Would Thomas Hutchinson have had sympathy for Philippe Pétain? I was listening to a series of lectures on the American Revolution, and when Hutchinson and his early career was compared with what he did later as Lord Governor of Massachusetts, I couldn’t help thinking of 
Pétain. I’m not quite sure why; the analogy between the two is far from perfect. But I think maybe Hutchinson would have gone easy on the Marshal — each man was trying to make the best of a very bad situation in which he felt overwhelmed.
