of war, rather than admit the alteration of their charter and laws by parliament."

The minister dreading the conflict with America, yet dreading still more a conflict with his colleagues, Franklin was informed on the twentieth that his principles and those of parliament were as yet too wide from each other for discussion; and on the same day Lord North, armed with the king's consent in writing, astounded the house of commons by proposing a plan of conciliation formed on the principle that parliament, if the colonies would tax themselves to its satisfaction, would impose on them no duties except for the regulation of commerce. A storm of opposition ensued, which Lord North 'could not quell; and for two hours he seemed in a minority. "The plan should have been signed by John Hancock and Otis," said Rigby. Welbore Ellis, and others, particularly young Acland, declared against him loudly and roughly. "Whether any colony will come in on these terms I know not," said Lord North; "but it is just and humane to give them the option. If one consents, a link of the great chain is broken. If not, it will convince men of justice and humanity at home that in America they mean to throw off all dependence." Jenkinson reminded the house that Lord North stood on ground chosen by Grenville; but the Bedford party none the less threatened to vote against the minister, till Sir Gilbert Elliot, the well-known friend of the king, came to his rescue, and secured for the motion a large majority. To recover his lost ground with the extreme supporters of authority, North joined with Suffolk and Rochford in publishing "a paper declaring his intention to make no concessions."

"If fifty thousand men and twenty millions of money," said David Hume, "were intrusted to such a lukewarm coward as Gage, they never could produce any effect." The army in Boston was to be raised to ten thousand men, and the general to be superseded on account of his incapacity to direct such a force. Amherst declined the service, unless the army should be raised to twenty thousand men; the appointment of William Howe was therefore made public. He possessed no one quality of a great general, and was selected for his name and his relationship to the king. On receiving the offer of

the command, he asked: "Is it a proposition or an order from the king?" and when told an order, he replied it was his duty to obey it. "You should have refused to go against this people," cried the voters of Nottingham, with whom he broke faith. "Your brother died there in the cause of freedom; they have shown their gratitude to your name and family by erecting a monument to him." "We cannot wish success to the undertaking," said many more. Lord Howe, the admiral, was announced as commander of the naval forces and pacificator; for it was pretended that the olive-branch and the sword were to be sent together.

Of the two major-generals who attended Howe, the first in rank was Henry Clinton, son of a former governor in New York, related to the families of Newcastle and Bedford, and connected by party with the ministry. The other was John Burgoyne, who in the last war served in Portugal with spirit, and was brave even to rashness. He had a talent for vivid narrative, and wrote comedies that pleased in their day. In parliament he was taken for an opponent of the ministry; but he had spoken and voted against the repeal of the tax on tea, and had pronounced the Americans "children spoiled by too much indulgence;" so that, without flagrant inconsistency, he could promise Lord North "to be his steady, zealous, and active supporter." "I am confident," said he, in the house of commons, "there is not an officer or soldier in the king's service who does not think the parliamentary right of Great Britain a cause to fight for, to bleed and die for."

In reply to Burgoyne, Henry Temple Luttrell, whom curiosity once led to travel many hundreds of miles along the flourishing and hospitable provinces of the continent, bore testimony to their temperance, urbanity, and spirit, and predicted that, if set to the proof, they would evince the magnanimity of republican Rome.

While providing for a re-enforcement to its army, England enjoined the strictest watchfulness on its consuls and agents in every part of Europe to intercept all munitions of war destined for the colonies. The British envoy in Holland, with dictatorial menaces, required the states general of Holland to forbid their subjects from so much as transporting military

VOL. IV.-9

stores to the West Indies beyond the absolute wants of their own colonies. Of the French government, preventive measures were requested in the most courteous words.

An English vessel bore to the colonies news of Lord North's proposal, in the confident belief that they would be divided by the mere hint of giving up the point of taxation. "The plan," said Chatham, "will be spurned, and everything but justice and reason prove vain to men like the Ameri"It is impossible," said Fox, "to use the same resolution to make the Americans believe the right of taxing will be given up, and the mother country that it will be maintained."

cans."

Franklin sent advice to Massachusetts by no means to begin war without the approval of the continental congress, unless on a sudden emergency; "but New England alone," said he, "can hold out for ages against this country, and, if they are firm and united, in seven years will win the day." "By wisdom and courage the colonies will find friends everywhere;" thus he wrote to James Bowdoin of Boston, as if predicting a French alliance. "The eyes of all Christendom are now upon us, and our honor as a people is become a matter of the utmost consequence. If we tamely give up our rights in this contest, a century to come will not restore us in the opinion of the world; we shall be stamped with the character of dastards, poltroons, and fools; and be despised and trampled upon, not by this haughty, insolent nation only, but by all mankind. Present inconveniences are therefore to be borne with fortitude, and better times expected."

The friends of the British government in New York were found only on the surface. The Dutch Americans formed the basis of the population, and were animated by the example of their fathers, who had proved to the world that a small people under great discouragements can found a republic. By temperament moderate but inflexible, little noticed by the government, they kept themselves noiselessly in reserve. The settlers in New York from New England and the mechanics of the city were almost to a man enthusiasts for resistance. The landed aristocracy was divided; but the Dutch and the Scotch Presbyterians, especially Schuyler of Albany and the aged Livingston of Rhinebeck, never hesitated to risk their estates

in the cause of inherited freedom. In no colony did English dominion find less of the sympathy of the people than in New York.

In Virginia, the Blue Ridge answered British menaces with defiance. "We cannot part with liberty but with our lives," said the inhabitants of Botetourt. "Our duty to God, our country, ourselves, and our posterity, all forbid it. We stand prepared for every contingency." The dwellers on the waters of the Shenandoah, meeting at Staunton, commended the Virginia delegates to the applause of succeeding ages, their example to the hearts of every Virginian and every American. "For my part," said Adam Stephen, "before I would submit my life, liberty, and property to the arbitrary disposal of a venal aristocracy, I would sit myself down with a few friends upon some rich and healthy spot, six hundred miles to the westward, and there form a settlement which in a short time would command respect."

The valleys of Kentucky laughed as they heard the distant tread of clustering troops of adventurers, who, under a grant from the Cherokees, prepared to take possession of the meadows and undulating table-land that nature had clothed with its richest grasses. Their views extended to planting companies of farmers, and erecting iron-works, a salt manufactory, gristmills, and saw-mills; the culture of the fertile region was to be fostered by premiums for the heaviest crop of corn, and for the emigrant who should drive out the greatest number of sheep. The men who are now to occupy "that most desirable territory" will carry American independence to the Wabash, the Detroit, and the Mississippi.

At Charleston, South Carolina, the association was punctually enforced. A ship-load of near three hundred slaves was sent out of the colony by the consignee; even household furniture and horses, though they had been in use in England, could not be landed; the cargo of one vessel was thrown into Hog Island creek.

The winter at Boston was the mildest ever known; and in this "the gracious interposition of heaven was recognised." All the towns in Massachusetts, nearly all in New England, and some in every colony, ministered to the wants of Boston.

Relief came even from England. "Call me an enthusiast," said Samuel Adams; "this union among the colonies and warmth of affection can be attributed to nothing less than the agency of the Supreme Being. If we believe that he superintends and directs the affairs of empires, we have reason to expect the restoration and establishment of the public liberties."

On Sunday, the twenty-sixth of February, two or three hundred soldiers, under the command of Leslie, sailed from Castle William, landed clandestinely at Marblehead, and hurried to Salem in quest of military stores. Not finding them there, the officer marched toward Danvers; but at the river he found the bridge drawn up, and was kept waiting for an hour and a half, while the stores, insignificant in amount, were removed to a place of safety. Then, having pledged his honor not to advance more than thirty yards on the other side, he was allowed to march his troops across the bridge. The alarm spread through the neighborhood, while Leslie hastily retraced his steps.

At this time the British ministry received news of the vote in the New York assembly, refusing to consider the resolutions of congress. The confidence of the king reached its climax; and he spared no pains to win the colony. In a letter from the secretary of state, New York was praised for its attempts toward a reconciliation with the mother country; in a private letter, Dartmouth enjoined upon Colden to exert his address to facilitate the acceptance of Lord North's conciliatory resolutions. Like directions were sent to the governors of every colony except Connecticut and Rhode Island.

How complete was the general confidence that the great majorities in parliament would overawe the colonies appeared on the sixth of March, when the bill depriving New England of her fisheries was to be engrossed. Even Lord Howe spoke for it as the means of bringing the disobedient provinces to a sense of their duty, without involving a civil war. Fox replied: "As by this act all means of acquiring a livelihood, or of receiving provisions, is cut off, no alternative is left but starving or rebellion. If the act should not produce universal acquiescence, I defy anybody to defend the policy