other cause. And yet he advised barracks and a fort on Fort Hill to command the town; while Bernard owned that "troops would not restore the authority of government," and urged anew a forfeiture of the charter.

It was on every one's lips that the die was thrown, that they must wait for the event; but the parties who waited were each in a different frame of mind. A troublesome anxiety took possession of Bernard, who began to fear his recall, and intercede to be spared. "These red coats make a formidable appearance," said Hutchinson, buoyant with the prospect of rising one step higher. The soldiers liked the country they were come to, and, sure that none would betray them, deserted in numbers. The commissioners were more haughty than before; gratified their malignity by arresting Hancock and Malcom on charges confidently made, but never established.

1768. Oct.

The determination of the king was evident from the first. Yielding to his "daily " importunities, Grafton prepared to dismiss Shelburne. The assent of Camden was desired. "You are my pole-star," Camden was accustomed to say to Chatham; "I have sworn an oath, I will go where you lead." But now he encouraged Grafton to slight their justly dissatisfied benefactor, as "brooding over his own suspicions and discontent." "I will never retire upon a scanty income," he added, "unless I should be forced by something more compelling than the Earl of Shelburne's removal. You are my pole-star, Chatham being eclipsed."

Grafton repaired to Hayes to gain Chatham's acquiescence in the proposed change. "My lord's health," answered the countess, "is too weak to admit of any communication of business; but I am able to tell your grace, from my lord himself, that Lord Shelburne's removal will never have his consent." The king awaited anxiously the result of the interview; and, notwithstanding the warning, Shelburne was removed. To Camden's surprise, the resignation of Chatham instantly followed. Grafton and the king interposed with solicitations; but even the hope of triumphing over the aristocracy had lost its seductive power, and the earl remained inflexible. Camden knew

that he ought to retire also; he hushed his scruples by the thought that his illustrious friend had not asked him to do it; and continued saying, "He shall still be my pole-star," even while the emoluments of office were for a time attracting him to advise a public declaration from the king, that Townshend's revenue act should be executed, and "Boston," the ringleading province," be "chastised."

1768.

Oct.

The removal of Shelburne opened the cabinet to the ignorant and incapable Earl of Rochford, who owed his selection to his submissive mediocrity. He needed money; and once told Choiseul, with tears in his eyes, that, if he lost the embassy which he then filled, he should be without resources. He had a passion to play a part, and would boast of his intention to rival not Chatham, he would say, but Pitt; though he could not even for a day adhere steadily to one idea. "His meddlesome disposition," said Choiseul, "makes him a worse man to deal with than one of greater ability." "You," answered Du Châtelet, "may turn his foibles and defects to the advantage of the king." After his accession, the administration was the weakest and the worst which England had known since its revolution.

It had no sanction in public opinion, and the subservient parliament was losing the reverence of the nation. Henceforward a reform was advocated by Grenville. "The number of electors," such was his declared opinion, “is become too small in proportion to the whole people, and the colonies ought to be allowed to send members to parliament."

"What other reason than an attempt to raise discontent," replied Edmund Burke, as the organ of the Rockingham whigs, can he have for suggesting that we are not happy enough to enjoy a sufficient number of voters in England? Our fault is on the other side." And he mocked at an American representation as the vision of a lunatic.

The opinions of Grenville were obtaining universal circulation, just as intelligence was received of the proceedings of the town of Boston relative to the proposed convention. From their votes, it was inferred that the troops would be opposed, should they attempt to land; that Massachusetts Bay, if not all the colonies, was in a state of actual rebellion.

"Depend upon it," said Hillsborough to the agent of Connecticut, who had presented him the petition of that colony, "parliament will not suffer their authority to be trampled upon. We wish to avoid severities towards you; but, if you refuse obedience to our laws, the whole fleet and army of England shall enforce it."

The inhabitants of Boston more than ever resolved not to pay money without their own consent, and to use no article from Britain, till the obnoxious acts should be repealed and the troops removed.

On the banks of the Mississippi, uncontrolled impulses unfurled the flag of a republic. The treaty of Paris left two European powers sole sovereigns of the continent of North America. Spain, accepting Louisiana with some hesitation, lost France as her bulwark, and assumed new expenses and dangers, to keep the territory from England. Its inhabitants loved the land of their ancestry; by every law of nature and human freedom, they had the right to protest against the transfer of their allegiance. No sooner did they hear of the cession of their country to the Catholic

1768.

Oct.

king than an assembly sprang into being, representing every parish in the colony; and, at the instance of Lafrénière, they unanimously resolved to entreat the king of France to be touched with their affliction and their loyalty, and not to sever them from his dominions.

At Paris, their envoy, John Milhet, the wealthiest merchant of New Orleans, met with a friend in Bienville, the time-honored founder of New Orleans; and, assisted by the tears and the well-remembered early services of the venerable octogenarian, he appealed to the heart of Choiseul. "It may not be," answered Choiseul; "France cannot bear the charge of supporting the colony's precarious existence."

On the tenth of July, 1765, the austere and unamiable Antonio De Ulloa, by a letter from Havana, announced to the superior council at New Orleans his orders to take possession of that city for the Catholic king; but the flag of France was left flying, and continued to attract Acadian exiles. On the fifth of March, 1766, during a violent thunder-gust and rain, Ulloa landed, with civil officers, three

1768.

capuchin monks, and eighty soldiers. His reception was cold and gloomy. He brought no orders to redeem the seven million livres of French paper money, which weighed down a colony of less than six thousand white men. The French garrison of three hundred refused to enter the Spanish service; the people, to give up their nationality; and Ulloa was obliged to administer the government under the French flag by the old French officers, at the cost of Spain.

Oct.

In May of the same year, the Spanish restrictive system was applied to Louisiana; in September, an ordinance compelled French vessels having special permits to accept the paper currency in pay for their cargoes, at an arbitrary tariff of prices. "The extension and freedom of trade," remonstrated the merchants, "far from injuring states and colonies, are their strength and support." The ordinance was suspended, but not till the alarm had destroyed all commerce. Ulloa retired from New Orleans to the Balise. Only there, and opposite Natchez, and at the river Iberville, was Spanish jurisdiction directly exercised.

This state of things continued for a little more than two years. But the arbitrary and passionate conduct of Ulloa, the depreciation of the currency with the prospect of its becoming an almost total loss, the disputes respecting the expenses incurred since the cession in 1762, the interruption of commerce, a captious ordinance which made a private monopoly of the traffic with the Indians, uncertainty of jurisdiction and allegiance, agitated the colony from one end to the other. It was proposed to make of New Orleans a republic, like Amsterdam or Venice, with a legislative body of forty men, and a single executive. The people of the country parishes crowded in a mass into the city; joined those of New Orleans; and formed a numerous assembly, in which Lafrénière, John Milhet, Joseph Milhet, and the lawyer Doucet were conspicuous. Why," said they, "should the two sovereigns form agreements which can have no result but our misery, without advantage to either?" On the twenty-fifth of October, they adopted an address to the superior council, written by Lafrénière and

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Caresse, rehearsing their griefs; and, in their petition of rights, they claimed freedom of commerce with the ports of France and America, and the expulsion of Ulloa from the colony. The address, signed by five or six hundred persons, was adopted the next day by the council, in spite of the protest of Aubry; when the French flag was displayed on the public square, children and women ran up to kiss its folds; and it was raised by nine hundred men, amidst shouts of "Long live the king of France! we will have no king but him." Ulloa retreated to Havana, and sent his

Oct.

representations to Spain. The inhabitants elected 1768. their own treasurer and syndics; sent envoys to Paris with supplicatory letters to the Duke of Orleans and the Prince of Conti; and memorialized the French monarch to stand as intercessor between them and the Catholic king, offering no alternative but to be a colony of France or a free commonwealth.

"The success of the people of New Orleans in driving away the Spaniards," wrote Du Châtelet to Choiseul," is a good example for the English colonies; may they set about following it."