them. Some of the members accused the worshipful magistrate of encouraging sedition and treason and rebellion; but the address was supported by a large majority, to which also the peers, after some animated speeches, gave their concurrence.

The supplies called for by the minister at this time, more especially as war was contemplated, were unusually moderate. He contented himself with moving for an addition of only two thousand seamen, and between four and five thousand soldiers, at the same time intimating that ten thousand men were intended for Boston. This conduct was arraigned by the opposition as a mode of inveigling the country, by small demands, into an ultimate concession of the means that were really adequate to carry on the war; and also directly fatal to the object of ministers themselves, who having determined on a system of coercion, ought to aim at its fullest benefit, by appearing at the outset with such a fleet and army as should at once preclude every idea of resistance from the minds of the Americans.

The augmentation of the forces, both naval and military, had scarcely passed, when lord North equally surprised both sides of the house by a conciliatory motion to the following effect: "That when the governor and assembly, or general court of his majesty's colonies, shall propose to make provision according to their circumstances for contributing their proportion to the common defence, such pro portion to be raised under their own authority and disposable by parliament, and shall also engage to provide for the support of the civil government, and the proposal shall be approved by the king in parliament, the forbearance shall be exercised with respect to such colony, of levying or imposing any further tax or duty, except such as may be expe dient for the regulation of commerce, the proceeds

of which last are to be carried to the account of the colony."

When the wonder excited by this motion had in some degree subsided, an opposition was raised to it by the minister's own friends, who regarded it as a contradiction to all the acts and declarations of parliament which he himself had promoted. Lord North was therefore at considerable pains to show, that it secured all the essential rights of taxation; at the same time acknowledging, that his object in it was to separate the best affected from the worst of the colonists; and the motion was carried by the customary majority.

On the 22d May, Mr. Burke, in a very celebrated speech, introduced his conciliatory propositions. He commenced with some important observations respecting government in the abstract, and the ends of government in general, with that of colonies in particular. He then proposed a set of resolutions framed for the purpose of establishing the justice of taxing America by grant, and not by imposition; the legal competence of the colonial assemblies for the purpose of their government in time of peace, and for raising aids in time of war; and the benefits arising from the exercise of such competence. The debate was then opened with the first resolution, which was an affirmation that the colonies in North America, containing upwards of two millions of free inhabitants, are not represented in parliament. The previous question being moved, after a long debate upon this proposition, it was carried by two hundred and seventy to seventy-eight, which decided the fate of all the rest.

While these discussions were going on in the British parliament, a provincial congress was sitting at Cambridge, in the territory of Massachusets, guided by the counsels of John Hancock and Samuel

Adams, which greatly influenced the proceedings of the other colonies. Arms were provided for selfdefence against the British troops; the militia were trained; and even the government stores were seized, that they might not be used against the people.

The city of London presented another petition to the king, by the hands of Mr. John Wilkes, then lord mayor, in which they expressed their abhorrence of the measures which had been pursued and were pursuing, to the oppression of their fellow subjects in the colonies; and praying for a dismission of ministers as a preliminary step towards a redress of those grievances which alarmed and afflicted the people. To this address his majesty was pleased to reply, "that it was with the utmost astonishment he found any of his subjects capable of encouraging the rebellious disposition which unhappily existed in some of his colonies in North America. Having entire confidence in his parliament, the great council of the nation, he would steadily pursue those measures which they had recommended for the support of the constitutional rights of Great Britain, and the protection of the commercial interests of his kingdom 2."

2 Annals of Great Britain, vol. i. Dodsley's Annual Register. Life of Lord Chatham. Short Review of the present Reign. Dr. Aikin's Annals of George III. Debates in Parliament.

CHAP. V.

Inflamed State of the Colonies....Massachusets' Congress.... General Gage's Expedition to Salem....Battle of Lexington. ... Investment of Boston.... Sittings of Congress at Philadelphia....Howe, Burgoyne, and Clinton arrive at Boston.... Washington appointed Commander-in-chief of the American Armies....General Gage's Proclamation....Battle of Bunker's Hill....Blockade of Boston....Lord Dunmore abandons the Government of Virginia....Declaration of Congress.... Petition to the King of England....Examination of Mr. Penn before the Lords....Invasion of Canada... Proceedings of Parliament.... Non-Intercourse Bill....Affairs of Ireland....Mr. Fox moves for an Inquiry into the Conduct of the War....Treaties of the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel and Duke of Brunswick....Motion of the Duke of Grafton....Dilatory Conduct of General Howe at Boston....Military Manoeuvres of Washington....Campaign in Canada....Sir Peter Parker proceeds to North Carolina.... Fails in an Attack on Sullivan's Island....Debates in Congress on the Question of American Independence....Thirteen Colonies declare themselves independent of Great Britain, July 4th, 1776....General Howe and Lord Howe vainly endeavour to carry into effect Lord North's conciliatory Bill....Replies of Washington and Franklin....Affair of the Village of Brookline.... Washington abandons the Defence of New York.... Success of the British Arms....Lord Cornwallis recalled by General Howe from pursuing the Americans....Capture of General Lee....Address of Congress to the Colonists....Washington crosses the Delaware and surprises a Body of Hessian Troops....Death of their commander, colonel Rall....Conduct of France and Spain towards the Americans....Meeting of Parliament....Bills brought in by Lord North....Payment of the King's Debts....Effort of Lord Chatham to stop the Progress of the War....Manoeuvrings between Howe and Washington....Action at the Brandywine....Burgoyne's Attack on Ticonderago....Surrender of his Army to General Gates....End of the Canadian Expedition....Depressed State of British Commerce....Declaration of the French Cabinet....Meeting of Parliament....Address of Lord Chatham on the King's Speech.

1775.

THE die was now cast for an appeal to the sword, and it became obvious to every reflecting mind that there was no longer any room for accommodation.

America was henceforth the point on which all the political interest of the British nation was centred. When the speech delivered from the throne at the opening of the session, with the addresses returned by such large majorities in both houses of parliament, reached the colonies, indignation and fury burst forth universally with a violence no longer to be controlled. It was now considered that the British government had trodden under foot the olive branch of peace, and was resolved to rule with a rod of iron; a design which every hand and heart united in the attempt to frustrate.

The provincial congress, assembling at Cambridge in the state of Massachusets on the 1st February, informed the people that they had now reason to believe that the most hostile measures were in progress against them; they exhorted them, therefore, in the most earnest manner, to expedite the training of the militia, and to lose no time in improving themselves by military exercises, with a view to the approaching crisis. Heightened as were the effects already produced on the public mind by this declaration, extremities, it is evident, could not long be deferred; and an expedition that was ordered to Salem, by general Gage, on the 26th of the same month, clearly demonstrated that the people of Boston only awaited a favourable moment for open resistance to the measures of the British government. Quarrels between the soldiers and the inhabitants were not unfrequent; but on the 19th of April, the standard of war was at length unfurled.

General Gage, finding himself deceived in his expectations of military stores at Salem, received information that a depôt of that kind was formed at Concord; and, resolving to secure its possession, he dispatched, during the night of the 19th, a detachment of nine hundred men, under the command of colonel Smith, upon that service. They marched