Item #25080 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE HIS EXCELLENCY FRANCIS BERNARD, ESQ; GOVERNOR AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF, THE HONOURABLE HIS MAJESTY'S COUNCIL, AND THE HONOURABLE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, OF THE PROVINCE OF THE MASSACHUSETTS-BAY IN NEW-ENGLAND, MAY 25TH. 1763. BEING THE ANNIVERSARY FOR THE ELECTION OF HIS MAJESTY'S COUNCIL FOR SAID PROVINCE. Thomas Barnard.

A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE HIS EXCELLENCY FRANCIS BERNARD, ESQ; GOVERNOR AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF, THE HONOURABLE HIS MAJESTY'S COUNCIL, AND THE HONOURABLE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, OF THE PROVINCE OF THE MASSACHUSETTS-BAY IN NEW-ENGLAND, MAY 25TH. 1763. BEING THE ANNIVERSARY FOR THE ELECTION OF HIS MAJESTY'S COUNCIL FOR SAID PROVINCE.

Boston: Richard Draper, 1763. 45, [3 blanks] pp, without the half title. Disbound. Light foxing, small rubberstamp number '90' at blank lower margin of title page. Good+.

Barnard says the right of suffrage at the annual elections brings Massachusetts "nearer to that of the happy Island from whence we originated, than that of any other of the British Plantations." He expresses confidence in Governor Bernard but warns that arbitrary power is illegitimate: rulers hold their positions provisionally only, with the consent of the governed.
Governor Bernard held office at a challenging time, during the decade of the 1760's, and had little success in persuading colonists of the justice of the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Writs of Assistance, and the quartering of soldiers in Boston. Imperfectly predicting the future-- to say the least-- Barnard observes, "Now commences the Aera of our quiet Enjoyment of those Liberties" that are the prerogatives of Englishmen. But he reviews the difficult path that the colonists have walked to achieve their rights and says, "The dearer and more valuable the Rights they had earned, the more gloomy the Fore-thought of losing them."
FIRST EDITION. Evans 9334. ESTC W29291. Item #25080

Price: $350.00

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