as a British emissary, with written as well as verbal instructions. Paoli was found destitute of every thing; but he gave assurances of the purpose of the Corsican people to defend their liberty; and persuaded the British ministry that, if provided with what he needed, he could hold out for eighteen months. "A moment was not lost in supplying most of the articles requested by the Corsicans," "in the manner that would least risk a breach with France; "and many thousand stands of arms were furnished from the stock in the Tower, yet so as to give no indication that they were sent from government." While British ministers were enjoying the thought of success in their intrigues, they had the vexation to find Paoli himself obliged to retire by way of Leghorn to England. But their notorious interference was remembered in France as a precedent. 1768. July. When, on the twenty-seventh of July, the cabinet definitively agreed on the measures to be pursued towards America, it sought to unite all England by resting its policy on Rockingham's declaratory act, and to divide America by proceeding only against Boston. For Virginia, it was resolved that the office of its governor should no longer remain a sinecure, as it had been for three quarters of a century; and Amherst, who would not go out to reside there, was displaced. In selecting a new governor, the choice fell on Lord Botetourt; and it was a wise one, not merely because he had a pleasing address and was attentive to business, but because he was ingenuous and frank, sure to write truly respecting Virginia, and sure never to ask the secretary to conceal his reports. He was to be conducted to his government in a seventy-four, and to take with him a coach of state. He was to call a new legislature; to closet its members, as well as those of the council; and to humor them in almost any thing except the explicit denial of the authority of parliament. It would have been ill for American independence, if a man like him had been sent to Massachusetts. But "with Massachusetts," said Camden, "it will not be very difficult to deal, if that is the only disobedient province." For Boston, his voice did not entreat mercy. The cry was, it must be made to repent of its insolence, and its townmeetings no longer be suffered to threaten and defy the government of Great Britain. Two additional regiments, of five hundred men each, and a frigate, were at once to be sent there; the ship of the line, which was to take Botetourt to Virginia, might also remain in those seas. A change in the charter of Massachusetts was resolved on by Hillsborough; and he sent over orders to inquire "if any persons had committed acts which, under the statute of Henry VIII. against treason committed abroad, might justify their being brought to England to be tried in the king's bench." Salem, a town whose representatives, contrary, however, to the judgment of their constituents, voted in favor of rescinding, was indicated as the future capital of the province. At this time, Bernard received from Gage an offer of troops; but the council, after a just analysis of the late events, gave their opinion that it was not for his majesty's service or the peace of the province that any should be required. Bernard dared not avow his own opinion; but, in his spite, he wrote to Hillsborough for "positive orders " not to call "a new assembly until the people should get truer notions of their rights and interests." 1768. The advice of the council was inspired by loyalty. All attempts at a concert to cease importations had Aug. hitherto failed; the menace of the arrival of troops revived the design, and, early in August, most of the merchants of the town of Boston subscribed an agreement that they would not send for any kind of merchandise from Great Britain, some few articles of necessity excepted, during the year following the first day of January, 1769; and that they would not import any tea, paper, glass, paints or colors, until the act imposing duties upon them should be repealed. On the anniversary of the fourteenth of August, the streets of Boston resounded with songs in praise of freedom; and its inhabitants promised themselves that all ages would applaud their courage. 1768. Aug. Come, join hand in hand, brave Americans all, Not as slaves, but as freemen, our money we'll give. The British administration believed union impossible. "You will learn what transpires in America infinitely better in the city than at court," wrote Choiseul to the French minister in England. "Never mind what Lord Hillsborough says;" "the private accounts of American merchants to their correspondents in London are more trustworthy." The obedient official sought information in every direction; especially of Franklin, than whom no man in England uttered more prophetic warnings, or in a more benign or more loyal spirit. "He has for years been predicting to the ministers the necessary consequences of their American measures, "said the French envoy; "he is a man of rare intelligence and well-disposed to England; but, fortunately, is very little consulted." While the British government neglected the opportunities of becoming well informed respecting America, Choiseul collected newspapers, documents, resolves, instructions of towns, and even sermons of the Puritan clergy, and proceeded to construct his theory. "The forces of the English in America are scarcely ten thousand men, and they have no cavalry: " thus reasoned the dispassionate statesmen of France; "but the militia of the colonies numbers four hundred thousand men, and among them several regiments of cavalry. The people are enthusiastic for liberty, and have inherited a republican spirit, which the consciousness of strength and circumstances may push to extremities. They will not be intimidated by the presence of troops, too insignificant to cause alarm." It was therefore inferred that it would be hazardous for England to attempt reducing the colonies by force. "But why," asked Choiseul," are not deputies from each colony admitted into parliament as members?" And it was answered that "the Americans objected to such a solution, because they could not obtain a representation proportioned to their population, because their distance made regular attendance in parliament impossible, and because they knew its venality and corruption. They had no other representatives than agents at London, who kept them so well informed that no project to their disadvantage could come upon them by surprise." By this reasoning, Choiseul was satisfied that an American representation in parliament was not practicable; that "no other method of conciliation would prove less difficult, and that unanimity in America would compel the British government to risk the most violent measures, or to yield. When, on the nineteenth of August, England heard that Massachusetts had, by a vast majority of its representatives, refused to rescind the resolutions of the preceding winter, Lord Mansfield was of the opinion that all the members of the late legislative assembly at Boston should be sent for to give an account of their conduct, and that the rigors of the law should be exercised against those who should persist in refusing to submit to parliament. "Where rebellion begins," said he, "the laws cease, and they can invoke none in their favor." 1768. To the ambassador of Spain, he expressed the opinion that the affair of the colonies was the gravest and Sept. most momentous that England had had since 1688, and saw in America the beginning of a long and even infinite series of revolutions. "The Americans," he insisted, "must first be compelled to submit to the authority of parliament; it is only after having reduced them to the most entire obedience that an inquiry can be made into their real or pretended grievances." The subject interested every court in Europe, was watched in Madrid, and was the general theme of conversation in Paris, where Fuentes, the Spanish minister, expressed the hope that "the English might master their colonies, lest the Spanish colonies also should catch the flame." "I dread the event," said Camden, "because the colonies are more sober, and consequently more determined in their 1768. Sept. present opposition, than they were upon the stamp act." "What is to be done?" asked Grafton; and Camden answered: "Indeed, my dear lord, I do not know. The parliament cannot repeal the act in question, because that would admit the American principle to be right, and their own doctrine erroneous. Therefore it must execute the law. How to execute it, I am at a loss. Boston is the ringleading province; and, if any country is to be chastised, the punishment ought to be levelled there." But the system which made government subordinate to the gains of patronage was everywhere producing its natural results. In South Carolina, the profits of the place of provost-marshal were enjoyed under a patent as a sinecure by a resident in England, whose deputy had the monopoly of serving processes throughout the province, and yet was bound to attend courts nowhere but at Charleston. As a consequence, the herdsmen near the frontier adjudicated their own disputes and REGULATED their own police, even at the risk of a civil war. The blood of "rebels" against oppression was first shed among the settlers on the branches of the Cape Fear River. The emigrants to the rich upland of North Carolina had little coin or currency; yet, as the revenue of the province was raised by a poll-tax, the poorest laborer among them must contribute as much as the richest merchant. The sheriffs were grown insolent and arbitrary; often distraining property even quadruple the value of the tax, and avoiding the owner, till it was too late for its redemption. All this was the more hateful, as a part of the amount was expended by the governor in building himself a palace; and a part was notoriously embezzled. The collecting officers and all others, encouraged by the imperious example of Fanning, who loaded the titles to estates with doubts and charged illegal fees for recording new deeds, continued their extortions, sure of support from the hierarchy of men in place. Juries were packed; the grand jury was almost the agent of the extortioners. The cost of suits at law, under any circumstances exorbitant, was enhanced by unprecedented appeals from the county court to the remote |