had oppressed the public so as to be felt by all degrees. Such amazing numbers were benefitted by the measures of ministry, that till defeats, disappointments and losses of every kind, had disabled them from pursuing their schemes any longer, they were sure of a ready support from those whom they employed in their execution. For these reasons they judged it necessary to refuse their presence to transactions which they disapproved, and could not hinder; but whenever they perceived that adversity had, as usual, opened the eyes of men, they would then come forth anew, and endeavor, if possible, to remedy the evils which it was not at present in their power to prevent.

The strength of ministry was now so decisive, that whatever was proposed, was immediately approved and carried, without any opposition or debate.

A bill was brought in for granting letters of marque and repri sals against the Americans. This was followed by another to em power the crown to secure such persons as were accused or suspected of high treason (committed either in America or at sea) or of piracy. By the provisions of this bill, they were liable to be detained in custody without bail or trial, while the law continued in force; it was reserved solely to the privy council to admit them to either. His majesty was also empowered by warrant, to appoint one or more places of confinement within the realm, for the custody of such prisoners.

This bill spread a general alarm through the metropolis; and a petition was presented by the city against it, condemning the measures proposed in it, as violent and unconstitutional, sub versive of the sacred and fundamental rights of the people, sub jecting them to the most cruel oppression and bondage, and introductive of every species of mischief and confusion. The petition was ordered to lie upon the table; but probably made way for the introduction of a provisional clause, enacting "that no offences shall be construed to be piracy within the mean ing of the act, except acts of felony committed on the ships and goods of his majesty's subjects, by persons on the high

seas."

-The bill however, did not pass without opposition and severe animadversion. It was said, that it armed ministers with an uncon stitutional and dangerous power. A mere pretended suspicion or foolish credulity in a mercenary tool of a ministerial magistrate, might render the inhabitants of above half the empire liable to imprisonment without bail or mainprise. It did not require an oath, uor that the parties should be heard in theirown justification, nor confronted with the witnesses, nor that two witnesses should be deemed necessary for the colourable ground of a commitment. The

The few who opposed it, contended that no lawful or obvious reason subsisted for investing the crown with so unusual a pow. er. Such an extraordinary measure could only be tolerated in cases of great domestic danger, when the realm or constitution were immediately threatened; but neither of these could be pleaded in the present instance. After a long debate, the bill. passed by a majority of 195 to 43. The oppostion would have been stronger, but the seceding party would not afford their assistance.

"Before this act, every man putting his foot on English ground, every stranger, even a negro slave, became as free as every other man who breathed the same air with him. As things now stand, every man in the West-Indies, every inhabitant of these unoffending provinces on the American continent, every person coming from the East-Indies, every gentleman who has travelled for his health or education, every mariner who has navigated the seas, is, for no other offence, under a temporary proscription."*

L

The two bills received the royal assent on the third of March. Toward the close of the last year, and in the beginning of the present, much confusion, apprehension and suspicion, was-excited by the machinery of a wretched enthusiast and incendiary, since well known by the appellation of John the Painter, but whose real name was James Aitkin, born at Edinburgh, and bred a painter-a most profligate and abandoned villain.

After having committed the most attrocious crimes, he shipped himself off for America, where he continued about two years, and from whence he returned in March 1775. The violence of the language and sentiments then held in political matters, by the people among whom he lived, gave birth to that enthusiastic madness which afterward. became so dangerous. Under-its baneful influence he returned to England with the most dreadful antipathy to the government and nation; and adopted the design of subverting, in his own single person, that power which he so much abhorred, by setting fire to the dock-yards, and burning the principal trading cities and towns, with their shipping, of whatsoever sort, so far as it could possibly be done. He constructed fire-works, machines and combustibles for the purpose, but was strangely unsuccessful in all his attempts. Owing to this failure in his machines, the nation was providentially saved from receiving some dreadful or irretrievable shock. He however succeeded in setting fire to the rope-house in the yard at Portsmouth, the beginning of last December. The next

month, while party and political disunion prevailed among the inhabitants of Bristol, he attempted, first to burn the shipping, and afterward the city. He succeeded only so far as to set fire to some ware-houses near the quay, six or seven of which were consumed. He was soon after his departure from Bristol, taken up on some suspicious circumstances; and being circumvented by one Baldwin, another painter, the whole scene of iniquity was brought to light. Baldwin pretended to sympathize with him under his misfortunes, and to hold principles similar to his own; and often visited him, till he at length obtained his confidence, and drew from him the history of his crimes. He told Baldwin that he had been in France, and seen Mr. Silas Deane, who had given him some money, and encouraged him to set fire to the dock-yards at Portsmouth, Plymouth, &c. as the best means of distressing Great-Britain, and had promised to reward him according to the service he should do to the Ame-rican cause. He said that Deane, as an earnest of what should follow, had given him a recommendation to, and bills upon a merchant in London, to the amount of £.300, which however, he had found it necessary to burn, to prevent a discovery; and that in consequence of this encouragement he procured a passport from the French king. He was condemned at Winchester assizes, and executed at Portsmouth dock gate, the tenth of March, and then hung in chains. While he lay at Winchester, after condemnation, and before taken away to execution, he denied his having recommendations and bills, and burning the same. It was while working at Titchfield, in Hampshire, that he conceived the idea of setting fire to the dock-yards. He then went, as he said, to France, and applied to Mr. Deane, who told him that when the work was done he should be rewarded. He added, that on his return, and after setting fire to the ropeyard at Portsmouth, he went to London, and waited on Dr. Bancroft, to whom he had a verbal recommendation from Mr. Deane, but that the doctor gave him no countenance, and did not approve of his conduct.

When general Lee's capture came to be known by the gazette of February the 25th, the rejoicing in Great-Britain on the occasion, was great. Personal animosities contributed not a litthe to the triumph and exultation it produced. But the same gazette furnished more than a counterpoise to the joy, in the accounts it contained of general Washington's successes at Trenton and Princeton.

The name of Lee reminds me of Mr. Arthur Lee. The latter received timely notice of the acts of congress, so as to with- draw and get to Paris a few days after Dr. Franklin's arrival. VOL. II. While

A a

While in England he was particularly commissioned by a certain body, and that under every sacred promise of secrecy, to make discoveries and transmit them to America; he was also personally consulted by Monsieur Caron de Beaumarchais, upon a project which the latter had formed, of establishing a commercial house, sufficiently powerful and spirited to hazard the risks of the sea and enemy in carrying stores and merchandise for the American troops. A correspondence was afterward opened be tween them; and on the 21st of June, 1776, Mr. Lee, under the name of Mary Johnson, wrote in cyphers to Mr. Beaumarchais, that the army of Great Britain in America, would consist of forty thousand men, and their fleet of a hundred ships, and but two only of seventy-four guns. He advised the dispatching seeretly ten large ships of war to the Cape or Martinico; and their joining the American fleet, scouring the American coast, and destroyiag the whole British fleet, dispersed as it would be, up on which success the land army could be easily defeated. "By this stroke," says he "the English fleet will be mortally wounded. Do you fear that this will kindle a war between the two nations? But how will England be able to support a war without fleets, without colonies, without seamen, without resources? On the contrary, if you suffer America to fall again under the dominion of England, the latter will be forever invincible." If this proposal was communicated to the French minister, it was adjudged too venturous to be prosecuted. Though France must, for her own interest, wish to have the American states perpetually separated from Great-Britain, yet the court will be cautious of risking a war with this country till the prospects of success are extremely encouraging. This accounts for the French king's issuing out, about the month of February, a proclamation, prohibiting the sale of English prizes taken by American privateers, in any of the ports of France; but as the pur. chase of them is not prohibited, and the sale of them only in the ports, the Americans will find no difficulty in disposing of them to Frenchmen. The police of France is so well construct ed, that they can easily convey to the extremities of the kingdom, the views and sentiments of the court, and secure a ready compliance with them. It is only for the minister to give the farmers-general his instructions, and for them, through their lines of connection with every province, city, town and village, to distribute their directions; on which the inhabitants of the most distant parts will think, speak and act mechanically, in unison with their betters at Versailles.

On the 20th of February, the British ambassador at the Hague, presented a memorial to their high mightinesses, containing vari

eus

1

ous complaints; and closing with an express demand of a formal disavowal of the salute by Fort George at St. Eustatia, to the American flag, and of the dismission and immediate recal of the governor; followed by a further declaration, that till that satisfaction was given, they were not to expect that his majesty would suffer himself to be amused by mere assurances, or would delay one instant to take such measures as he should think due to the interests and dignity of his crown. Their high mightinesses disdaining the spirit and manner of the complaint, passed by the ambassador (Sir Joseph Yorke) and slso the secretary of state, and commanded their minister at London, the count de Walderen, to address himself directly to the king, and to deliver their answer into his own hands; which was done March the 26th. They complained of the reproaches contained in the ambassador's memorial, and the menacing tone which reigns in it, strained beyond what ought to take place between two sovereign and independent powers. They did not disguise the poignant sensation with which it had impressed them. They afterward mentioned their having ordered the governor home to give the necessary information of what had passed, and their resolution to disavow every act or mark of honor that actually tended in the least degree to recognise the independence of the North-American colonies. On the 10th of April, lord Suffolk, by letter, assured the court, that his majesty accepted with satisfaction, the memorial he had addressed to him; but that his majesty could not perceive in Sir Joseph Yorke's memorial, any thing contrary to what ought to take place between sovereigns and independent powers in the weighty circumstances in question.

In February and April, Messrs. Franklin and Deane sent to lord Stormont, two letters on the subject of an exchange of British seamen, prisoners in the hands of the captain of an American frigate, for an equal number of American seamen, prisoners in England; and of the cruel treatment the American prisoners meet with in Europe, in being ether compelled by chains, stripes and famine, to fight against their friends and relations, or sent to Africa and Asia, remote from all probability of exchange. They had for answer-" The king's ambassador receives no applications from rebels, unless they come to implore his majesty's mercy." They pronounced it an indecent paper, and returned it for his lordship's more mature consideration. The news of gen, Clinton's being created a Knight of the Bath, will be no otherwise important to the Americans, than as a direction how to address him in future.

A fresh effort was made in the house of lords, to bring about a reconciliation between Great-Britain and her colonies, as they

are