The History of the Insurrections, by George Minot

debtors, betwixt the rich and the poor, between the few and the many. It was by this act that the citizens of Massachusetts, experienced, that retrospective laws were not a violation of their boasted constitution, in the opinion of their legislature ; and the multitude of debtors first felt from it, at an hour when their perplexities might lead them to an undue use of any advantage, that their creditors were under their control. Their principle rapidly increased, and pretences sprung out of it, in many instances, for stopping the execution of law in private cases, and, at length, for the bolder attack upon the courts themselves.

It must be acknowledged that the time when this law made its appearance, was critical. Insurrections had happened in the county of Hampshire, for the purpose of opposing both the Supreme Judicial Court, and the Court of Common Pleas at Northampton, in the month of April preceding ; a circumstance which seemed to operate both against and in favour of the act. On the one hand, the motions of the people were considered as evidence of their being oppressed, and demonstrated the necessity of alleviating measures : On the other, there was great danger of sacrificing to the complaints of a faction, what should be yielded only to the unquestionable voice of the