thousand pounds and an additional supply of three thousand arms were forwarded to Quebec; and, notwithstanding a caution from Barrington, word was sent to Carleton that it was "hoped the next spring to have in North America an army of twenty thousand men, exclusive of the Canadians and Indians." The king, as elector of Hanover, in August made the first contribution. By garrisoning Gibraltar and Minorca with five battalions of electoral infantry, he disengaged an equal number of British troops for service in America. The embarkation of the Hanoverians was courteously promoted by the senate of Hamburg. Not till the first of November did they sail.

The reply to Bunker Hill from England reached Washington before the end of September; and removed from his mind every doubt of the necessity of independence. So reasoned Greene; and the army was impatient when any of the chaplains prayed for the king. The general congress, which assembled in September, was undecided. Intercepted letters of John Adams, in which he had freely unbosomed his complaints of its tardiness and had thrown blame on Dickinson, brought upon the New England statesman the hostility of the proprietary party and of social opinion in Philadelphia. When a "jealousy of New England" broke forth in congress, and a member insinuated distrust of its people, "as artful and designing men, altogether pursuing selfish purposes," Gadsden answered: "I only wish we would imitate instead of abusing them; so far from being under any apprehensions, I bless God there is such a people in America.”

The prohibition by parliament of the fisheries of New England, and the restriction on the trade of the southern colonies, went into effect on the twentieth of July: as a measure of counteraction, the ports of America should have been thrown open; but, though secret directions were given for importing powder and arms from "the foreign West Indies," the committee on trade was not appointed till the twenty-second of September, and then hesitated to act.

The roll of the army at Cambridge had, from its first formation, borne the names of men of color, but as yet without legislative approval. On the twenty-sixth Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, moved the discharge of all the negroes in

the army, and he was strongly supported by many of the southern delegates; but the opposition was so determined that "he lost his point."

From an unconfessed want of effective power, the continental congress shrunk from taking into consideration the "inexpressibly distressing" situation of the commander-in-chief. At length a letter from him compelled attention to the critical state of his army. Powder, artillery, fuel, shelter, clothing, provisions, and the soldiers' pay were wanting; and, except the riflemen, all the troops, by the terms of their enlistment, must be disbanded on or before the end of December. For this state of things congress could provide no adequate remedy. On the thirtieth of September they therefore appointed Franklin, Lynch, and Harrison a committee to repair to the camp, and, with the New England colonies and Washington, to devise a method for enlisting the army anew.

Gage, on the tenth of October, embarked for England, and, on his arrival, was dismissed into retirement with high rank and its emoluments. The instructions to Howe, the new commander-in-chief, advised the transfer of the war to New York; but, from the advanced state of the season, and the want of sufficient transports, he decided to winter at Boston. Five days after the departure of Gage the committee from congress arrived at the camp. Franklin brought with him. the conviction that the separation from Britain was inevitable. His presence within sight of his native town was welcomed with affectionate veneration. "During the whole evening," wrote Greene, "I viewed that very great man with silent admiration." With Washington for the military chief, with Franklin for the leading adviser from congress, the conference with the New England commissioners, notwithstanding all difficulties, harmoniously devised a scheme for forming, governing, and supplying a new army of about twenty-three thousand men, whom the general was authorized to enlist without delay, yet not as he wished, for the war, but only for the next campaign. The proposed arrangements, in all their details, had the aspect of an agreement between the army, the continental congress, and the New England colonies; their successful execution depended on those four colonies alone.

After the conference broke up the committee remained two days, to advise with the general. On this visit Franklin confirmed the steadfast affection, confidence, and veneration of Washington.

Franklin was still at the camp when news from Maine justified his interpretation of the purposes of the British. In the previous May, Mowat, a naval officer, had been held prisoner for a few hours at Falmouth, now Portland; and we have seen Linzee, in a sloop-of-war, driven with loss from Glouces ter; it was one of the last acts of Gage to plan with the admiral how to wreak vengeance on the inhabitants of both those ports. The design against Gloucester was never carried out; but Mowat, in a ship of sixteen guns, attended by three other vessels, went up the harbor of Portland, and, after a short parley, at half-past nine, on the morning of the sixteenth of October, began to fire upon the town. In five minutes several houses were in a blaze; parties of marines landed to spread the conflagration. All sca-going vessels were burnt except two, which were carried away. St. Paul's church, the public buildings, and about one hundred and thirty dwelling-houses, three fourths of the whole, were burnt down; those that remained standing were shattered by balls and shells. By the English account, the destruction was still greater. At the opening of a severe winter, the inhabitants were turned adrift in poverty and misery. The indignation of Washington was kindled at these "savage crueltics," this new "exertion of despotic barbarity." "Death and destruction mark the footsteps of the enemy," said Greene; "fight or be slaves is the American motto." Sullivan was sent to fortify Portsmouth; Trumbull of Connecticut took thought for the defence of New London.

On the third of October one of the delegates of Rhode Island laid before congress their instructions of the preceding August to use their whole influence for building, equipping, and employing a continental fleet. This was the origin of our navy. The proposal met great opposition; but John Adams pursued it unremittingly, though "for a long time against wind and tide." On the fifth, Washington was authorized to employ two armed vessels to intercept British store-ships bound for Quebec; on the thirteenth, two armed vessels, of ten and

of fourteen guns, were voted, and, seventeen days later, two others of thirty-six guns. But much time would pass before their equipment; as yet congress established no court for "the condemnation of vessels taken from the enemy," nor was war waged on the high sea, nor reprisals authorized, nor the ports opened to foreign nations.

On the sixteenth the new legislature of Pennsylvania was organized. All of its members who were present subscribed the usual engagement of allegiance to the king. In a few days the Quakers presented an address, deprecating everything "likely to widen or perpetuate the breach with their parent state." To counteract this movement, the committee for the city and liberties of Philadelphia, sixty-six in number, headed by George Clymer and Mackean, went two by two to the statehouse and delivered their remonstrance.

Congress, for the time, was like a ship at sea without a rudder, rolling and tossing with every wave. One day would bring measures for the defence of New York and Hudson river, or for the invasion of Canada; the next, nothing was to be done that could further irritate Great Britain. The continuance of the army around Boston depended on the efficiency of all the New England provinces; New Hampshire remained without a government. On the eighteenth of October her delegates asked, in her behalf, that the general congress would sanction her instituting a government, as the only means of preventing the greatest confusion; yet the majority of that body let the month run out before giving an answer, for they still dreamed of conciliation through their last petition to the king.

CHAPTER XVII.

FINAL ANSWER OF THE KING TO AMERICA.

AUGUST-DECEMBER 1775.

THE Americans, entering most reluctantly on a war with Britain, preserved an instinctive feeling that the relations of affinity were suspended rather than destroyed; they held themselves called to maintain the liberties of the British people, as well as their own; and never looked upon the transient ministers who were their oppressors as the type of the parent country. The moment approaches when the king and parliament irreversibly rejected their last petition; to understand that decision, it is necessary to state precisely the question at issue.

The administration of numerous colonies, each of which had a representative government of its own, was conducted with inconvenience from a want of central unity; in war, experience showed a difficulty in obtaining proportionate aid from them all; in peace, the crown officers were impatient of owing their support to the periodical votes of colonial legislatures. To remedy this seeming evil, James II. consolidated all authority over the country north of the Potomac, and undertook to govern it by his own will.

The revolution of 1688 restored to the colonies their representative governments, and the collision between the crown officers and the colonial legislatures was renewed. Threats of parliamentary intervention were sometimes heard; but for nearly three quarters of a century no minister had been willing to gratify the pertinacious entreaties of placemen by disturbing America in the enjoyment of her liberties.

Soon after the accession of George III., the king, averse to