can rights, and for the restoration of harmony between Great Britain and the colonies."

On the first day of April the provincial congress of Massachusetts voted that, if the royal governor would issue writs in the usual form for the election of a general assembly, the towns ought to obey the precepts and elect members; otherwise, delegates should be chosen for a third provincial congress. On the second, two vessels arrived at Marblehead, with the tidings that both houses of parliament had pledged to the king their lives and fortunes for the reduction of America, that New England was prohibited from the fisheries, and that the army of Gage was to be largely re-enforced. On the third, congress required the attendance of all absent members, and desired the towns not yet represented to send members without delay.

The most appalling danger hung over them from the Indians of the north-west, whom La Corne, Hamilton the lieutenant-governor for Detroit, and other Canadian emissaries were seeking to influence, while Guy Johnson was removing the American missionaries from the Six Nations. Dartmouth college, "a new and defenceless" institution of charity on the frontier, where children of the Six Nations received Christian training, was "threatened with an army of savages.” To countervail their efforts, Eleazer Wheelock, president of the college, sent the young New England preacher, James Dean, who was a great master of the language of the Iroquois, "to itinerate among the tribes in Canada and brighten the chain of friendship."

To the Mohawks the Massachusetts congress despatched the wise and humane Samuel Kirkland, who had lived among them as a missionary, to prevail with them "at least to stand neuter, and not assist their enemies." It voted a blanket and a ribbon to each of the converted Indians who were domiciled at Stockbridge, saying: "We are all brothers," and the Stockbridge Indians on their part promised to entreat the Six Nations not to take part in the war.

The congress of Massachusetts adopted a code for its future army, yet formed none. They enjoined every town to have its committee of correspondence; they ordered a day of fasting and prayer for the union of the American colonies and their

direction to such measures as God would approve; they encouraged the poor of Boston to move into the country; they sent special envoys to each of the other New England states to concert measures for raising an army of defence; and they urged "the militia and minute-men" in the several towns to be on the alert. They forbade every act that could be interpreted as a commencement of hostilities, but they resolved unanimously that the militia might act on the defensive. If the forces of the colony should be called out, the members of the congress agreed to repair instantly to Concord. Then, on the fifteenth of April, they adjourned, expecting a long and desperate war with the mighty power of Great Britain, yet with no financial preparations; not a soldier in service; hardly ammunition enough for a parade-day; scarcely more than ten iron cannon, and four of brass; with no executive but the committee of safety; no government but by committees of correspondence; no visible centre of authority. Anarchy would have prevailed but for the resistless principle in the heart of the people which could unite and organize and guide.

On the tenth of April, Wilkes, the lord mayor, with the aldermen and livery of London, following an ancient form, complained to the king in person that the real purpose of his ministers was "to establish arbitrary power over all America," and besought him to dismiss them. The king answered: "It is with the utmost astonishment that I find any of my subjects capable of encouraging the rebellious disposition which unhappily exists in some of my colonies;" and, by a letter from the lord chamberlain, he announced his purpose never again to receive any address from the lord mayor and aldermen but in their corporate capacity.

If more troops were sent, the king's standard erected, and a few of the leaders taken up, Hutchinson was ready to stake his life for the submission of the colonies.

New York was the pivot of the policy of ministers. Like North Carolina and Georgia, it was excepted from restraints imposed on the trade and fisheries of all the rest. The defection of its assembly from the acts of the general congress was accepted as proof that it would adhere to the king; and the British generals, who were on the point of sailing for America,

were disputing for the command at that place. "Burgoyne would best manage a negotiation," said the king; but Howe would not resign his right to New York as the post of confidence. All believed that it had been won over to the royal cause, and that the other provinces could easily be detached one by one from the union, so that it would be a light task to subdue Massachusetts.

On the fifteenth of April orders from Lord Dartmouth were written to Gage to take possession of every colonial fort; to seize and secure all military stores of every kind, collected for the rebels; to arrest and imprison all such as should be thought to have committed treason; to repress rebellion by force; to make the public safety the first object of consideration; to substitute more coercive measures for ordinary forms of proceeding, without pausing "to require the aid of a civil magistrate." Thurlow and Wedderburn had given their opinion that the Massachusetts congress was a treasonable body; the power of pardon which was conferred on the general did not extend to the president of "that seditious meeting," nor to "its most forward members," who, as unfit subjects for the king's mercy, were to be brought "to condign punishment" either in America or in England.

Four of the regiments, at first destined to Boston, received orders to proceed directly to New York, where their presence was to aid the progress of intrigue. At the same time, the Senegal carried out six packages, each containing a very large number of copies of "An Address of the People of Great Britain to the Inhabitants of America," written by Sir John Dalrymple at Lord North's request.

"From the late differences," said the pamphlet, with the assumption of full authority, "it is the fault of us both if we do not derive future agreement by some great act of state. Let the colonies make the first advance; if not, parliament will do so by sending a commission to America. The first honor will belong to the party which shall first scorn punctilio in so noble a cause. We give up the disgraceful and odious privilege of taxing you. The power of taxation over you we desire to throw from us as unworthy of you to be subject to, and of us to possess. As to the judges dependent on the king's pleas

ure, if you suspect us, appoint your own judges, pay them your own salaries. If we are wrong in thinking your charters formed by accident, not by forethought, let them stand as they are. Continue to share the liberty of England. With such sentiments of kindness in our breasts, we cannot hear without the deepest concern a charge that a system has been formed to enslave you by means of parliament."

These offers, composed for Lord North and printed at the public cost, were sent out by the government, to be widely distributed at the very time that the vengeful secret orders were transmitted to Boston. Yet Lord North was false only as he was weak and uncertain. He really wished to concede and conciliate, but he had not force enough to come to a clear understanding with himself. When he encountered the opposition in the house of commons, he sustained his administration by speaking confidently for vigorous measures; when alone, his heart sank within him from dread of civil war.

The memorial of the assembly of New York, which Burke, their agent, presented to parliament on the fifteenth of May, was rejected, because it questioned the right of parliament to tax America. Three days later, Lord North avowed the orders for raising Canadian regiments of French papists; "however," he continued, "the dispute with America is not so alarming as some people apprehend. I have not the least doubt it will end speedily, happily, and without bloodshed."

On the twenty-third of May secret advices from Philadelphia confirmed Dartmouth and the king in their confidence that North's conciliatory resolution "would remove all obstacles to the restoration of public tranquillity," through "the moderation and loyal disposition of the assembly of New York." The king, in proroguing parliament on the twentysixth, spoke only of "his subjects in America, whose wishes were to be gratified and apprehensions removed as far as the constitution would allow." The court gazette was equally moderate. As yet no tidings came from the colonies of a later date than the middle of April. All America, from Lake Champlain to the Altamaha; cities of Europe, Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, hardly less than London, were gazing with expectation toward the little villages that lay round Boston.

CHAPTER X.

TO LEXINGTON AND CONCORD, AND BACK TO BOSTON.

APRIL 19, 1775.

GAGE, who had under his command about three thousand effective men, was informed by his spies of military stores, pitiful in their amount, collected by provincial committees at Worcester and Concord; and he resolved on striking a blow, as the king desired. On the afternoon of the day on which the provincial congress of Massachusetts adjourned he took the light infantry and grenadiers off duty, and secretly prepared an expedition to destroy the colony's stores at Concord. The attempt had for several weeks been expected; and signals were concerted to announce the first movement of troops for the country. Samuel Adams and Hancock, who had not yet left Lexington for Philadelphia, received a timely message from Warren, and, in consequence, the committee of safety removed a part of the public stores and secreted the cannon.

On Tuesday, the eighteenth of April, ten or more British sergeants in disguise dispersed themselves through Cambridge and farther west to intercept all communication. In the following night the grenadiers and light infantry, not less than eight hundred in number, the flower of the army at Boston, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, crossed in the boats of the transport ships from the foot of the common to East Cambridge. There they received a day's provisions; and near midnight, after wading through wet marshes that are now covered by a stately city, they took the road through West Cambridge to Concord.

Gage directed that no one else should leave the town; but