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Governor, and recommending the inhabitants to leave off using imported articles, and to encourage home manufactures. Thereupon the Governor dissolved them. The other colonies showed every disposition to support Massachusetts. The Assembly of Virginia set apart the 1st of June for a public fast, as on that day the Port Act came into force. For this they were dissolved by the Governor, but nevertheless most of the other colonies followed their example. Virginia and Maryland both resolved to export no tobacco to England; and South Carolina and Virginia gave rice and corn for the relief of Boston. In Massachusetts the spirit of disaffection increased. In some of the towns the people were ready to take up arms. In two of them, mobs took possession of the law courts, and would not suffer proceedings to go forward. When Gage took possession of the public store of powder, and moved it to the castle, the whole neighbourhood rose up; and in a day twenty thousand people were gathered together. They dispersed however without doing anything.

10. The Congress of 1774.-In September the Congress met at Philadelphia. The Massachusetts deputies were received on their way with public honours. The Congress passed various resolutions expressing its sympathy with Boston, and denying the right of Parliament to tax the colonies. It also drew up an agreement pledging the colonies to have no commercial dealings with England. At the same time it sent a petition to the King and a memorial to the people of Great Britain, resembling the other documents of the kind which had been issued before. The Congress also published an address to the people of Quebec, representing that the Act of Parliament made them dependent for their freedom on the pleasure of England, and exhorting them to make common cause with the other colonists.

II. Proceedings in Parliament in 1774.-On the 1st of November, 1774, a new Parliament met. The proceedings in

its first session, with reference to America, were the most important that had yet taken place. Lord North, who was now at the head of the Ministry, being only a peer's eldest son, sat in the House of Commons. He was little more than the mouthpiece of the King, who was bitterly hostile to the colonies. Throughout the whole session a small minority, containing some of the ablest men and best debaters in both Houses, fought against the American policy of the Government. The contest began when the Address to the King was moved in the House of Commons. An amendment was proposed, requesting that the King should lay all the facts about America before Parliament. In the ensuing debate, the ministry was severely blamed for its American policy, but the amendment was defeated by a majority of more than two hundred. In the House of Lords a like debate was followed by a like result. On the 3rd of February, Lord North announced his American policy: the English forces in America were to be increased, the colonists were to be cut off from the American fisheries, and the colonies were to be punished with a different amount of severity, according to their various degrees of guilt. Those measures were brought forward separately, and, though each of them successively was opposed, all were carried. At the same time, Lord North introduced a measure intended to conciliate the colonies, and to meet the difficulty about taxation. He proposed that the colonial assemblies should be allowed to vote a certain sum, and that, if the English Government thought it enough, the colonists should be left to raise the money in what way they pleased. This was a concession, but only a slight one, not likely to have much effect on the colonists in their present state of anger. During the same session, Chatham and Burke each brought forward schemes for conciliation. Chatham proposed that a congress from all the colonies should meet, and should make a free grant of a perpetual

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revenue to the King, to be spent, not on the payment of civil officers in America, but in reducing the national debt; that the recent Acts against America should be suspended without being formally repealed, and that all the privileges granted by the colonial charters and constitution should be confirmed. This scheme seemed to meet the chief demands of the colonists, and at the same time to save the ministry from an open confession of defeat. In spite of this, and of the high position and past services of Chatham, the House of Lords not only threw out the measure, but would not even suffer a copy of the scheme to lie on the table of the House for consideration. Not long after, Burke brought forward a motion in the House of Commons, proposing to repeal the Acts against America, and to leave the taxation of the colonies to their own Assemblies. He spoke strongly of the loyalty of the colonists, and showed that, in claiming the right of taxing themselves, they were only holding fast to principles which Englishmen had always asserted. Nevertheless, his motion was defeated by a large majority. On the 10th of April a petition was presented to the King from the city of London, representing the injury to trade and to the welfare of the kingdom which was likely to follow from the present policy towards America. The King, in answer, only expressed his surprise that any of his subjects should encourage the rebellious temper of the Americans. During the whole period which we have gone through in this chapter, ministers and Parliament were misled chiefly by their ignorance of the wants and feelings of the colonists. This was mainly due to their being dependent for information on colonial governors and other men of indifferent character and prejudiced against the Americans. Moreover, there was on the part of the King and his advisers a firm determination to hear no appeal from the colonists, however temperately worded, unless it acknowledged the right of Parliament to

tax them. On that one point the colonists were equally firm. At the outset they might perhaps not have quarrelled with the mere claim to that right, if it had not been harshly and unwisely exercised. But as the struggle went on, they became hardened in their resistance, and claimed freedom, not merely from a particular tax, but from taxation generally.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

Proceedings in America in 1775 (1)—resources of the colonists (2)— outbreak of the war (3)—the Congress of 1775 (4)—Bunker's Hill (5)-further proceedings of Congress (6)-attack on Canada (7)—war in Virginia (8)—Parliament in the autumn of 1775 (9)the British forces leave Boston (10)—war in North Carolina (11) -formation of Independent State Governments (12)—the Declaration of Independence (13).

I. Proceedings in America in 1775.-In the spring of 1775, the state of things at Boston became more threatening. There was no longer an Assembly, but the Convention of the colony was mustering the militia, providing for the safe keeping of the military stores, and making other preparations for active resistance. In February, Gage, hearing that there were some cannon at Salem, sent to seize them. When the soldiers came to a river, their passage was barred by the country people, who took up the drawbridge and scuttled the only boat at hand, while the cannon were carried off. A fight seemed impending, but a clergyman interposed, and persuaded the people to lower the drawbridge. The troops marched over unmolested, but failed to find the cannon. In Boston the ill-feeling between the people and the soldiers showed itself in various ways. In Virginia the colonists

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were also making ready for action. There too a convention was called together. Henry, in an eloquent speech, warned the colonists that all hope of reconciliation was at an end, and that they must choose between war and slavery. They answered to his appeal, and proceeded to put the militia in order for service. Lord Dunmore, the Governor, thereupon seized the public supply of powder. He also enraged the settlers by threatening that, if any violence were done, he would free and arm the negro slaves, and burn Williamsburg.

2. Resources of the Colonists.-Before going further, it may be well to consider what resources the Americans had for the war on which they were about to enter. Their two chief sources of weakness were want of union among the colonies, and want of military organization and discipline. As we shall see throughout the contest, the shortcomings of the Americans on these points were constantly creating difficulties. Besides, there was a want of concert among the leading men. Some of them had already given up all hopes of reconciliation, and were resolved to aim at once at independence, while others, to the last, clung to the hope of maintaining the union with England. Moreover, the Congress of delegates had no legal powers. It could only pass resolutions; it could not enforce its decisions. As a set-off against these drawbacks, there was much in the life and habits of the people which fitted them for such a war. It was not necessary that the colonists should win pitched battles. It was enough if they could harass the English troops, and cut off their supplies. For this sort of work the difference between well-disciplined soldiers and raw militia is less important than it would be in regular warfare. Many of the Americans too had experience in backwoods fighting with the Indians. Moreover the life of settlers in a new country calls out activity and readiness. A settler is not

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