land of Promise, under a mild and free government, can we merely out of Frowardness because we are rebuked for spurning at the demand, and refusing to pay the three-pence duty on Tea, which is not a Necessary but a Luxury of life, can we think of calling in foreign aid, and exchanging our fair Possessions for Servitude, our liberties for an Inquisition, and content ourselves to drag out the remainder of our Days in wooden Shoes? Great God prevent our madness! Why then this calling to arms? Remember the Folly and Rashness of the Tribe of Benjamin; read the History in your own Houses, and let there not be a British Province wanting to Britain in America."

which he was subjected, together with bodily weakness, almost overturned his reason. Day and night his mind brooded over that scene of humiliation, until he became little else than an unhappy hypochondriac. His constitution, already enfeebled, could not long bear up under the weight of a crushed spirit; he died on the 28th of the following March, at the age of 57.

This petition was strongly op

It is creditable to our town that the soldiers concerned in this outrage were not her own citizens. It seems at first somewhat singular that they should have come from Gorham purposely to disturb Mr. King; but a single fact will explain this matter, and also show to what extent they were influenced by a disinterested regard for the welfare of their country. In 1770 the inhabitants of Gorham petitioned the General Court that the Province taxes, laid on them for several years previous to the incorporation of the town, might be remitted and replaced on the other towns in the County, which, they said, had enjoyed the benefit of them. posed before the Court by Mr. King in behalf of the townsmen of Scarborough. When, therefore, the transaction of Capt. Milliken in Boston afforded the desired opportunity, those who had been so highly offended at Mr. King's efficient labors against their petition, felt themselves constrained to punish him for toryism. But a short time before his death, Mr. King contrived a plan for the future relief of the town, which he intended to submit to the townsmen for their approval and adoption, but did not live to accomplish it. He left the paper in an unfinished state, yet it contains enough to show the character of the proposed relief. There can be no doubt that the townsmen would have adopted this method of preserving themselves from embarrassment had Mr. King lived to propose it to them. It is certain that they afterwards suffered through want of it. Mr. King's draught of these proposals is this: "Whereas the unhappy and deplorable Publick State of this Province appears