In the meantime James was having his own troubles. Because of an editorial attack by one of his contributors on the Massachusetts governor, James was summoned before the City Council, sent to jail for a month, and released only when he agreed to make an abject apology. The City Council then forbade him to print or publish the _Courant_. In desperation, James and his friends hit on the scheme of making Benjamin, in name only, the _Courant_ publisher. So it would be legal, James burned his brother’s apprenticeship papers, although privately a new set was drawn up.