support of the gospel, yet content and disposed to lead peaceable lives. From misinformations only, we would conclude, recent disgusts have arisen. They need not be mentioned, they are too well known; their voice is gone out through all the earth, and their sound to the end of the world. The enemies of Great Britain hold us in derision while her cities and colonies are thus perplexed. America now pleads her right to her possessions, which she cannot resign while she apprehends she has truth and justice on her side. "Americans esteem it their greatest infelicity that, through necessity, they are thus led to plead with their native state-the land of their forefathers' nativity-whose interest has always been dear to them, and whose wealth they have increased by their removal more than their own. They have assisted in fighting her battles, and greatly enlarged her empire, and, God helping, will yet extend it through the boundless desert, until it reach from sea to sea. They glory in the British Constitution, and are abhorrent, to a man, of the most distant thought of withdrawing their allegiance from their gracious sovereign, and being an independent state. And though, with unwearied toil, the colonists can now subsist upon the labours of their own hands, which they must be driven to when deprived of the means of purchase, yet they are fully sensible of the mutual benefits of an equitable commerce with the parent country, and cheerfully submit to regulations of trade productive of the common interest. These their claims the Americans consider not as novel, or wantonly made, but founded in nature, in compact, in right as men and British subjects, the same which their forefathers, the first occupants, made and asserted as the terms of their removal with their effects into this wilderness, and with which the glory and interest of their King and all his dominions are connected. May these alarming disputes be brought to a just and speedy issue, and peace and harmony be restored. "But while, in imitation of our pious forefathers, we are aiming at the security of our liberties, we should all be concerned to express by our conduct their piety and virtue, and in a day of darkness and general distress, carefully avoid everything offensive to God and injurious to men. It belongs not only to rulers, but subjects also; to set the Lord always before their face, and act in His fear. While under Government we claim a right to be treated as men, we must act in character by yielding that subjection which becometh us as men. Let every attempt to secure our liberties be conducted with a manly fortitude, but with that respectful decency which reason approves, and which alone gives weight to the most salutary measures. Let nothing divert us from the paths of truth and peace, which are the ways of God, and then we may be sure that He will be with us, as He was with our fathers, and never leave nor forsake us." Whitefield Amidst these sharp contentions, Whitefield paid his last visit to New England. Hopkins welcomed him on August 3 as a guest at the Old Newport parsonage. At five o'clock on at Newport. the afternoon of August 4, he preached to a very crowded audience at Mr. Hopkins's Meeting House, from Ps. li. 11-"Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." A young Jewess heard him, "and greatly admired his preaching the gospel of Christ." On the next morning, the Sabbath, he preached for Dr. Stiles, from Job xxii. 21-" Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace." At six o'clock in the afternoon, he preached from 1 Cor. iii. 11, in the fields adjoining Mr. Hopkins's Meeting House, to a thousand or fifteen hundred hearers. While preaching, he stood on a table, which is still preserved. On August 7, he preached at five o'clock p.m., from Zech. ix. 12, at Mr. Thurston's Baptist Meeting House, to an audience of thirteen hundred within the walls, and four or five hundred without. After preaching, he dined at Major Otis's, with Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Thurston, and Dr. Stiles. At six o'clock on the next morning, he preached from Gen. i. 2, to eleven hundred hearers, in Mr. Hopkins's Meeting House. After service, he dined with Messrs. Hopkins, Thurston, Stiles, and Rusmeyer, the Moravian pastor in Newport, at the house of Mr. John Manton, a Quaker.* These particulars, gleaned from the "Diary of Ezra Stiles," seem almost out of place in the narrative; but the interruption is transient, and we return to the political fray. the manoeuvre. To induce the colonists to yield the principle of Parliamentary taxation, opportunity was taken to send a supply of tea from the accumulated stores of the East Company to the American ports, remitting the ordinary charges, and fixing a small duty, so that the people might purchase the commodity at the cheapest rate. But they were not to be deceived by When the ships arrived at Boston, the inhabitants resolved to resist the landing of the tea. The captains were advised by them to return to England, but the Governor refused a pass to the ships. Having waited at a public meeting (Dec. 16, 1773) several hours to receive his answer, the people, incensed by his perverseness, at the signal from a person dressed as a Mohawk Indian, rushed down to the quays. Seventeen men, disguised as Mohawks, boarded the tea-ships, and in about two hours broke open three hundred and forty-two chests of tea, and tossed their contents to the waves, and then retired peaceably to their homes. Chests of Tea Boston Letters of The letters of Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Cushing at this juncture are highly characteristic. He speaks of the Secretary of the Board Benjamin of Trade as "proud, supercilious, and extremely conceited (moderate as they are) of his political knowledge and abilities." Franklin. * Memoir of Hopkins, by Professor Park. "This man's mandates," he adds, "have been treated with disrespect in America. His letters have been criticised, his measures censured and despised, which has produced in him a kind of settled malice against the colonies, particularly ours, that would break out with greater violence if cooler heads did not set bounds to it. "All views or expectations of drawing any considerable revenue to this country from the colonies are, I believe, generally given over, and it seems probable that nothing of that kind will ever again be attempted. But as foreign courts appear to have taken great pleasure in the prospect of our disunion, it seems now to be thought necessary, for supporting the national weight and the influence of our Court abroad, that there should be an appearance, as if all was pacified in America; and, as I said before, I think the general wish is that it may be really so. But then there is an apprehension lest a sudden yielding to all our claims should be deemed the effect of weakness, render the British Court contemptible in the eyes of foreigners, make us more presumptuous, and promote more extravagant demands such as could never be granted, and thence still greater danger of a fatal rupture. I am thus particular that you may judge whether it will not be prudent in us to indulge the mother country in this concern for her own honour, so far as may be consistent with the preservation of our essential rights, especially as that honour may in some cases be of importance to the general welfare; and in this view, whether it will not be better gradually to wear off the assumed authority of Parliament over America, which we have in so many instances given countenance to with our indiscreet acknowledgment of in public acts, than by a general open denial and resistance to it, bring on prematurely a contest to which, if we are not found equal, that authority will in the event be more strongly established; and if we should prove superior, yet by the division the general strength of the British nation must be greatly diminished. I do not venture to advise in the case, because I see in this seemingly prudent course some danger of diminishing attention to our rights, instead of a persevering endeavour to recover and establish them; but I rely a good deal on the growing knowledge of them among the Americans, and the daily increasing strength and importance of that country to this, which must give such weight in time to our just claims, as no selfish spirit on the part of the empire will be able to resist. In the meantime, while we are declining the usurped authority of Parliament, I wish to see a steady, dutiful attachment to the King and his family maintained among us, and that, however we may be induced, for peace' sake, or from a sense of our inability to submit at present, in some instances, to the exercise of that unjust authority, we shall continue from time to time to assert our rights in occasional sober resolves and other public acts, never yielding them up, and avoiding even the slightest expression confirmatory of the claim that has been set up against them. "I was glad to see that attention in the general court to an improvement in the militia. "I have lately been among the clothing towns in Yorkshire, and by conversing with the manufacturers there, am more and more convinced of the natural impossibility there is, that considering our increase in America, England should be able much longer to supply us with clothing. Necessity therefore, as well as prudence, will soon induce us to seek resources in our industry." LONDON, January 13, 1772. "I am now returned again to London from a journey of some months in Ireland and Scotland. Being desirous of seeing the principal patriots in Ireland, I stayed till the opening of their Parliament. I found them disposed to be friends of America, in which disposition I endeavoured to confirm them, with the expectation that our growing weight might in time be thrown into their scales, and by joining our interest with theirs, might be obtained for them as well as for us, a more equitable treatment from this nation. There are many brave spirits among them. The gentry are a very sensible, polite, and friendly people." * Measures were taken everywhere to prepare for the coming contest. A committee of correspondence, consisting of distinguished men in for the com- the province, set forth an agreement, called "a solemn league and covenant,” copies of which were sent in all directions, and were Preparations ing conflict. * S. P. Col. |