ran right across York Island; the strongest being at Kingsbridge and
Fort Washington. General Howe, with the main body of his army, marched
up York Island, and encamped in face of Washington’s lines, his lines
also extending quite across the island, and being covered on either
flank by the British ships. While thus situate, on the 16th of
September, there was some skirmishing in the plain that lay between
the two camps, in which the Americans lost Colonel Knowlton and Major
Leitch, two of their best officers. The ill-success of the American
general, by this time, seems to have had a great effect upon the
disposition of his troops. Desertions were frequent, and as the time was
approaching when the period of service for which most of the Americans
had engaged would expire, Washington conceived that he should soon be
left without an army. He saw plainly that the boasts of the sons of
liberty, about flying to arms and fighting for their country without
pay or reward, were not to be depended upon; and he wrote to congress,
urging them to offer the troops good pay, in order that they might be
induced to remain in the camp to fight their battles. Congress voted, in
accordance with his recommendation, a bounty of twenty dollars per man,
and small portions of land to every officer and soldier who should serve
during the whole war. This, however, was not deemed sufficient, and
Washington again wrote to congress, asserting, not only that if the
offer were not raised, both officers and soldiers would leave the
service, but that they would universally, as many were already doing,
join the royal army. Congress again acceded to his wishes: they voted
an increase of pay and bounty-money, and offered other advantages,
immediate or prospective, which made it more profitable for them to
remain in the American service, than to join Lord Howe. By this means
Washington’s troops were kept together, and General Howe was therefore,
compelled to exert himself for victory. Having thrown up intrenchments
to defend his own lines, and the approaches to New York, on the 12th of
October he embarked a considerable part of the royal army, and landed
them at Frog’s-neck, about nine miles in the rear of Washington’s
positions. Some of the ships of war went still higher up the North
River, so as to cut off any retreat to the Jerseys. The only road open
to escape, indeed, was one leading to the New England provinces,
and this, it is thought, might have been secured. Washington now
contemplated deciding the fate of America by a pitched battle, and had
it not been for the remonstrances of General Lee, the deserter, who
had come up from Sullivan Island and the Carolinas, he would thus have
acted. A council of war was called, and it was decided that they must
decamp immediately, and get towards the open country, called the White
Plains. In their retreat there was some skirmishing, in which the
British troops were victorious; but on the 22nd of October, Washington
succeeded in gaining the edge of the White Plains, where he put the
main body of his army in a long line of entrenched camps, extending from
twelve to thirteen miles on different heights, and having the deep river
Brunx in his front. In this position he was attacked by the royal army
on the 28th of October: the troops being divided into two columns; the
left, led by Howe, and the right by Clinton. As they advanced towards
the White Plains Clinton’s column fell in with several bodies of the
enemy, and drove them back in great confusion to their lines. It was
observed, as the troops approached the American lines, that they were
strongest on the flanks, and weakest in the centre. Had an assault been
made on the centre, the absolute destruction of the American army would
have been inevitable; but General Howe, neglecting that point, ordered a
strong detachment of the left wing, under General Mac Dougal, to attack
an eminence on which 4000 men were advantageously posted, probably
for the purpose of covering a retreat, if necessary. This detachment
succeeded in their enterprise; but it then became necessary to preserve
the hill which the troops had gallantly taken possession of, and, in
so doing, the left and right wing of our army were, in a great measure,
severed from one another, so that they could not attack the main
position of the Americans. That night the British troops slept on their
arms, and the next day they encamped, with the left wing on one side of
the Brunx, and the right on the other. On the 30th, having received some
reinforcements, Howe made a disposition to attack the enemy’s lines on
the following morning; but during the night it rained in torrents, and
the faces of the hills became, in consequence, so slippery, that the
attack was postponed till the morrow. In the meantime, however, his
intention was betrayed by a deserter, and before the break of day
Washington evacuated the lines, set fire, in his retreat, to all the
houses on White Plains, crossed the Croton River to North Castle, and
took up a strong position, with the Croton stretching along his front,
and having his rear well defended by woods and heights.

CAPTURE OF FORT WASHINGTON.

Perceiving from the nature of the country that he could not force the
American commander to join battle, General Howe now made a retrograde
movement. Washington had left considerable forces at Fort Washington and
King’s Bridge, in the hope that those positions might be secured, even
though he retreated or were beaten. The force in Fort Washington, and in
the extensive entrenchments round it, consisted of 3000 men, under the
command of the gallant Colonel Macgaw. This post was important to the
royal army, as it secured an intercourse with the Jersey shore, and as
in the hands of the enemy it seriously obstructed the navigation of the
North River. General Howe, therefore, resolved to take it, and on the
15th of November, the garrison was summoned to surrender, on pain of
being put to death by the sword. This summons was unheeded, and on
the following morning it was carried by a furious assault; and all the
garrison who were not slain, were taken prisoners. On the side of the
British, also, there was a great loss; eight hundred being either killed
or wounded.

CAPTURE OF FORT LEE, AND RETREAT OF WASHINGTON.

Immediately after this success, Lord Cornwallis crossed the North River,
and drove the Americans from Fort Lee, which was nearly opposite Fort
Washington, and took all their artillery, provision, and stores. This
advance induced the American general to quit his post on the Croton, and
fall back upon the river Delaware. Cornwallis penetrated to the remotest
parts of East and West Jersey, and on the 24th of November, having
received some reinforcements, he marched for Brunswick. He was now
within two or three marches of the Americans, who fled before him in
dismay; but when he arrived at Brunswick he was ordered to halt. He did
not receive orders to advance till the 16th of December, and then it was
too late for him to overtake the enemy. When he arrived at Princetown
in the afternoon of that day, the last of the Americans had cleared out,
and on pursuing them the next morning he reached Trenton only in time to
see Washington’s last boats crossing the river. At that time the forces
of the American general scarcely amounted to 3000 men, for numbers
of them had deserted, and those that remained were chiefly unsteady
militia. Beyond the Delaware, indeed, Washington’s force lost all
appearance of an army; and the men still continued to desert, though
often brought back forcibly to the camp. Lord Cornwallis now desisted
from the pursuit, and put his division into winter-quarters, between the
Delaware and the Hakensack.

EXPEDITION AGAINST RHODE ISLAND.

While Cornwallis had been advancing through the Jerseys, General Clinton
had been sent, together with the squadron of Sir Peter Parker, to Rhode
Island, where an American squadron had been collected under Commodore
Hopkins. This island was taken without any difficulty, and Hopkins
retired up Providence River, where he remained inactive and useless. The
people of Rhode Island, however, were enthusiastic revolutionists, and
it required a considerable force to keep them in awe; whence, during
three years, a great body of men were left in perfect idleness.

SUCCESSES OF GENERAL CARLETON.

It has been seen that the American army which had been driven from
Canada, took refuge on the Isle Aux Noix, and that General Carleton was
preparing to follow up his successes. It required vessels to cope
with the American flotilla, and to command the lakes St. George and
Champlain, near which the Isle Aux Noix was situate, and of these the
general was in want. The frame-work of vessels was, indeed, sent for
from England, but it required time before they could arrive, and still
further time to put them together. Still Carle-ton did not remain idle.
In the emergency he sent detachments from the king’s ships stationed at
Quebec, with volunteers from the transports, and a corps of artillery,
to fell timber, and to occupy a favourable post on the Lake Champlain.
The keel and floor-timbers, also, of the “Inflexible,” a ship of three
hundred tons, which had been laid down at Quebec, were taken to pieces,
carried over to St. John’s, and laid down again at a corner of the lake,
where a little dock-yard was improvised. Moreover, thirty long-boats,
many large batteaux, and a gondola of thirty tons were carried up to
the spot, partly by land, and partly by being dragged up the shoals and
rapids of the river Sorel. In a few weeks, indeed, General Carleton
had a naval force--such as it was--to sweep the Lakes Champlain and St.
George from end to end. But before these preparations were completed,
the Americans had quitted the Isle Aux Noix, and had traversed the lake
for Crown Point. Congress had voted that General Gates should take
the command of these troops, and that Arnold, the hero of the Canada
expedition, should command the squadron of fifteen vessels which were on
the lake. When his preparations were completed, Carleton lost no time in
seeking this squadron, and on the 11th of October he discovered it in
a strong line across the passage between Isle Vallicour and the western
shore of the lake. A warm but indecisive action ensued, which lasted
till night-fall; but Arnold in the course of the night, though
well watched, escaped from the passage, and attempted to make Fort
Ticonderago. On the following morning his squadron was out of sight, but
before noon the British flotilla got up with it again, and brought it
to action a few leagues below Crown-Point. After a running fight of two
hours, Arnold’s headmost vessels succeeded in reaching Crown-Point, and
the narrow part of the lake beyond that fort; but the “Washington” and
“Jersey” were taken, and all the rest were run on shore, and there
burnt by their crews. Crown-Point was immediately abandoned by the
provincials, who ran for their lives to Ticonderoga. This fort was
deemed too strong to be successfully attacked, at so advanced a season
of the year, and Carleton, having strengthened the British fleet so as
to ensure the command of Lake Champlain, evacuated Crown-Point of
which he had taken possession, and returned to Quebec, where he exerted
himself during the winter in making preparation for the next campaign.
At the same time General Burgoyne returned to England.

MEASURES OF CONGRESS.

Although the confidence of many members of congress, that the contest
would soon be over, was shaken, yet as a body they remained firm and
hopeful. At the same time, on the advance of Lord Cornwallis through
the Jerseys, they fled for safety from Philadelphia to Baltimore, in
Maryland. On reassembling here, however, they betrayed no despondency
or any lack of spirit. The hope of obtaining their grand
object,--independence and separation from Great Britain,--seemed to
sustain them in the midst of all their reverses. They now materially
enlarged the powers of Washington. They authorised him to raise sixteen
additional regiments; furnished him with all the money they could, and
promised him a great deal more; and finally conferred upon him, for six
months, a sort of dictatorship. They further voted a loan of 8,000,000
of dollars; they made more paper-money; they threatened all who would
not receive it in payment for goods or labour; and they adopted all
possible means, by force, intimidation, and enticement, to get money
into the treasury, and to inspire courage into the hearts of the people.
As for their committee of correspondence, they laboured ardently to
induce France and Spain openly to espouse their quarrel, and to threaten
England with an invasion, while the flower of its troops were engaged
in America. It was proposed in congress that their commissioners at
Versailles should be authorised to transfer to France the same monopoly
of their trade which had been possessed by Great Britain. This, however,
was relinquished as a measure which would strike a mortal blow at
some of their leading arguments in favour of independence. It was next
proposed that France should be offered a limited monopoly, and, this
failing, it was suggested that France might be gained over by the offer
of an alliance offensive and defensive. The more prudent among them
represented that if France would venture into the war at all, it would
not be by any treaty, or compact, or promises of congress, but out of
her old rivalry and hatred of England. All the assurances she would
want, they said, was an expression of their determination never again
to submit to the mother country, but to persist in their present course,
though all the world should be merely lookers-on. Resolutions were
printed to this effect, and sent all over the union, and then to the
principal courts of Europe, with agents appointed to impress upon
those courts the sincerity of this declaration, and to solicit their
friendship for the United States. The agents chosen for this mission
were Dr. Franklin, Silas Deane, and Mr. Arthur Lee, and what success
attended their negotiations will soon be seen. Though appealing to the
worst passions, and the most selfish feelings of foreign courts
and cabinets, they were, nevertheless, not only listened to with
complacency, but obtained present aid covertly, and had hopes held out
to them of aid openly hereafter.

DEFECTION OF THE COLONISTS, ETC.

Towards the close of this year, clear proofs were given that the
Americans were not wholly unanimous in the cause of independence. The
inhabitants of the city and island of New York, and of Long Island, and
various other places, presented petitions to Lord Howe, declaring that
they acknowledged the supremacy of Great Britain, and praying to
be received into the king’s peace and protection. On the removal
of congress from Philadelphia to Baltimore, the majority of the
Philadelphians also began openly to declare for the royal cause.
Washington detached troops to that city to quell the anti-revolutionary
spirit, but this did not prevent many of its leading men from going
over to, and corresponding with the commissioners. Moreover, most of the
towns of the Jerseys sent deputations to the king’s commissioners, and
expressed their anxiety for a renewed allegiance to the British Crown.
Possibly this may in part be attributed to the success of the royal
arms, but it is evident that the feelings generally arose from genuine
patriotism. Self-preservation may, also, in part, have dictated this
line of policy, for in one particular the advice of Lord Barrington
had been followed with respect to the Indians, and it had produced its
natural consequences. Our establishments for the management of affairs
with these tribes were withdrawn, and then the red men were left to
act as they pleased; and they had a long account to settle with the
Americans. From the earliest period of their emigration the colonists
had laid it down as a principle that the red men were to be treated
like beasts of prey, and they still hunted them down on every opportune
occasion. Hence, as the Indians were accurate accountants in matters of
blood, and held it as a sacred part of their religion, that they were
bound to avenge the death of their kindred; no sooner were our agents
withdrawn, than the Creek and Cherokee Indians resolved to ravage
the back territories of Virginia and the Carolinas, and to carry, if
possible, both fire and the spear into the heart of these colonies. They
were repulsed by the militia of the colonies, but not before they had
taken a terrible revenge for long-endured wrongs; and the day might not
be far distant when they would return with other tribes to extend their
devastations throughout America.

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

The British parliament assembled on the 31st of October. In his opening
speech the king declared that nothing would have given him so much
pleasure as to be able to state that the troubles in America were
terminated, and that the colonists had returned to their duty. He
continued:--“But so daring and desperate is the spirit of their leaders,
whose object has always been dominion and power, that they have now
openly renounced allegiance to the crown, and all political connexion
with this country; they have rejected, with circumstances of indignity
and insult, the means of conciliation held out under the authority
of our commission; and have presumed to set up their rebellious
confederacies for independent states. If their treason be suffered to
take root much mischief must grow from it to the safety of my loyal
colonies, to the commerce of my kingdom, and, indeed, to the present
system of all Europe. One great advantage, however, will be derived from
the object of the rebels being openly avowed and clearly understood;--we
shall have unanimity at home, founded in the general conviction of the
justice and necessity of our measures.” His majesty said that he was
happy to inform them that Canada was recovered, and that the success in
the province of New York had been such as to give the strongest hopes
of the most decisive consequences. He then recapitulated, as usual, the
pacific assurances of European powers, although he must himself have had
some doubts at this time of the sincerity of their professions. It is
manifest, indeed, that signs of a rupture had become evident to
the British cabinet, for his majesty added to this part of his
speech,--“That he indulged the hope that all misunderstanding might
be removed, and Europe continue to enjoy the inestimable blessing of
peace.” He also recommended that England should be put in a respectable
state of defence, and urged upon his “faithful commons,” the necessity
of granting ample supplies for the maintenance of the honour of
his crown, and the vindication of the just rights of parliament. He
concluded thus:--“In this arduous contest I can have no other object but
to promote the true interests of all my subjects. No people ever enjoyed
more happiness, or lived under a milder government than those now
revolted in the provinces: the improvements in every art of which they
boast declare it: their numbers, their wealth, their strength by sea and
land, which they think sufficient to enable them to make head against
the whole power of the mother country, are irrefragable proofs of it. My
desire is to restore them to the blessings of law and liberty,
equally enjoyed by every British subject, which they have fatally and
desperately exchanged for all the calamities of war, and the arbitrary
tyranny of their chiefs.”

{GEORGE III. 1776-1777}

DEBATES ON AMERICA.

Addresses which were, as usual, echoes of the speech, were brought
forward in both houses, and they elicited violent debates. In the
commons Lord John Cavendish moved an amendment of greater length than
even the proposed address. This amendment was seconded by the Marquess
of Granby, and in it, and the debates that ensued, it was affirmed that
the disaffection and revolt of the colonists could not have taken place,
if there had not been great faults committed against them. The faults
pointed out were, chiefly, the rejection of petitions and complaints;
the improper instructions given to commissioners for the purpose
of reconciliation; the endeavours made to break down the spirit and
independence of the colonists, by the many acts of parliament passed
during the recent sessions; and the project of extirpating the Americans
by the sword. All these errors were imputed by the opposition to the
want of information, and the too great confidence in ministers, who
though in duty bound to ascertain the temper and disposition of the
Americans, had totally failed for want of that knowledge. An appeal to
the sword was denounced as a most dangerous precedent, and by a strange
perversity of mind the leaders of the American revolution were described
and especially by Wilkes, as men averse to a change of government,
and as being only driven to extremities by an accumulation of neglect,
insult and injury, and by two years of a savage, piratical, and unjust
war, carried on against them by the English people. Wilkes also,
with others on the same side, took umbrage at the word “treason,”
 as applicable to the Americans, asserting that what ministers called
“treason,” the Americans denominated “a just resistance and glorious
revolution.” As for the pacific declarations of foreign powers, and
especially the Bourbons, all reliance on them was exposed with sarcasm
and ridicule. Colonel Barré, indeed, declared that a war of the most
serious nature with France and Spain was impending over the country.
The whole of his majesty’s speech was, in truth, denounced as false,
insidious, hypocritical, and deceptive;--as holding out law and liberty,
indeed, but holding it out at the point of the sword.

The speech and address were defended by Lord North and Lord George
Germaine. Lord North denied the charge which had been alleged against
him of withholding information; declared that he had always communicated
to the house as much as he could divulge with safety; and indignantly
repelled the charge of hypocrisy advanced against that part of the
king’s speech which stated his desire to restore law and liberty to
the colonists. In his own peculiar quiet way, Lord North hinted to the
opposition, that if they were members of the new American legislature,
they could not have ventured to make so free with the president and
majority of congress, as they were now doing with their sovereign, his
ministers, and the majority of the English parliament. In the
defence, Lord George Germaine remarked that we had been anxious for
reconciliation upon mild and fair terms, and that these terms had been
rejected with scorn by the American leaders. According to their own
statements, he said, of the propositions made by Lord Howe, and the
conference that had taken place on Staten Island, his lordship was as
eager for the restoration of peace, as Franklin, Washington, and the
other leaders were for the continuance of hostilities. He then turned to
the statements made by foreign powers, concerning their friendship for
England. These statements of the princes of the House of Bourbon must be
taken as proofs of their pacific intentions, but if they proved false,
and should incur the folly and the guilt of assisting a rebellion,
Great Britain was prepared to meet them in the field. He pertinently
asked:--“Will the Bourbons, blind to their own interests, wish the
spirit of independence to cross the Atlantic? Can they be exempt from
fear, lest their own colonists should catch fire at the doctrine of the
unlimited rights of mankind, and prefer them to slavery and digging
of gold? And will not great danger arise from the vicinity of powerful
states freed from European control?” Finally, it was urged in defence of
the speech and address, that the only question which called for debate,
was simple in its nature it was, only, whether we chose to resign all
the benefits we derived from our colonies, and which had been purchased
by our best blood and treasures, and by truckling to the defiance and
insult hurled at us by the Americans, cut off those sources of power
and opulence, and submit to a degradation from the rank we held in the
political system of Europe; or, whether we should, by the full exertion
of our power, preserve those advantages, assert our ancient supremacy,
restore the authority of the British Parliament, and bring back
our ungrateful subjects to a sense of their duty. A division on the
amendment answered these questions; it was negatived by a majority of
two hundred and forty-two against eighty-seven, and the original address
was therefore carried.

In the upper house, an amendment was moved by the Marquess of
Rockingham, similar to that of Lord John Cavendish, and was followed
by debates of equal violence. By the Earl of Shelburne the speech was
denounced as a tissue of sophisms, and as a composition of unqualified
absurdity, treachery, cruelty, hypocrisy, and deceit. He attempted to
show, indeed, that all its paragraphs were false, differing only in
this--that some of the falsehoods were fallacious, some specious, and
some notorious. The Duke of Richmond maintained that America was lost
for ever, and he thought that we had better sit down quiet and contented
at the loss, consoling ourselves with the reflection that it had been
no fault of our own, but, solely that of an unjust and imbecile
administration. But even Lord Shelburne did not concur in this opinion:
he never meant, he said, this country to give up its right of commercial
control over America, which was the essential bond of connexion between
the two countries; and he declared that as the national debt was truly
and equitably the debt of every individual in the empire, whether
at home, or in Asia, or America, the Americans ought in some way,
to contribute to its discharge. Lord Sandwich, the first lord of the
Admiralty, more warmly opposed the doctrine of quiescence propounded
by the Duke of Richmond. It was, he said, derogatory to the honour and
destructive to the interests of England; and he declared that he would
hazard every drop of blood, and his last shilling, rather than see his
country set at defiance, bullied, and dictated to, by her undutiful
and ungrateful children; her disobedient and rebellious subjects. The
amendment was negatived by a majority of ninety-one against twenty-six.
Fourteen peers had it entered on the journals, at full length, as a
protest signed by themselves.

On the 16th of November, Lord John Cavendish produced a copy of the
proclamation issued by Lord Howe and his brother, as commissioners,
and proposed that, in conformity to its tenor, the house should resolve
itself into a committee for revising the acts by which the colonists
felt themselves aggrieved. This proposition was seconded by Burke, and
many of the opposition harangued in its favour. Ministers, however,
opposed such a step, on the ground that this inquiry into grievances had
been proffered only to those who should return to their duty, and hence
a disavowal of independence, and an acknowledgment of British supremacy
were requisite, before any measures of reconciliation could be adopted
by Great Britain. On a division the motion was lost by a majority of one
hundred and nine against forty-seven.

After the rejection of the proposition of Lord John Cavendish, many
members of opposition, especially those of the Rockingham party, seceded
from the business of parliament, alleging that it was useless to discuss
or oppose ministerial measures. This conduct, however, was blamed by the
majority of the opposition, who contended that no member of parliament
could, consistently with his duty, desert the interests of his country,
merely because he felt that his party would be outvoted. It was agreed
that no one could infer from thence that his attendance would be
useless, and that a respectable minority, though not able to carry
measures of its own, might, nevertheless, modify injurious laws and
counsels, by exposing their pernicious tendency. Some who held these
opinions made efforts to bring the great orator, Chatham, to the charge
again; but his gout prevented him from coming to the house, and little
could be elicited from him beyond a declaration that his sentiments with
regard to America were the same which he had always professed, and
which stood fully explained in his Provisional Act. At the same time he
expressed his fears that, in a few years, France would set her foot on
English ground. Thus, cleared of its members, the house of commons voted
the army and navy estimates without any display of violent opposition.
The number of seamen voted was 45,000, and £3,205,505 were voted for the
expenses of the navy; exclusive of £4000 for the support of Greenwich
Hospital, and £500,000 to go towards the discharge of the debts of
the navy. The army estimates voted, were about £3,000,000 exclusive
of extras, and some new contracts with German princes, for more German
troops to serve in America. These supplies being granted, on the 13th of
December, both houses adjourned for the Christmas recess.

ATTEMPT TO FIRE HIS MAJESTY’S DOCKYARD AT PORTSMOUTH.

During the recess of parliament, the public mind was agitated by acts of
incendiarism, which seemed at one time to denote that a conspiracy
had been entered into for the destruction of both our shipping and our
arsenals. In 1764, Choiseul, the French minister, had concocted a plan
for such a fearful catastrophe, but having divulged it to Grimaldi, then
prime minister of Spain, through him it was discovered to Lord Rochford,
our ambassador at Madrid, and the scheme therefore failed. Ministers
might have taken warning from this circumstance, and have had the
dock-yards and arsenals watched with sufficient vigilance, as to prevent
so disastrous an event from ever taking place. By this time, however,
they had returned to their old confidence, and on the 7th of December,
a fire broke out in the dock-yard at Portsmouth, which threatened its
total destruction. It was got under by great exertions, and it passed
at first for an accident, but on the 15th of January, one of the
under-clerks of the dock-yard having occasion to move some hemp in the
hemp-room, discovered a machine and combustible materials, which had
evidently been placed there by the hands of an incendiary. Some weeks
before, a sullen, silent man, a painter by trade, and who was known by
the name of John the Painter, had been seen loitering about the yard,
and he was now suspected to be the delinquent. Suspicion fastened
still stronger upon him because he was known to have recently come from
America, and a cry of alarm instantly spread through the country that
American incendiaries had arrived in England, and would spread fire and
destruction on every hand. It was necessary that John the Painter should
be taken, and soon after he was identified at Odiam in Hampshire, where
he had been apprehended for a burglary. John was brought up to London
for examination, but he was so taciturn, and so wise in keeping his
own counsels, that neither the privy-council, nor the lords of the
admiralty, nor other officers who interrogated him, could elicit
anything from him that would tend to his crimination. What authority,
however, failed to perform, that craft brought about. On the suggestion
of Earl Temple, another painter, who had been also in America, was put
into the same ward with John, in order to circumvent and entrap him.
Fellow-feeling caused the taciturn prisoner to open his mouth. His
brother painter pretended to sympathise in his misfortunes, descanted
largely on his travels in America, and professed principles similar to
his own. The travelled painter did all this with such address, that he
finally gathered from John that his real name was Aitken; that he had
entered into many regiments from which he had deserted so soon as he had
received the bounty-money; that he had traversed England through nearly
all its parts, sometimes robbing on the highway, and sometimes filching
and stealing in towns while he worked at his trade: that he went to
America, where he commenced politician and reformer of abuses, and where
he conceived the notion of serving the cause of liberty by burning our
shipping and our principal trading cities and towns; that he then left
America for France, where he had several interviews with Silas Deane,
the agent of congress; that Silas Deane encouraged his project, by
giving him money and promising him rewards commensurate with the service
he should render the American cause; that he then procured a French
passport and came over to Canterbury; and that on leaving Canterbury
he proceeded to Portsmouth, where he began to compound and prepare
his combustibles, after which he went into the dock-yard and made the
attempt of which he was suspected. The manner in which this evidence
was derived was certainly contrary to the spirit of the English law, and
repugnant to the feeling and practice of the present day, but on
this evidence vouched by the travelled painter, John the Painter was
condemned and executed. There was no doubt left on any mind either as
to the culprit’s guilt, or to his connexion with Silas Deane; but before
his death he is said to have confessed to some naval officers, that most
of what his accuser had testified against him, was true--that he had,
indeed, applied to Deane, who had promised him a reward of great price
when his work should be done. Nothing transpired which would inculpate
Choiseul the French minister, but as he was still in office, and as his
animus was well-known, he was thought to have been concerned in this
plot likewise. But it failed; and the circumstance had the effect of
still further exciting the enmity of the English people towards the
Americans.

CHAPTER VIII.

{GEORGE III. 1777-1778}

     Letters of Marque granted..... Bill for Detaining Persons in
     Prison charged with High-treason..... Miscellaneous
     Debates..... Spirited Address of the Speaker to the
     King..... Lord Chatham’s   Motion  for   Concessions  to
     America..... Parliament Prorogued..... Successes of
     Washington..... British Expedition up the Hudson River.....
     American Expedition to Long Island..... Capture of General
     Prescot, &c...... Battle of the Brandywine, &c..... Capture
     of Philadelphia..... Opening of the Delaware..... Close of
     Howe’s Campaign..... Expedition and Capture of Burgoyne.....
     Clinton’s Expedition   up   the Hudson..... Meeting of
     Parliament..... Debates on America..... Duke of Richmond’s
     Motion for Inquiring into the State of the Nation..... Fox’s
     Motion for Inquiring into the State of the Nation..... Army
     and Navy Estimates..... Intelligence of Burgoyne’s
     Defeat..... Royal Assent to Several Bills..... Parliament
     Adjourned.

{A.D. 1777}

LETTERS OF MARQUE GRANTED.

On the meeting of parliament, after the recess, a bill was brought into
the commons for enabling the admiralty to grant letters of marque
and reprisal to privateers against vessels belonging to the revolted
colonies, which were now doing much mischief, not only among our West
India Islands, but also in the narrow seas of Europe. This bill passed
the commons without a debate, and it went through the lords without
any amendment, except that the words “letters of permission” were
substituted for “letters of marque.”

BILL FOR DETAINING PERSONS IN PRISON CHARGED WITH HIGH-TREASON.

On the 6th of February Lord North introduced a bill “For enabling His
Majesty to detain and secure Persons charged with, or suspected of, the
Crime of High-treason, committed in North America or on the High-seas,
or the Crime of Piracy.” The bill provided, that all persons charged
with or suspected of treason, committed in any of the colonies, or on
the high-seas, or of piracy, should be liable to be committed to any
place of confinement named by the king, under his sign-manual,
within any part of his dominions, without bail or mainprize, and there
detained, without trial, during the continuance of the act, unless
his majesty’s privy-council granted an order for admitting any
such prisoners to bail or to trial. This bill encountered a strong
opposition. On the second reading Mr. Dunning declared that it struck
directly at that great pillar of British liberty, the Habeas Corpus Act,
and that it was disgraceful that it should be brought in without notice,
and when the house was so thinly attended. He moved, that the bill
should be printed, which was granted, and the second reading was
therefore postponed. The alarm it excited brought back several of the
seceders, and the debate became more animated. It was urged by the
opposition that the bill would tend to create spies, informers, and
false accusers; that it would furnish means of gratification, emolument,
and safety to the most profligate of mankind; and that it would enable
any revengeful minister or mercenary villain to satiate his revenge or
replenish his purse at the expense of the virtuous. Charles Fox used
some cogent arguments against the measure. He remarked:--“Who knows but
ministers, in the fulness of their malice, may take into their heads
that I have served on Long Island under General Washington? What would
it avail me, in such an event, to plead an _alibi_--to assure my old
friends that I was, during the whole of the campaign, in England--that I
was never in America, or any other sea but between Dover and Calais, and
that all my acts of piracy were committed on the mute creation? All this
may be true, says a minister or a minister’s understrapper, but you are
for the present suspected, and that is sufficient. I know that you are
fond of Scotland:--this is not the time for proofs; you may be, and very
probably are innocent, but this bill cares not whether you are guilty
or innocent: I will send you, under the sign-manual, to study the Erse
language in the isle of Bute; and as soon as the operation of the bill
is over, you will be at liberty to return, or go whither you please. You
may then call upon your accusers, to prove their charges of treason
in America, or of piracy on the high-seas; but they will laugh in your
face, and tell you they never charged, they only suspected; and the act
of parliament will serve as a complete plea in bar. It will answer a
double end--it will be at once your redress and our justification.” In
reply, Lord Thurlow ridiculed the idea that the bill was framed to reach
disaffected persons within this realm; though, he added sarcastically,
for his own part, if it did operate in this direction, he should
scarcely consider it a fault. The commitment of the bill was carried by
a majority of one hundred and ninety-five against forty-three; but as
it was discovered that some of the clauses were opened to serious
objections, several amendments were made in committee, one of which,
moved by Sir Grey Cooper, secretary to the treasury, defined the places
and the extent of the offence, subjecting persons to the operation of
the act. This, however, by no means satisfied either the opposition or
the country at large. A petition was presented from the city of London,
praying that the bill might not pass, or if it did, that it might not
extend to persons resident in Great Britain. A clause to this effect was
adopted, principally by the efforts of Mr. Dunning, and another was also
carried, which exempted certain minor acts of piracy from the operation
of the bill. Thus amended, the bill passed both houses; and the
opposition felicitated themselves, that, notwithstanding their numerical
weakness, they had compelled ministers to accept their corrections of so
reprehensible and dangerous a measure.

MISCELLANEOUS DEBATES.

A series of debates arose on abuses in the commissariat, in the
chartering of transports, and in the contracts for supplying the troops
in America with provisions, rum, &c. These abuses existed to an enormous
extent, and they were laid at the doors of many members of the house of
commons, who invariably voted with the treasury-bench. These members had
been allowed to get profitable contracts, and they contrived to render
them still more profitable, by supplying unwholesome provisions to the
troops, and which was, therefore, deservedly condemned. Another violent
debate took place on account of a new demand made by the Landgrave of
Hesse for more money; and Lord North’s situation was rendered still
more embarrassing by the necessity he was under of asking the faithful
commons for an increase to the civil list, amounting to upwards of
£600,000, in order to discharge a second debt incurred by his majesty.
Violent debates followed these demands, but both the Landgrave of Hesse
and his majesty were gratified eventually with having their desires
granted. The sum of £618,340 was granted, to enable his majesty to pay
his debts, and the further sum of £100,000 was voted in addition to the
sum already fixed of £800,000 per annum, for the better support of his
majesty’s household. The latter grant was warmly opposed in the house
of lords by the Marquess of Rockingham and the Duke of Grafton, who
endeavoured to enforce the necessity of economy, and to show that the
sum which his majesty already received was sufficiently ample to sustain
his dignity. They also argued, that this increase would furnish him with
the means of obtaining corrupt influence, and an unbounded power and
control over parliament. The opposition, however, were defeated by the
usual large majority, and the amendment which the Marquess of Rockingham
moved was entered as a protest on the journals, which was signed by
fourteen peers.

SPIRITED ADDRESS OF THE SPEAKER TO THE KING.

In presenting this extraordinary grant to his majesty for the royal
assent, Sir Fletcher Norton remarked:--“In a time of public distress,
full of difficulty and danger, their constituents labouring under
difficulties almost too heavy to be borne, your faithful commons,
postponing all other business, have not only granted to your majesty a
large present supply, but also a very great additional revenue--great
beyond example--great beyond your majesty’s highest expense; but all
this, sire, they have done in a well-grounded confidence that you apply
wisely what they have granted liberally; and feeling that, under the
direction of your majesty’s wisdom, the affluence and grandeur of the
sovereign will reflect dignity and honour on his people.” It is said by
some that this freedom of speech was unwelcome to the royal ears, and it
is certain that his courtiers were highly indignant; and yet Lord North
allowed the usual vote to pass, returning the thanks of the house to
the speaker, and requesting him to allow his speech to be printed.
Notwithstanding, his spirited conduct did not pass by unnoticed. In
the course of a debate on an address to his majesty moved by Sir James
Lowther, praying for an increase of income to the king’s two brothers,
which was negatived, the recent conduct of the speaker was violently
arraigned by Mr. Rigby, In reply, Sir Fletcher Norton appealed to the
vote of thanks which he had received, as a proof that the sentiments
he had expressed were the sentiments of the house. The court party,
however, retorted, and Lord North, uneasy at the altercation, wished
that the subject might be dropped. But the opposition now stepped in to
keep up the ball. Charles Fox declared, that a serious and direct charge
having been made, the question was now at issue--either the speaker
had misrepresented the house, or he had not, and the question must be
decided by the house. Fox accordingly moved:--“That the speaker of this
house, in his speech to his majesty at the bar of the house of peers, on
Wednesday last, and which was desired by this house, _nem. con._, to be
printed, _did_ express, with just and proper energy, the zeal of
this house for the support of the honour and dignity of the crown, in
circumstances of great public charge.” The speaker now declared, “that
he would sit no longer in that chair than while he was supported in the
free exercise of his duty: he had discharged what he conceived that duty
required of him, intending only to express the sense of the house; and
from the vote of approbation with which he had been honoured, he
had reason to believe that he was not chargeable with any
misrepresentation.” Lord North, perplexed at the dilemma to which the
heat of the courtiers had brought him, besought the speaker to rest
quiet, and the mover and supporters of the question to let it drop;
asserting, that no censure had been intended, and that though the
speaker might have made some mistake, it could only be attributed to the
hurry of an extempore address, and not to his judgment. The withdrawal
of the motion was refused, and then, still hoping to evade a division,
ministers moved an adjournment.

Opposition, however, maintained, that if the motion were not carried,
the speaker could not safely remain in the chair for another moment;
that he would, on all future occasions, be liable to disgrace whenever
he fulfilled his duty; that the dignity of the house would be at an
end if the chair should be degraded; and that the step which the
court-faction had taken was an attempt to render the representatives of
the people despicable in the eyes of their constituents. Ministers and
the court faction were compelled to bow before the storm. The motion
for an adjournment was withdrawn. Mr. Rigby made some concession, by
declaring that he meant no reflection on the character of the speaker,
and that he merely meant to express his own private opinion, according
to the privilege possessed by every member; and then Fox’s motion was
put and carried unanimously.

LORD CHATHAM’S MOTION FOR CONCESSIONS TO AMERICA.

Towards the close of the session there was a grand debate in the house
of lords on the affairs of America. After a long absence, the Earl
of Chatham moved for an address, advising his majesty to take speedy
measures for terminating the war with America, by the removal of their
grievances. The lords were summoned for the purpose of deliberating on
this motion, and it was introduced on the 30th of May. Chatham commenced
his speech by declaring the mother country unequal to the contest. He
remarked:--“My lords, this is a flying moment; perhaps but six weeks
are left to arrest the dangers that surround us. The gathering storm may
break; it has already opened, and in part burst. It is difficult,
after all that has passed, to shake hands with the defiers of the
king--defiers of the parliament--defiers of the people. I am a defier
of nobody; but if an end is not put to this war, there is an end to this
country! I do not trust my judgment in my present state of health; this
is the judgment of my better days--the result of forty years’ attention
to America. The Americans are rebels; but for what? Surely not for
defending their unquestionable rights. But their excesses have been
great! I do not mean to pronounce their panegyric, but must observe, in
extenuation, the erroneous and infatuated counsels which have prevailed
here. The door to mercy and justice has been shut against them; but they
may still be taken up upon the grounds of their former submissions and
petitions. I state to you the importance of America: it is a double
market--a market of consumption, and a market of supply. This double
market for millions, with all its naval stores, you are giving to your
hereditary rival. America has carried you through four wars; and will
now carry you to your death, if you do not take things in time. In the
sportsman’s phrase, when you have found yourselves at fault, you must
try back. You have ransacked every corner of Lower Saxony; but 40,000
German boors never can conquer ten times the number of British freemen.
You may ravage--you cannot conquer; it is impossible: you cannot conquer
the Americans. You talk of your numerous friends to annihilate the
congress, and of your powerful forces to disperse their army: I might as
well talk of driving them before me with my crutch! But what would you
conquer--the map of America? I am ready to meet any general officer on
the subject, What will you do out of the protection of your fleet? In
the winter, if together, they are starved--if dispersed, they are taken
off in detail. I am experienced in spring hopes and vernal promises: I
know what ministers throw out; but at last will come your equinoctial
disappointment. You have got nothing in America but stations. You have
been three years teaching them the art of war--they are apt scholars;
and I will venture to tell your lordships that the American gentry
will make officers enough fit to command the troops of all the European
powers.

“What you have sent there are too many to make peace--too few to make
war. If you conquer them, what then? You cannot make them respect you;
you cannot make them wear your cloth; you will plant an invincible
hatred in their breasts against you. Coming from the stock they do, they
can never respect you. If ministers are founded in saying there is no
sort of treaty with France, there is still a moment left; the point of
honour is still safe. France must be as self-destroying as England to
make a treaty, while you are giving her America at the expense of twelve
millions a year: the intercourse has produced everything to France; and
England, Old England, must pay for all. I have, at different times, made
different propositions, adapted to the circumstances in which they were
offered. The plan contained in the former bill is now impracticable:
the present will tell you where you are, and what you have now to depend
upon. It may produce a respectable division in America, and unanimity
at home: it will give America an option; she has yet had no option.
You have said, ‘Lay down your arms,’ and she has given you the Spartan
answer, ‘Come, take.’” Lord Chatham here read his motion, which he
afterwards said, if earned, would prove the herald of peace, and would
open the way for treaty. In conclusion, he again urged the necessity of
making peace with America before France should espouse the quarrel on
behalf of the Americans. He observed, that the French court was too wise
to lose the opportunity of separating America from Great Britain; that
whenever that court, with that of Spain likewise, should enter into
a treaty with America, we must declare war against them; and that he
should be among the first to advise such a declaration, even though we
had only five ships of the line in our ports. The Earl of Chatham was
answered by Lords Gower, Mansfield, Lyttleton, and Weymouth, and by the
Archbishop of York, who all maintained that the original aim of America
was independence, and that concessions on our part now would be useless,
ridiculous, degrading, and an acknowledgment of weakness, that would
draw down upon England the contempt of her friends and the attacks
of her foes. The motion was supported by the Dukes of Grafton and
Manchester, Lords Camden and Shelburne, and the Bishop of Peterborough,
who reiterated the arguments of the noble mover in its favour. In the
course of the debates Lord Weymouth had expressed some doubt as to
Chatham’s real meaning, and later in the evening he thus explained
it:--“I will tell your lordships very fairly what I wish for: I wish for
a repeal of every oppressive act which your lordships have passed since
1673. I would put our American brethren on the same footing they stood
at that period; and I should expect that, being left at liberty to
tax themselves, they would in return contribute to our common burdens,
according to their means and abilities. I will move your lordships for
a bill of repeal, as the only means left to arrest that approaching
destruction which threatens to overwhelm us. I shall no doubt hear it
objected, Why should we submit or concede? Has America done anything on
her part to induce us to agree to so large a ground of concession? But
I will tell you, my lords, why I think you should concede--you have
been the aggressors from the beginning; you have burned their towns,
plundered their country, confiscated their property, and imprisoned
their persons!” A murmur was heard through the house, that the Earl of
Chatham was doing his best to encourage the Americans, and to discourage
the people of England; and it must be confessed that the whole tenor of
his speech was likely to produce such an untoward effect. Moreover,
the sentiments which his speech contained were otherwise not founded in
wisdom. Thus the belief which he expressed, that the Americans would,
if left to tax themselves in their assemblies, contribute to our common
burdens, according to their means and abilities was a fallacy which had
been disproved by matters of fact; for, when in a previous year, and
in the course of the quarrel, this had been proposed to them, not
one assembly would contribute a single shilling. All advances toward
concession, indeed, were met by a louder appeal to arms; and there was
at this time no alteration in their sentiments which could justify a
hope that, even if a repeal of all the taxes were guaranteed to them,
they would now lay down their arms, or cease the long and loud cry for
independence. It was certainly now too late to offer any concession,
and so the majority of the peers seems to have considered; for, on
a division, the bill was lost by a majority of ninety-nine against
twenty-eight.

{GEORGE III. 1777-1778}

PARLIAMENT PROROGUED.

During this session the other debates which took place related almost
exclusively to East Indian affairs. These will be noticed hereafter in
a continuous narrative. At the close of the session, the speaker, in
presenting the bills relating to the supplies, again stated to his
majesty the hope of the house that speedy means would be discovered
to terminate the war, which otherwise might be attended with ruinous
consequences to the prosperity, and perhaps dangerous to the safety, of
the country. His majesty himself seems to have entertained a hope that
the war would soon be ended; for on the 6th of June, when he prorogued
parliament, after thanking the commons for the zeal and public spirit
they had displayed in granting large and extraordinary supplies,--the
whole amounted to £12,895,543,--he said, that he trusted Divine
Providence would so bless the efforts of his forces that the war might
be ended in the present campaign; that the constitutional obedience to
the laws, which is due from all the subjects of a free state, would be
speedily re-established.

SUCCESSES OF WASHINGTON.

Long before parliament was prorogued events had transpired which, if
known, would have almost precluded the hope that the war in America
would soon be successfully terminated. Notwithstanding his reverses,
encouraged by congress, Washington exerted himself to raise a standing
army. He met with great difficulties; and as the militia could not be
stimulated to exertion, he had reason to fear that in a short time he
should be left without any forces. In this emergency, Washington
decided that something must be done to raise the drooping spirits of
his followers. Circumstances favoured his decision. After the detachment
which Lord Cornwallis had led through the Jerseys was put into
winter-quarters, many of the officers had obtained leave of absence, and
had repaired to New York, to enjoy themselves at head-quarters. The men
who were left behind, also seem to have indulged themselves in Christmas
festivities; being the more induced to lead a jovial life from their
recent victories, and from the supposition that Washington’s army was
completely disorganized. In all their cantonments, which were straggling
and far apart, a careless confidence prevailed, and it happened
unfortunately, likewise, that one of the most critical points was
entrusted to a body of Hessians, and unprovided with any defence. But
while they were slumbering in fancied security, Washington was marking
them for his prey. He had spies everywhere, and having ascertained
the situation of our forces, he resolved to try the effect of a sudden
attack, which might induce his enemy to fall back from the Delaware.
Accordingly, on the 24th of December, he collected his forces on
the opposite banks of the river, and on the next day he made his
preparations for crossing it at nightfall. Difficulties which he had to
surmount prevented him from gaining the left bank before three o’clock
in the morning; but by that time his troops were collected a little
above Trenton, where the Hessians were posted under the command of
Colonel Rhalle. At the same time Generals Irving and Cadwallader were
ordered to cross the river lower down, in order to cut off the retreat
of the Hessians. These generals, however, could not get their artillery
across the river, and they returned, leaving Washington with his
division, which consisted of 2,500 of his best men, to perform his
enterprise alone. It was four o’clock before he could get his troops
into motion, and then he had to march eight or nine miles before he
could reach Trenton, where the Hessians lay. But these mercenaries were
buried in sleep and Christmas drink; and though it was daylight before
the Americans arrived, they permitted themselves to be almost surrounded
before they prepared for resistance. The event was disastrous. Colonel
Rhalle assembled all that he could of his three regiments, and bravely
charged Washington’s main body; but at the very commencement of the
attack he was mortally wounded by an American rifle, and the Hessians
being encompassed on all sides with muskets and artillery, to the number
of nearly a thousand, laid down their arms and surrendered. A troop of
British light-horse, and about five hundred infantry, who were stationed
at the lower end of Trenton, towards the bridge, escaped to Borden town;
but Washington recrossed the Delaware in triumph, with his prisoners,
six field-pieces, and a quantity of military stores.

This expedition had a surprising effect on the Americans. Hitherto the
Hessians had been looked upon as invincible; but to show that this was
a mere fiction Washington dispatched the prisoners to Philadelphia, and
caused them to be paraded through the town. His troops were now soon
augmented, and those whose time was expired agreed to remain a little
longer, upon receiving a bounty of ten dollars per man. This success of
Washington, however, made him rash. In a few days, the Delaware
being frozen over, and the ice strong enough to bear his army and the
artillery, he resolved to recover the Jerseys. On the last day of the
year, 1776 therefore, he again crossed the Delaware, and took post at
Trenton, where he had captured the Hessians. His reappearance alarmed
the British general, and Lord Cornwallis, who had reached New York
on his road to England, was ordered back to take the command in the
Jerseys. Having effected a junction with Generals Grant and Leslie,
at Prince-town, on the 2nd of January, Lord Cornwallis descended from
thence, drove the enemy’s posts before him, and by four o’clock in the
afternoon reached Trenton. A severe cannonade commenced, and Washington
retired across the Assumpinck, a creek which runs through the town. He
was followed by Cornwallis; but the British, finding the fords of the
creek guarded by artillery, desisted from the attempt to pass over the
fords, and night coming on, both armies kindled their fires, and spread
their blankets whereon to rest. Cornwallis hoped to bring on a general
engagement in the morning: but Washington, aware of this, and being
prevented from recrossing the Delaware by a rapid and temporary thaw,
he resolved to strike across the country, and get into the rear of
Prince-town, where no considerable British force had been left, At two
o’clock in the morning the Americans stole silently away; having first
renewed their bivouac-fires, and left their advanced pickets and several
small parties to guard for a time the fords of Assumpinck Creek. On his
march, about sun-rise, Washington fell in with two British regiments
under Colonel Maw-hood, in full march from Princetown, to join the
forces at Trenton. At first, the morning being foggy, Maw-hood mistook
the Americans for Hessians; but soon discovering his error, he opened
a heavy charge of artillery upon them, which threw their van into
disorder. One of the regiments now rushed forward with fixed bayonets,
and drove the Americans back to a ravine, which separated them from the
rear; and in this attack General Mercer who was attempting to rally the
rabble rout, was mortally wounded. Washington came up with the rear, and
succeeded in getting his main body into order and passing the ravine,
but in so doing he lost five more of his best officers, and was himself
beset with danger. After several efforts, he succeeded in severing
the two regiments under Mawhood, which success opened his way to
Prince-town. At the same time, part of the British force which he had
encountered marched forward for Trenton, and part retreated towards New
Brunswick. Washington entered Princetown, but as Lord Corn-wallis had
discovered his retreat, and was now in his rear, he left that town, and
reached and crossed Millstone River; breaking down the bridge to prevent
his being pursued. Cornwallis marched to New Brunswick, where he lay for
many days, during which time Washington overran the greater part of East
and West Jersey; made himself master of the coast opposite to Staten
Island, by occupying Newark, Elizabeth Town, and Woodbridge; and fixed
his headquarters at Morris Town, a place situated among hills and
difficult of access, with a fine country in its rear, abounding in
supplies. By these events the whole of the Jerseys were for a time lost
to England: and it was not only the success of Washington’s arms which
led to this consummation. The inhabitants of the Jerseys had been
harassed and plundered by the British, and more especially by the
Hessian troops, whence, no sooner had Washington, who restrained
the troops under him from committing acts of violence, issued a
proclamation, absolving all those who had taken the oath of allegiance
tendered by the king’s commissioners, and promising them friendship and
protection on condition of taking another oath prescribed by congress,
than the majority of them declared in his favour; and while not a few
joined his army, others rendered him service by pretending still to be
royalists, and acting as his spies in the English cantonments, and even
in New York itself. Yet all the while Washington was thus acting--while
he was issuing proclamations, recruiting his forces, strengthening his
positions, erecting forts, mills, and magazines, reconciling the people
of the country to the dominion of congress, and even cutting off the
supplies of the British advanced posts at Brunswick and Amboy, the
British commander was only a few miles distant, with a far superior
force, and with a good fleet at command. True, it was winter; but it
must be recollected that all the successes which had attended the arms
of Washington were the results of a winter campaign. Still something
was done by General Howe during this season of repose. Several thousand
provincial troops, native Americans, and ardent royalists were enrolled
and trained, and placed under the command of Governor Tryon, who was
honoured with the rank of major-general of the provincials. And the good
faith of these troops might be calculated upon, for the greater part
had been losers by the revolution, not only of property, but of the
consideration which they had held in the colonies; and they hoped,
therefore, to regain all that they had lost. Moreover, during the
winter, an intercourse was kept up with the royalists in other parts of
the continent; and both Washington and congress were frequently alarmed
by rumours of movements and insurrections in various colonies. Congress,
however, by means of the committees of safety, did what they could to
remove all persons of influence and “desperate character” into some
remote place, where they could effect no harm to the republican cause.

BRITISH EXPEDITION UP THE HUDSON RIVER.

In the course of the spring General Howe was assured that Washington’s
main position, now among the Jersey hills, and called the Manor of
Courland, was converted into a kind of citadel, and that the port to
which his supplies were chiefly carried was Peekshill, about fifty mites
up the Hudson River. Acting upon this information he sent a detachment
of five hundred men, under the command of Colonel Bird, in a couple of
transports, to drive the Americans away from Peekshill, and to capture
their stores. As Bird approached the Americans fled from their position,
but before they retreated they set fire to their store-houses, so that
no booty was obtained. Shortly after this exploit Howe sent 2000 men,
under the command of Governor Tryon, General Agnew, and Sir William
Erskine, to seize a large quantity of stores which had been collected
for Washington’s army at Danbury, on the borders of Connecticut. This
detachment sailed up the east river in transports, and having landed
at Camp’s Point, the troops marched to Danbury. On their approach, the
Americans fled precipitately, and they entered the town, where they
found a large quantity of stores; but having no carriages to carry
them away, they were burned, together with the town of Danbury. Having
completed their work of destruction, the detachment began to inarch back
to their shipping; but while they had been thus employed the Connecticut
men had been running in from all quarters, and had collected under the
American generals, Wooster, Silliman, and Arnold. The latter general was
posted at the little town of Bridgefield, and as there was no road but
through the town, it was necessary to force his entrenchments. This was
effected after a short but terrible conflict; and as it was now near
night, and the British troops were fatigued, they formed themselves into
an oblong square, and lay upon their arms till morning. In the morning,
when they recommenced their march, they encountered fresh dangers.
General Wooster had brought some field-artillery, and had placed it at
the end of a bridge, over which he thought the British must of necessity
pass; and when they arrived at the bridge they found him with his
artillery and two strong columns drawn up on the bank of the river.
Their guide, however, led them to a ford, three miles above the bridge,
and there they crossed without opposition. But from this ford, nearly
all the way to Camp’s Point, they were harassed in flank and rear by the
American troops, who seemed resolved to cut them off. They paid dearly
for their temerity. Just before the royal troops reached Camp’s Point
Sir William Erskine, placing himself at the head of four hundred men,
charged the two American columns, broke them, drove them back across the
country, and General Wooster, with several field officers and a great
many men, were left dead upon the field. The loss of the British,
also, in killed and wounded, amounted to about two hundred--the rest
re-embarked and returned to New York.

AMERICAN EXPEDITION TO LONG ISLAND.

On both sides the contest at this time assumed the features of a
predatory warfare. Having learned that the British had collected a large
quantity of stores on Long Island, at a place called Sagg’s Harbour, the
Americans resolved to destroy them by a night attack. This expedition
was undertaken by Colonel Meigs, a Connecticut man, and he crossed
the sound in whale-boats, reached the harbour before break of day, and
though he met with some resistance, he succeeded in setting fire to
the store-houses and to some of the shipping, and also in taking about
ninety prisoners, with whom he returned triumphant to Connecticut.

CAPTURE OF GENERAL PRESCOT, ETC.

During the winter of the preceding year, while Washington was retreating
before Lord Cornwallis Colonel Harcourt, who commanded our light-horse,
took prisoner Charles Lee, who had deserted from the British service, in
which he held the rank of colonel, and had gone over to the Americans,
who conferred on him the rank of major-general. Lee was attempting to
join Washington’s force with 3000 men, when he was captured, and his
loss seems to have been considered a severe blow to the cause of
the Americans. Washington, indeed, proposed giving six Hessian
field-officers in exchange for him; which was refused, on the ground
that Lee was a deserter from the king’s service, and therefore could not
be considered as a prisoner of war, or be exchanged by cartel. Congress
then took up the business, and directed that Washington should inform
General Howe that five Hessian field-officers and Lieutenant-colonel
Archibald Campbell, who had been captured at Boston after Howe had
evacuated that city, should be thrown into confinement, and subjected
to the same treatment which Lee should receive. This would have been no
great hardship; for Lee was merely confined to a commodious house, and
had every accommodation; but shutting their eyes to this well-known
fact, congress threw Campbell into the common gaol of Concord, and
decorated his loathsome dungeon with the ornaments of the gallows
or gibbet. Washington himself represented the iniquity of such a
proceeding, but to no purpose: the chagrin felt at the capture and
retention of Lee forbade the exercise of a manly and liberal feeling.
Congress had soon an opportunity of exhibiting their chagrin in a still
stronger light. General Prescot, commanding-officer on Rhode Island,
had imprudently fixed his headquarters near the western shore, at a
considerable distance from his troops. This was known to Colonel Barton,
an American officer, and he, with several other militia officers
and volunteers, chiefly Rhode Islanders, crossed over by night from
Warwick-neck to Rhode Island, and took General Prescot in his bed,
hurried him to their boats, and sailed away to the main land. It was
announced that Prescot should be hanged if Lee were shot; and they
treated him in the interval with great severity, in order to make
General Howe consent to an exchange, to which he finally agreed.

{GEORGE III. 1777-1778}

BATTLE OF THE BRANDYWINE, ETC.

At length, in the month of June, General Howe took the field. At this
time Washington, who had been greatly reinforced, had taken up a strong
position at Middle Brook, having entrenchments and formidable batteries
in his front. It was the object of Howe to tempt the American general to
quit this position; and having failed in various expedients, on the 19th
of June he ordered his main body to retire to Amboy. This succeeded.
Washington abandoned what had cost him so much trouble to create, and
advanced to Quibble Town. The mass of the British troops now moved back
by different routes, in order to get on the American general’s flank and
rear, and by intervening between him and the hills, to force him to
a conflict on open ground. Lord Cornwallis led the van, and he had not
marched far before he fell in with Washington’s advanced body, who were
advantageously posted, and well provided with artillery. The British
troops, however, attacked them with such impetuosity that the Americans
fled, and were pursued as far as Westfield, leaving behind them some
of their cannon, and two hundred men in killed and wounded. But by
this time Washington had seen his error, and he quickly remedied it by
regaining his station on the hills, and securing those passes which were
the main object of Cornwallis’s expedition. General Howe now altered his
whole plan of operation. He called in all his detachments, concentrated
his army at Amboy, and then passed over to Staten Island, leaving
Washington in possession of the Jerseys. His men wondered what he meant
to do; but they soon learned that his object was to take Philadelphia.
To this end he set sail with his army on the 23rd of July, and on the
30th he rounded the coast to the capes of Delaware. His intention was
to have sailed up the Delaware to Philadelphia; but discovering that the
Americans had raised prodigious impediments on that river, he sailed to
Chesapeake Bay, where he landed about the middle of August. By this time
his men had become worn out by the long confinement on ship-board, and
the horses had become almost useless; so that it was necessary for them
to have rest before they proceeded on their enterprise. The van was
put in motion on the 2nd of September, and on the day following, his
advanced body fell in with some detachments of the enemy, scattered
them, and took up their position, which was on Iron Hill, and which
commanded a view of the Delaware river. It was now discovered that
Washington had left the Jerseys and was in the field to oppose the
advance of the British troops. He had taken possession of some heights
on the eastern side of the river Brandywine, which falls into the
Delaware below Philadelphia, with an intention of disputing the passage.
Howe must necessarily cross this river in order to obtain the great
object of the campaign, and he resolved to force his way over. The
position of the enemy was formidable; but, notwithstanding, on the
11th of September, the attempt was made, and that successfully. General
Knyphausen advanced with the second division of the army to Chad’s Ford,
as a feint; and while the Americans were defending that point, Lord
Cornwallis had marched a few miles round, crossed the forks of the
Brandywine, and came upon Washington’s flank. On discovering this the
Americans fell into great confusion, and Knyphausen then rushed with
his division across Chad’s Ford, and drove them from their batteries and
entrenchments at the point of the bayonet. Later in the day the British
forces attacked the Americans, under General Sullivan, who were strongly
posted on the heights above Birmingham church, and drove them from
thence in great confusion. In the whole they lost three hundred killed,
about six hundred wounded, and four hundred who were taken prisoners,
besides several pieces of artillery; but Washington kept his corps
together, and retired with his cannon and baggage to Chester, where
he passed the night without molestation. On the following morning he
marched by Derby to Philadelphia, where he collected his scattered
troops, in order to defend the city.

CAPTURE OF PHILADELPHIA.

General Howe advanced towards, Philadelphia with caution. This was
necessary, for the enemy hovered about him and threatened an attack.
Washington, indeed, had not yet relinquished all hope of impeding the
enemy’s progress, and he made an attempt to repeat the stratagem which
had been so successfully executed by Lord Cornwallis. When Howe put
his army in motion he marched towards Chester, and took possession of
Wilmington, where he lodged his sick and wounded. He was now about
a day’s march from Philadelphia; but there was the river Schuylkill
intervening between him and that city, and on the bank of that river
General Armstrong was posted to dispute the passage. At the same time
Washington had struck away to the left of the British, by the Lancaster
road, in the hope of getting on Howe’s flank. Both Philadelphia and the
inhabitants around, however, were friendly to the cause of Howe; and
having gained timely information from some country-people, he extended
his line, and presented such a front on the Lancaster-road that
Washington was defeated in his design. A heavy fall of rain, also, had
the effect of keeping the combatants asunder, for the ammunition on
both sides was thereby rendered useless. Washington fell back to Warwick
Furnace, on the south branch of the French Creek; and from thence he
detached General Wayne, with 1,500 men, to cross a rough country and
get, if possible, into the rear of the enemy. But here again he was
foiled. Wayne’s movement was discovered, and Major-general Gray, who was
sent against him, attacked him suddenly by night in his bivouac, slew
three hundred men, took one hundred prisoners, and captured all the
baggage of those who fled. Washington now gave up his intention of
defending the line of the Schuylkill and covering Philadelphia, and he
retreated so as to leave the road open. Three days after, the British
army passed that river, and took possession of German Town. By this time
congress had fled from Philadelphia; and on the 26th of October,
Lord Cornwallis, at the head of a strong detachment, took undisputed
possession of the city. Congress had threatened to set fire to the
place rather than let it fall into the hands of the British: but they
abandoned this design, and no incendiaries were left, as at New York.
Some loyal Quakers, and other royalists, had been put under arrest on
Howe’s approach, and about twenty of them had been sent close prisoners
to Staunton, in Virginia; but the majority of the people remained at
Philadelphia, and were well affected to the cause of the mother country.

OPENING OF THE DELAWARE.

By the capture of Philadelphia a communication was facilitated between
the northern and south provinces, and nothing was required for an active
co-operation between the army and the navy, but the opening of the
Delaware. There was a great difficulty, however, in effecting this
object. Franklin was now gone to Paris in his diplomatic capacity, but
before he went he had caused some tremendous works to be erected on that
river. Three rows of _chevaux-de-frise_, composed of immense beams of
timber, were sunk across its bed, a little below the confluence of the
Schuylkill, and the lower line of the _chevaux-de-frise_ was protected
by some works erected on the Jersey shore, at Billing’s Port, while
the upper line was defended by a battery, mounting heavy cannon, and
situated on a flat, marshy land, near the Pennsylvanian bank of the
liver. On the opposite bank, also, there was a formidable redoubt and
intrenchments, with floating batteries, armed galleys under cover,
rafts, with guns upon them, and a great many fire-ships. Moreover,
higher up the river, the Americans had two frigates, and several
gondolas or gun-boats; while, lower down, there were various works to
obstruct the navigation. At this time Lord Howe arrived with his fleet,
and soon after commenced operations. Three batteries were erected on the
Philadelphia side of the river, and Colonel Stirling was thrown across
the river to the Jersey shore to sweep the works at Billing’s Port,
which commanded the first line of _chevaux-de-frise_. The Americans fled
at his approach, and Captain Hammond then sailed up the Delaware, broke
the _chevaux-de-frise_, and made a gap wide enough to admit the largest
of our ships of war. Two other rows of _chevaux-de-frise_, however,
remained, with the forts on the bank of the river and the marshy island.
Against these the British now directed their operations; but while they
were making preparations, Washington, who had withdrawn to Skippack
Creek, about sixteen miles from Philadelphia, and who had been
reinforced by 2,500 men, resolved to attempt a surprise. Favoured by a
thick fog, on the 3rd of October, he quitted his encampment, and by dawn
of day arrived at German Town, where a body of the British troops were
posted. Taken by surprise, these troops retreated; but Colonel Musgrave,
by whom they were commanded, threw himself into a large stone house with
five companies, and kept up such an incessant fire upon the assailants
that their progress was impeded, till the troops rallied and got under
arms and into line. Musgrave was summoned to surrender, but he defied
the enemy; and General Grey with Brigadier Agnew coming up to his
relief, the Americans were beaten out of the village, and Washington was
compelled to retreat to Skippack Creek, leaving behind him eight hundred
killed and wounded, and about four hundred prisoners. The opening of the
navigation of the Delaware was now eagerly pursued. An attempt was made
by the Hessians to storm the American redoubt and intrenchment at
Red Bank, on the opposite side of the river; but after carrying the
outer-works they were repulsed, and their commander, Count Dunnop, with
four hundred of his men, were slain. At the same time two sloops-of-war,
the Augusta and Merlin, which were sent to aid in the assault, ran
aground while they endeavoured to avoid the _chevaux-de-frise_ and were
burnt. Preparations, however, being made for attacking the fort on the
marshy island, which was the chief defense of the river, an attack was
made, and a breach was soon effected in the works, which ensured its
capture. Two days after this Lord Cornwallis proceeded against the
redoubt on Red Bank, and this was also captured. Franklin’s ingenious
mechanism was then destroyed, and a full and free communication was
established along the whole course of the Delaware.

CLOSE OF HOWE’S CAMPAIGN.

It was towards the end of November that the river Delaware was opened.
By this time General Howe seems to have considered that his work was
done for the year. His supineness, and the slow movements of his army,
seem at all times to have been favourable to the cause of the enemy;
for though he was generally partially successful when he did act, yet he
always gave Washington sufficient time to rectify his many blunders and
to repair his losses. But though Howe thought of repose, Washington
had no intention of letting him enjoy himself. Having received a
reinforcement of 4000 men from the army of the North--which, as will be
seen, had rendered important service to the American cause--he quitted
Skippack Creek, and took post at White Marsh, only fourteen miles from
Philadelphia. Howe felt called upon to make fresh exertions, for the
proximity of the American forces shut him out from a fertile source of
supplies. Accordingly he quitted Philadelphia, and took post on Chesnut
Hill, in front of Washington’s right wing. Here he remained for two
days, with his troops drawn out in line of battle, hoping to tempt
Washington to come to a general engagement. Nothing occurred, however,
but a slight skirmish, in which the American militia ran like a rabble
before some light-infantry; and Howe then removed to Edge Hill, about a
mile from Washington’s left wing. Here a decided advantage was gained by
Lord Cornwallis, who drove a strong body of the American troops from the
crest of that hill, and a favourable opportunity was afforded, from the
dismay which their retreat occasioned, for attacking the main body with
success. But Howe was still cautious, and seeing that Washington was not
disposed to quit his camp, he returned to Philadelphia, there to spend
the winter. But Washington was determined to keep the field, despite the
winter’s cold, which had now set in, and he selected a strong piece of
ground, thickly covered with wood, at Valley Forge, on the west side
of the Schuykill, and about twenty-five miles from Philadelphia. This
position was chosen in order to keep Howe in check, and Philadelphia in
great discomfort, and he was allowed to take possession of it without
any molestation. The way in which Washington executed his plan does
honour to his perseverance. He had but few tents, and, even if there had
been an abundance, mere canvass would not have protected his men from
the rigour of an American winter. Under these circumstances he imitated
the backwoodsman’s practice of hutting. Trees were felled, and log-huts
wore erected, the interstices of which were filled up with earth, moss,
and a rude kind of mortar, in order to render them warm and comfortable.
Around them, for defence, two redoubts were erected and an intrenchment,
drawn with a ditch six feet wide and three or four feet deep. His left
was covered by the Schuylkill, and his rear, for the most part, by an
abrupt precipice; but his right was somewhat accessible, and the centre
of his front was weak, notwithstanding his intrenchments. There was,
however, no cause for fear: Howe was in snug winter-quarters, and had
no disposition to move till the flowers of the earth reappeared, and his
men might be animated by the cheerfulness of the spring. He seemed to
forget that there was such a place as Valley Forge, and such a resolute
commander on that spot. For resolute indeed must have been the man who
could thus defy the winter’s cold, and resolute also must have been his
troops to submit to the hardships which they had to encounter on Valley
Forge. Hundreds of them, it is said, had not a blanket to cover them
in the night season, while the winds blew, and the storm beat, and the
snows drifted over and around their huts. There they lay, naked and
shivering on the bare ground, none murmuring at their lot. Those that
lived endured their miseries patiently; those that died expired with
silent resignation. And hunger was added to their lingering tortures;
for congress failed to procure them needful supplies. Of this Washington
bitterly complained; but as the evil could not be obviated without
creating distress in other quarters, no effectual assistance could be
rendered. The chief thing which congress did to afford the troops relief
was to authorise Washington to seize all provisions which he could
within seventy miles of Valley Forge; and such was his extremity, that
he was compelled, at least on one occasion, to avail himself of this
authority, though repugnant to his feelings. But this only afforded a
temporary relief, and the army was, towards the close of the winter,
on the very verge of total starvation. Washington stated to congress
at this period, that there was not a single head of cattle in the camp;
that he had only twenty-five barrels of flour; and that there were 3000
men unfit for duty, being bare-footed and naked, besides numbers who
were confined by sickness in the hospitals and farmhouses. But even then
congress was slow in affording relief, and enabling the army to
make preparations for the ensuing campaign. Yet, sustained by hope,
Washington and his army preserved their fortitude, and resolved to try
once more their fortune on the field of battle.

[Illustration: 109.jpg GENERAL BURGOYNE ADDRESSING THE INDIANS]

EXPEDITION AND CAPTURE OF BURGOYNE.

Perhaps one cause which sustained the spirits of Washington and his
troops in Valley Forge may be found in the success which had attended
the American arms in the North. A plan had been formed by the British
government to send an army by the Canadian Lakes to Hudson’s River, for
the purpose of cutting off all communication between the northern and
the southern colonies. For parliamentary reasons ministers thought
proper to take the command from General Carleton, who had re-established
our supremacy on these lakes, and to confer it on General Burgoyne. The
plans which Burgoyne had to follow in his expedition were minutely and
absolutely laid down by the ministry, they having concocted them from
inaccurate maps and uncertain and contradictory reports. Nothing,
however, was wanting to promote the success of the undertaking.
Burgoyne’s force amounted to 7,200 men, rank and file, exclusive of the
corps of artillery, and vast quantities of warlike stores were furnished
for the use of those Canadians who might enter the British service.
French Canadians, to the number of two or three thousand, joined
Burgoyne; and as that general had been authorised to accept the services
of the fierce Indians, several of those tribes willingly took up the
hatchet against the Americans. The first thing Burgoyne was to do, was
to take Ticonderago; and his preparations being made, he set out from
Fort St, John, on the Sorel, on the 16th of June, for that purpose.
Having detached Colonel St. Leger, with about eight hundred men, to make
a diversion on the side of the Mohawk River. Burgoyne, preceded by the
shipping, began his course, having columns of Indians on his right
and left flank. At Crown Point there were a considerable number of
Americans, but they retired at the approach of the flotilla, and the
troops were safely landed. Here Burgoyne treated the Indians with a
war-feast, in order to whet their appetites for slaughter; though, at
the same time, he exhorted them to relinquish their old habits, and to
fight like civilized men. But he might as well have attempted to change
their natural colour by washing them with soap and water; and, moreover,
the effects of his precepts must have been set aside by the tenor of a
proclamation, which he issued immediately after, and which threatened
such of the insurgents as should continue in their obstinacy with
destruction. This proclamation was unheeded, and in a few days, after
erecting some magazines and slight defences at Crown Point, Burgoyne
proceeded to Ticonderago. The Americans had greatly strengthened their
works at this fort; but as they had not troops sufficient to man them,
General St. Clair, who held the command there, evacuated it, and putting
their baggage and provisions on board of batteaux, the Americans fled
to Skenesborough. The batteaux sailed along the South River, and being
pursued by a brigade of gun-boats, it was overtaken and captured, or
destroyed near the falls of Skenesborough. General Burgoyne followed
with one part of his army, in other gun-boats and two small frigates,
while Generals Frazer and Reidesel marched after St. Clair by land.
Skenesborough was captured with as much ease as Ticonderago; the
Americans who had occupied the place retiring hastily to Fort Anne, and
St. Clair marching with headlong haste to Castletown. The rear of the
retreating army was overtaken by General Frazer, and Colonel Francis,
with many officers, and two hundred men were slain, while a similar
number were taken prisoners, and about five hundred wounded crawled
away to perish in the woods, vainly hoping to escape to the inhabited
country. St. Clair continued his route from Castletown, and after a
fatiguing march arrived at Fort Edward, on the Hudson, where General
Schuyler, the American commander-in-chief, was stationed with about
4,400 men under his command. And here the reverses of the British arms
commenced. Being joined by St. Clair, and by Colonel Long, who was
compelled to evacuate Fort Anne, General Schuyler commenced a series of
active operations to baffle the advancing enemy. He broke up the roads
and the bridges; blocked up creeks and rivers; swept the country bare
of live-stock and all kinds of provisions; called up the militia and
backwoodsmen of New England and New York; and having succeeded in
collecting a numerous though motley force, he issued a proclamation in
the name of the congress of the United States, threatening death and
destruction to all who should send any deputation or afford any aid
to the enemy. It would have been prudent in Burgoyne had he taken a
different course to that which was laid down in his instructions, but he
resolved to persevere in that course. Having sent General Philips with
a strong detachment to proceed by Lake George with the artillery,
provisions, and baggage, he struck across the country, with the mass
of his force, towards Fort Edward. His progress was but slow, for his
troops had to remove the impediments which Schuyler had caused to
be thrown in his way; and, added to this, their inarch was rendered
fatiguing by the sultry heat of the weather. Nevertheless, by the 30th
of July, they reached the river Hudson, near Fort Edward, and Schuyler
retired across the river at their approach. Burgoyne waited in the
neighbourhood of Fort Edward for the arrival of General Philips with the
artillery, provisions, and stores, and for the junction of Colonel St.
Léger, who had from the first proceeded on a different line of march,
and who was now descending from Oswego, the Onedia Lake, and Wood Creek,
by the Mohawk River, which falls into the Hudson. St. Leger stopped at
the upper end of Mohawk to lay siege to Stanwix Fort, and upon receiving
this information General Burgoyne thought it his duty to support him. As
a preparatory measure he detached Colonel Baum to surprise Bennington,
a place between the forks of the Ilosick River, about twenty-four miles
eastward of the Hudson, and where the American stores were deposited.
The troops employed by Burgoyne for this enterprise were Germans, always
slow in their motions, and before they reached Bennington their design
had become known, and the Americans were ready to receive them. Baum
had only six hundred men with him, and he applied to Burgoyne for
reinforcements; and another detachment of German soldiers, consisting
of five hundred men, under Lieutenant-colonel Breyman, were sent to his
assistance. Breyman, however, was as slow in his movements as Baum had
been, and, before he could arrive, the first detachment of Germans were
completely surrounded by a body of more than 1,500 Americans. Colonel
Baum sustained the attack with great bravery; but he was at length slain
by a rifle-shot, and then the Germans retreated into some woods in the
direction of Fort Edward. It was at this critical moment that Breyman
came up, and having succeeded in putting the fugitives of Baum’s
detachment into some order, he fought his way back to Burgoyne’s
encampment. Instead of taking Bennington and the military stores,
Burgoyne lost five hundred men in killed and wounded in this expedition.
in the meantime St. Leger was prosecuting the siege of Stanwix Fort.
As he lay before this fort, he discovered that General Harkimer was
advancing to its relief with 1000 men under his command. He had with him
several tribes of savages, and St. Leger detached these, with a party
of regulars under Sir John Johnson, into the woods to lie in ambush.
Harkimer fell into the snare, and nearly four hundred of his men were
either killed or wounded, while the rest fled back to the Hudson. Still
Fort Stanwix held out, and the savages, growing weary of the siege, and
being falsely informed by some Americans that Burgoyne’s army had been
cut to pieces, insisted upon retiring. Many deserted, and St. Leger,
hearing that Arnold was approaching with 2000 men, and ten pieces of
artillery, he was compelled to raise the siege and to retreat. These
defeats, and the failure of St. Leger, contributed greatly to the ruin
of Burgoyne’s expedition. It has been seen, that on the arrival of that
general near Fort Edward, the Americans under Schuyler had retreated
across the Hudson. They had taken up their position at Saratoga, lower
down the river, and soon after, General Gates, an Englishman by birth
and education, took the chief command, and he was subsequently joined
by General Arnold. On his arrival, Gates removed the troops to an island
near the confluence of the Mohawk with the Hudson, about eight
miles below Albany, and called “Still Water.” Here he had a strong
star-redoubt and other defences; and against him, as he lay in this
position, Burgoyne having passed the Hudson by a bridge of boats, led
his forces. About the middle of September Burgoyne encamped on the
heights of Saratoga, in the face of the enemy. The mass of the British
army formed, on the 19th, close in front of the American left; the
right wing being commanded by Burgoyne, the left by Generals Philip
and Reidesel, and the front and flanks being covered by Indians and
Canadians. Without waiting to be attacked, General Gates threw out 5000
men to attempt turning the right of the British forces, and to attack
General Burgoyne in his rear. In making this attempt, however, he lost
between five hundred and six hundred men in killed and wounded, besides
several officers; and at night he deemed it prudent to collect all his
forces into and round the star-redoubt. The attack on the British
right had been made by General Arnold, and Burgoyne’s loss was scarcely
inferior to that of his enemy. That night the British army lay on their
arms in the field of battle; but as the day dawned, they began to erect
works within cannon-shot of the enemy, with strong redoubts on their
right. The two armies lay in sight of each other, from the 20th of
September till the 7th of October, during which time Burgoyne’s troops
had nearly consumed all their provisions. Burgoyne’s situation was a
critical one, and no time was lost in giving General Howe information of
it, in the hope that he would either co-operate or cause a diversion
to be made in his favour. Howe had just taken Philadelphia, and being
wholly occupied with Washington, and in destroying the forts and strong
works on the Delaware, could not spare a thought on the matter. Sir
Henry Clinton, however, who had the command of the troops left at
New York, informed Burgoyne that he would, on his own responsibility,
attempt a diversion, by attacking Forts Montgomery and Clinton, on the
lower part of the Hudson. Burgoyne agreed to remain in his position,
therefore, till the 12th of October: but his Indian followers, in
the meantime, disappointed in their hopes of plunder, annoyed at his
endeavours to check their ferocity, and wishing to return, as their
hunting-season had commenced, began to desert from him in great numbers.
Still Burgoyne, hoping that Clinton’s diversion would effect his
deliverance from clanger, would not think of retreating. On the other
hand, the Americans were greatly favoured by this delay. Every day
reinforcements arrived from the southern and northern provinces, while
stores and provisions poured into their camp in great abundance. General
Gates, indeed, having been joined by General Lincoln with 2000 men, at
the suggestion of Arnold, now adopted a scheme likely to reduce Burgoyne
to the stern necessity of an unconditional surrender. A considerable
body of New England militia, who had assembled in the rear of Burgoyne’s
forces, were sent to surprise Ticonderago, Mount Independence, and
Fort George, and to cut Burgoyne off from all supplies, and even from a
retreat to Canada. Colonel Brown, to whom this enterprise was entrusted,
failed in his main designs; but he destroyed some vessels which were
bringing provisions to Burgoyne, and then returned to his former station
in the rear of the enemy. Other American forces also collected between
the British army and the Lakes. Burgoyne’s difficulties increased daily.
The red-men, who had hitherto remained with him, now deserted, while the
Canadians and loyal Americans in his army lost all courage. But what
was worse than all, his provisions began to fail, while his horses were
perishing for want of forage. No tidings were yet heard of Clinton’s
diversion; and rendered desperate by his situation, Burgoyne resolved
to attempt dislodging Gates from his position. Accordingly, he advanced
forward with 1,500 men and a considerable body of artillery; but this
detachment had scarcely formed within half a mile of the American
intrenchments when they were attacked by a superior force, under Arnold,
and driven back to their camp, with the loss of six pieces of cannon.
From being assailed, the Americans now became the assailants. A furious
assault was made on the British lines; and though it was repulsed on the
English side of the camp, and Arnold was wounded, yet the intrenchments
on the German side of the camp were carried, and two hundred prisoners,
with a large supply of ammunition, were captured. Night closed on the
scene of carnage, and Lieutenant-colonel Brooks, who had defeated the
Germans, kept the ground he had won within the line of the British
intrenchments. In the engagement, General Frazer and Colonel Breyman
were mortally wounded; and on the following morning Burgoyne,
disheartened by this loss, removed his whole army, with their artillery
and baggage, to some heights above the bank of the Hudson, extending his
right up that river. In doing so, he left his wounded to the humanity of
General Gates and his army--a confidence which was not misplaced.

In his new position Burgoyne repeatedly offered battle to the enemy, but
without effect. The design of Gates was to obtain an easier victory by
turning the right of the British army and enclosing them on all
sides; and seeing this, Burgoyne quitted his position and fell back to
Saratoga, where he found the passes towards the Canadian frontiers all
pre-occupied by the Americans, while the further banks of the river were
lined with troops, which, together with numerous batteaux, commanded the
navigation. No means of escape seemed left but by a rapid night-march
to Fort Edward; but before preparations were made for this it was
discovered that the fords at that place were occupied, and that the
high grounds between that fort and Fort George were everywhere secured.
Bur-goyne’s situation was now desperate. The 13th of October had
arrived, and no tidings were heard of Clinton’s diversion. Thus
unsupported, deserted by his Indian allies, worn down by a series of
incessant exertions, greatly reduced through repeated battles, and
invested by an army three times their number, and which was hourly
increasing, the British officers at length thought of capitulation.
There was no alternative, for their provisions were nearly spent;
and though the enemy declined battle, yet rifle and grape-shot were
continually pouring into the British camp. All hope of relief or of
extrication from danger fled; and a council-of-war being called, which
comprehended field-officers and captains, it was unanimously resolved to
capitulate, if it could be done on honourable terms. This was a
bitter step to take, but no other could be taken, and this message was
therefore sent by Major Kingston to General Gates:--“After having fought
you twice, Lieutenant-general Burgoyne has waited some days in his
present position, determined to try a third conflict against any force
you could bring against him. He is apprised of the superiority of your
numbers, and the disposition of your troops to impede his supplies, and
render his retreat a scene of carnage on both sides. In this situation,
he is impelled by humanity, and thinks himself justified, by established
principles and precedents of state and war, to spare the lives of brave
men upon honourable terms. Should Major-general Gates be inclined to
treat upon that idea, General Burgoyne would propose a cessation of
arms during the time necessary to communicate the preliminary terms, by
which, in any extremity, he and his army mean to abide.” In reply, Gates
demanded that the British troops should ground their arms, and surrender
themselves prisoners-of-war. To this Burgoyne answered:--“This article
is inadmissible in every extremity: sooner than the army will consent to
ground their aims in their encampment, they will rush on the enemy, with
a determination to take no quarter.” In the end, after much negotiation,
a convention was settled, which imported, that Burgoyne’s troops were to
march out of the camp, with all the honours of war, to the verge of the
Hudson River, where their arms and artillery were to be left; that a
free passage should be granted the troops to Great Britain, on condition
of their not serving again in America; that if any cartel should take
place by which Burgoyne’s army, or any part of it, should be exchanged,
the foregoing article should be void, so far as that exchange extended;
that care should be taken for the subsistence of the British troops
till they should be embarked; that all officers should deliver up their
carriages, bat-horses, &c, but that their baggage should be free from
molestation; that the officers should not be separated from the men,
and should be quartered according to their rank; that all the troops,
of whatever country they might be, should be included in the above
articles; that all Canadians, and persons belonging to the Canadian
establishment, should be permitted to return to Canada, should be
conducted to the first British post on Lake George, should be treated in
all respects like the rest of the army, and should be bound by the same
condition of not serving during the present contest; that passports
should be granted for three officers to carry despatches to Sir Guy
Carleton, in Canada, and to the government of Great Britain by way of
New York; that all officers, during their stay at Boston, should be
admitted to parole, and to wear their side-arms; that the army might
send to Canada for their clothing and other baggage; and that these
articles should be signed and exchanged on the following morning, and
the troops should march out of their intrenchments in the afternoon.
These were more favourable terms than Burgoyne and his troops had a
right to expect; and they appear to have been granted for a twofold
reason--first, because Gates was fearful of provoking the despair of
well-disciplined troops; and secondly, because he almost heard the roar
of Clinton’s artillery lower down the Hudson. The convention was signed
at the appointed time, and on the afternoon of the 17th of October the
troops marched out of their encampment down to the edge of the river,
where they deposited their arms. The delicacy with which this business
was conducted reflected great credit on Gates. It is said, that he not
only kept away from the spot himself, but that he would not suffer his
own people to be present, that they might not exhibit the feelings of
exultation over a fallen enemy. Nor did his urbanity end here. Burgoyne
was received by him with great kindness, and every circumstance which
could appear like a triumph in the lines of the Americans was withheld.
As for the half-famished British troops, they now partook liberally of
the plenty that reigned within the American camp, while the principal
officers were often entertained at General Gates’s own quarters, Among
the fruits of his victory were about forty pieces of artillery, 4,600
muskets, and a quantity of powder and ball. After the convention was
signed, General Gates moved forward to stop the devastations committed
by the British on the North River, but they had already retreated.
About the same time, also, the troops which had been left at Ticonderago
destroyed their cannon, and retreated to Canada. After being several
months agitated by the tumults of war, the whole country was restored to
complete tranquillity. The British army, shorn of their honours, went to
Boston, while several thousands of the victorious Americans, as before
recorded, joined the ranks of Washington.

CLINTON’S EXPEDITION UP THE HUDSON.

General Clinton was prevented from making his promised diversion in
favour of Burgoyne by the non-arrival of some troops which he expected
from Europe, and by the vicinity of General Putnam, who hovered in the
neighbourhood of New York, until the 6th of October, ten days before
the capitulation was signed. At that time, having received the expected
reinforcements, he began a series of attacks, which, if they had been
made only a few days earlier, would have rescued Burgoyne’s army from
its perilous situation. He embarked about 3000 men on board of craft of
all kinds, convoyed by Commander Hotham, and proceeded up the Hudson to
Verplank’s Point, about forty miles above New York. Clinton effected a
landing without opposition, and General Putnam, conceiving that it was
his intention to push through the islands on that side of the river, in
order to join Burgoyne, collected about 2000 men, and hastened with them
towards Verplank’s Point to obstruct his march. Leaving a third portion
of his troops, however, on that spot, Clinton passed over with the
rest to Stony Point, on the western shore, where, in two simultaneous
attacks, he carried Forts Montgomery and Clinton. This success obliged
the Americans to burn their navy, consisting of five ships, which
were lying in that part of the river, and which were defended by
a _chevaux-de-frise_, and by an immense boom, stretching from Fort
Montgomery, to an opposite point, called St. Anthony’s Nose. A few miles
higher up the river was another strong place, called Fort Constitution,
and this was destroyed by the garrison, who fled as soon as they
learned the fate of Forts Montgomery and Clinton. About the same time, a
detachment of American loyalists, under Governor Tryon, destroyed a new
settlement, called Continental Village, and in which were barracks and
military stores. Having removed the boom, Sir James Wallace also, with
a squadron of small frigates, ascended up the river, and burned many
American vessels. Clinton was everywhere victorious; and on the 13th
of October, the very day on which Burgoyne made his first overture for
capitulation, General Vaughan landed a detachment at Esopus Creek, which
was not more than thirty miles from Burgoyne’s encampment at Saratoga.
Vaughan carried fire and destruction before him: he reduced two
batteries, and a row-galley, stationed at the mouth of Esopus Creek;
and then ascending the creek about five miles, he destroyed the town
of Esopus, together with a vast quantity of stores and provisions,
collected for the use of General Gates’s forces. Clinton, however, was
still upwards of one hundred miles from Esopus Creek, and he was beset
by General Putnam’s forces, which had increased from 2000 to 6000 men.
He was in this situation when Burgoyne capitulated, and then Gates was
enabled to detach more troops to the aid of Putnam. The English general
therefore recalled Vaughan; destroyed all the forts he had taken;
re-embarked his men, and returned to New York. The main design of his
diversion had failed, and it chiefly served to prove, that had Howe
co-operated with Burgoyne, and have sailed up the Hudson during
the summer months, the campaign in this quarter, instead of being
disastrous, would have enhanced the glory of the British arms.

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

The British parliament assembled on the 18th of November. The
all-engrossing topic of the king’s speech was the war with America. In
it he declared the necessity of continuing the war; and hinted, that
there was a probability that the land-forces must not only be kept up
to their full establishment, but even augmented by new contracts. Of
the disposition of foreign powers, his majesty now spoke in a doubtful
manner. They had given friendly assurances, he said, but as the
armaments of France and Spain continued, he thought it necessary that
his own naval force should be augmented. He had neither lost any of his
firmness, nor abated any of his hope, as to the issue of this contest.
He would always guard, he said, the honour of the British crown
faithfully; and he hoped that the Americans would yet return to their
allegiance; that the remembrance of their former happiness, and the
sense of their present misery, under the tyranny of their leaders, would
rekindle their loyalty and attachment to their mother country; and that
they would enable him, with the concurrence of parliament, to accomplish
peace, order, and confidence in the colonies.

{GEORGE III. 1777-1778}

DEBATES ON AMERICA.

The usual addresses were moved on the king’s speech--addresses which
were replete with panegyric on its wisdom, and likewise the wisdom of
ministers. They were doomed, however, to meet with stern opposition. In
the lower house, the Marquess of Granby, after lamenting the disastrous
effects of the war, and expressing a desire of having the happiness
to lay the ground-work of a reconciliation, moved an amendment, to the
effect, that his majesty should be requested to adopt some measures
for accommodating all differences with America; that he should be
recommended to cease hostilities, as a preparatory step to that end; and
that he should be assured that the commons were determined to co-operate
with him in every measure tending to the re-establishment of peace. This
motion was seconded by Lord John Cavendish, and it was supported by the
opposition generally, on the grounds, that after three years’ war, with
a heavy expenditure and a great loss of men, there was no prospect
of success; that, notwithstanding the hopes held out in the king’s
speeches, our progress exhibited a series of disappointments and losses;
that trade was greatly affected by the contest; and that while the
defenceless state of our coasts and commercial fleets demonstrated we
were unable at this stage of the war to protect our national trade, we
should be still less able when, involved in a war, as it was evident we
should be, with the Bourbons. The opposition now attended the house in
full force, but the amendment was nevertheless negatived by two hundred
and forty-three to eighty-six.

In the lords the debate on the address was still more animated than in
the commons. It was opposed by the Earl of Coventry, who, in the outset,
gravely recommended that our armies and fleets should be recalled, and
that the independence of America should be forthwith acknowledged.
His lordship took extreme views of our position; even predicting, that
should his advice be adopted, it, nevertheless, would not prevent the
downfall of England; that it was a matter of certainty, as fixed and as
immutable as any law of nature, that sooner or later the seat of empire
would be removed beyond the Atlantic. One grand argument used by his
lordship to establish his views, was the insignificant figure which
Britain made in the map of the world compared with the more imposing
figure of the American continent. The people, also, he argued, were more
frugal, industrious, and wise on the other side of the Atlantic than
they were in England; and that, while population increased and would
increase in America, it would inevitably decline in the mother country!
But such crotchets as these were only calculated to confirm ministers
and the country at large in their determination of pursuing the contest.
Lord Chatham, who next rose, still supported by his crutch, to move an
amendment, spoke more wisely; though he also predicted ruin to England
if the contest was not given up; or, in other words, if peace between
the two countries was not concluded. The noble lord commenced his speech
by joining in the congratulation of the address on the birth of another
princess, and the happy recovery of her majesty. Here, however, he
said, his courtly complaisance must end; for he could not join in
congratulation on misfortune and disgrace. He could not concur in a
blind and servile address, which approved, and endeavoured to sanctify,
the monstrous measures that had heaped disgrace upon us, and had brought
ruin to our very doors. The present moment, he said, was a perilous and
tremendous period, and therefore not a time for adulation. His lordship
then pointed out the degrading situation to which this country was
reduced, in being obliged to acknowledge as enemies those whom we
had denominated rebels; and in seeing them encouraged and assisted by
France, while ministers dared not interpose. He remarked:--“It is a
shameful truth, that not only the power and strength of this country are
wasting away and expiring, but her well-earned glories, her true honour
and substantial dignity, are sacrificed. France, my lords, has insulted
you; she has encouraged and sustained America; and whether America
be wrong or right, the dignity of this country ought to spurn at the
officious insult of French interference. The ministers and ambassadors
of those who are called rebels and enemies are in Paris--in Paris they
transact the reciprocal interests of America and France. Can there be
a more mortifying insult? Can even our ministers sustain a more
humiliating disgrace? Do they dare to resent it? Do they presume even
to hint a vindication of their honour, and the dignity of the state, by
requiring the dismissal of the plenipotentiaries of America? Such is
the degradation to which they have reduced the glories of England! The
people, whom they affect to call contemptible rebels, but whose growing
power has at least obtained the name of enemies--the people with whom
they have engaged this country in war, and against whom they now command
our implicit support in every measure of desperate hostility--this
people, despised as rebels or acknowledged as enemies, are abetted
against you, supplied with military stores, their interests consulted,
and their ambassadors entertained, by your inveterate enemy!--and our
ministers dare not interpose with dignity or effect. Is this the honour
of a great kingdom? Is this the indignant spirit of England, who, but
yesterday gave law to the House of Bourbon?” Chatham next dwelt on the
position of our armies in America, supposing that Burgoyne’s--for it
was not yet known--was totally lost; and asserting that General Howe
had been compelled to retire from the American lines. Judging, from the
past, he then predicted a final and total failure, notwithstanding the
exertions made to sustain the contest and gain the victory might prove
gigantic. In this part of his speech he denounced the employment of
German troops, and the tribes of wild Indians, in strong and unmeasured
language; although, nineteen years before, he had himself employed
Indians in the same manner against the French and Canadians. Chatham
next touched on the great question of disseverance and independence.
But this, unlike the Earl of Coventry who had preceded him, he utterly
repudiated; avowing, as he had ever done, that our supremacy must be
maintained, in order to avert our ruin. But this part of Chatham’s
speech was replete with inconsistencies. While he maintained that our
supremacy must be maintained at all hazards, he applauded both the
spirit and intention of the Americans; and while he acknowledged that
they had arms in their hands, he boldly asserted that they were still
full of affection for their mother country--that they only declared
independence in moments of anguish and despair; and that they were still
in heart inclined to return to their old political constitution. Again,
while Chatham attributed every blame to the British government, he
nevertheless would not admit that our power of regulating their trade
ought either to be abolished or abridged; which were the very sentiments
of the government on whom he cast odium. Chatham, also, denounced the
war as unjust in its principle; and yet it had for its indisputable
object, from beginning to end, that very independence and separate
sovereignty which he had sworn he would never recognise. The great
orator then attacked the ministers more personally than before, and
recommended them to make haste and quit office, lest the punishment
due to their crimes should speedily overtake them! He concluded
thus:--“Since they have neither sagacity to foresee, nor justice and
humanity to shun, these calamities--since not even severe experience can
make them feel, nor the imminent ruin of their country awaken them from
their stupefaction--the guardian care of parliament must interpose. I
shall, therefore, propose an amendment to the address, to recommend an
immediate cessation of hostilities, and the commencement of a treaty to
restore peace and liberty to America, strength and happiness to England,
security and permanent prosperity to both countries.” He added, that
“this was still in our power;” but few or none who heard him believed
that peace could be obtained but by a recognition of that independence
which Chatham had so warmly denounced. The amendment which he proposed,
however, was ably supported by the other peers in opposition. Lord
Camden declared, that if the war were prosecuted to the issue of the
alternative, whether America was subdued or rendered independent, he
would still wish for independence; because the subjugation of that
country by force of arms, would lead to the enslavement of England!
Some of the opposition members, notwithstanding, were not for an instant
cessation of arms, though they wished for a reconciliation. Thus
Earl Temple said, that the war ought not to be abandoned until we had
obtained decisive victories in America. The opposition, also, differed
as to the propriety of offering terms of concession; and they were not
all agreed as to what these terms should be. But on the odiousness of
employing the wild Indians against a Christian people, the views of the
whole of the opposition orators coincided. The Duke of Richmond said,
that our employment of them would call down the vengeance of Heaven;
and he argued, that our soldiers, acting with them, would become as
ferocious as the Indians, and ready to commit any atrocity, or to make
any attack on the liberties of the country that ministers might command!
The unpleasant task of defending the employment of wild Indians fell
upon Lord Suffolk, one of the secretaries of state, and he contended
that the measure was allowable on principle; inasmuch as it was
justifiable to use all the means that God and nature had put into our
hands. This was an unfortunate argument; and the Earl of Chatham did not
fail to take advantage of it. Forgetting that he had once employed the
Indian tomahawk, he rose, and exclaimed, with an indignant burst
of eloquence:--“I am astonished--shocked to hear such principles
confessed--to hear them avowed in this house, or in this
country--principles equally unconstitutional, inhuman, and unchristian.
My lords, I did not intend to have trespassed again on your attention,
but I cannot repress my indignation. I feel myself impelled by every
duty. My lords, we are called upon, as members of this house, as men,
as Christian men, to protest against such notions, standing near the
throne, polluting the ear of majesty! ‘That God and nature put into our
hands!’ I know not what idea that lord may entertain of God and nature;
but I know that such abominable principles are equally abhorrent to
religion and humanity. What! attribute the sacred sanction of God and
nature to the massacres of the Indian scalping-knife--to the cannibal
savage, torturing, murdering, roasting, and eating--literally, my lords,
_eating_--the mangled victims of his barbarous battles--To send forth
the merciless cannibal, thirsting for blood! Against whom?--Against
your Protestant brethren; to lay waste their country, to desolate
their dwellings, and extirpate their race and name with these horrible
hell-hounds of savage war--hell-hounds, I say, of savage war! Spain
armed herself with blood-hounds to extirpate the wretched natives
of America, and we improve on the inhuman example of even Spanish
cruelty--we turn loose these savage hell-hounds against our brethren
and countrymen in America--of the same language, laws, liberties, and
religion..... endeared to us by every tie that should sanctify
humanity. My lords, this awful subject, so important to our honour, our
constitution, and our religion, demands the most solemn and effectual
inquiry; and I again call upon your lordships, and the united powers of
the state, to examine it thoroughly and decisively, and to stamp upon
it an indelible stigma of the public abhorrence. More particularly I
implore those holy prelates of religion to do away these iniquities from
among us:--let them perform a lustration; let them purify this house and
this country from this sin!” These were noble sentiments, but the effect
of them was in a great measure lost by the remembrance that Chatham had
done the very same thing in the war with Canada; and that under his own
immediate superintendence. But even if there had not been this drawback
upon this fervent burst of indignation, uttered by the great orator,
it was not in the power of eloquence to alter the determination of
ministers. _They_ daily expected to hear of victories which would stop
the mouths of their antagonists, and therefore resolved to brave the
loud storms of opposition. Public sentiment was also still on their
side; for Chatham’s amendment was rejected by a majority of eighty-four
to twenty-eight, and only two peers signed a protest. Thus, in both
houses, the original address was carried by an overwhelming majority.

DUKE OF RICHMOND’S MOTION FOR INQUIRING INTO THE STATE OF THE NATION.

On the 28th of November the Duke of Richmond moved for a committee of
the house to inquire into the state of the nation. The debate on this
question was postponed till the 2nd of December, and the Earl of Chatham
was there to support it. In his speech, the Duke of Richmond once more
asserted, that the nation was in a rapid process of decay, and that it
could not support the burden of war. The inquiry, he said, should be
as extensive as possible, and he proposed the 2nd of February for the
discussion; and expressed a hope that all papers called for might be
laid before parliament. Ministers assented to the committee; and the
Duke of Richmond then moved for returns of the army and navy, both
in America and Ireland. Chatham now made another speech, in which he
expressed great alarm as to the actual state of those two important
fortresses, Gibraltar and Minorca; contending that they were not secure
from the grasp of France and Spain. He also took occasion again to
extol the Americans, and to plead their cause, still justifying their
opposition to the mother country. The motion was granted without
opposition.

FOX’S MOTION FOR INQUIRING INTO THE STATE OF THE NATION.

On the same day Mr. Fox made a motion, similar to that of the Duke of
Richmond, in the house of commons. The committee was at once agreed to
by ministers; but when Fox made a call for papers, Lord North opposed
it, as liable to make discoveries prejudicial to the interests of the
country. This drew down upon him a series of odious comparisons. Burke
compared him to the “pigmy physician,” who watched over the health of
Sancho Panza, in the government of Barataria, and who snatched away
every dish from his patient’s well-supplied table, on various pretences,
before he could get one mouthful. The house was convulsed with laughter,
but Lord North remained immoveable; nor could the intelligence that the
lords had granted the papers, alter his determination to oppose their
production. Fox again spoke when he discovered that the premier was
resolute; and this time he fell upon the chief manager of American
affairs,--Lord George Germaine. He remarked:--“For two years that
a noble lord has presided over American affairs, the most violent,
scalping, tomahawk measures have been pursued: bleeding has been his
only prescription. If a people, deprived of their ancient rights, are
grown tumultuous, bleed them!--if they are attacked with a spirit of
insurrection, bleed them!--if their fever should rise into rebellion,
bleed them!--cries this state-physician. More blood! more blood! still
more blood! When Dr. Sangrado had persevered in a similar practice of
bleeding his patients, killing by the very means he used for a cure, his
man took the liberty to remonstrate on the necessity of relaxing in a
practice to which thousands of their patients had fallen sacrifices,
and which was beginning to bring their names into disrepute. The doctor
answered, I believe, indeed, that we have carried the matter a little
too far; but you must know I have written a book on the efficacy of
this practice: therefore, though every patient should die by it, we must
continue bleeding, for the credit of my book.” The debate assumed a new
feature from a speech made by Governor Pownall, who argued, that
the production of the papers called for could answer no end. Pownall
declared that he was as uninfluenced by party spirit as he had been
nine years ago, when he predicted the precise progress of American
resistance. He added:--“I now tell the house and government, that
the Americans will never return to their subjection. Sovereignty is
abolished, and gone for ever: the Navigation Act is annihilated. Of what
use, then, are these papers?--of what import our debates? Disputation
and abuse may afford amusement; but neither America nor England can be
benefited by such discussions in the present crisis. Until the house