the same sentiment, that Americans will fight for their liberties and property, however pusillanimous, in his lordship's eyes, they may appear in other respects." "Americans will fight," wrote Franklin; "England has lost her colonies for ever." Franklin's mind, as is evident, had become more and more incensed against the British legislature. "Mr. Strahan," runs his well-known epistle to his old friend, William Strahan, the printer, "you are a member of Parliament, and one of the majority which has doomed my country to destruction. You have begun to burn our towns and murder our people. Look upon your hands. They are stained. with the blood of your relations. You and I were long friends; you are now my enemy, and I am yours, Benjamin Franklin."

It was apparently owing to the supineness with which General Gage had allowed himself to be blockaded within his lines, as well as to the recent untoward military events which had taken place under his command, that, in the month of October, the hearts of the people of Boston were gladdened by seeing him take his departure from their shores. Ministers, by ascribing his recall to a desire to consult with him in respect to the plan of the next campaign, allowed him to fall with respectability. General Howe was appointed to

'General Thomas Gage, formerly Governor of Montreal and afterward Governor of Massachusetts, died on the 2d of April, 1788. He was the second son of Thomas, first Viscount Gage.

the chief command of the British forces in his room.'

In the meantime, the bold spirit of resistance which animated the people of Massachusetts was rapidly diffusing itself over the other colonies. In Virginia so threatening became the aspect of affairs, that the governor of the province, the Earl of Dunmore, was compelled to seek refuge on board a British man-of-war; nor was it long before Lord William Campbell and Governor Martin, the respective Governors of North and South Carolina, deemed it prudent to imitate his example. Another important event, at this time, was the accession of the Province of Georgia to the general confederacy; thus enabling the people of America to designate themselves by a title which they had long coveted, - that of the Thirteen United Colonies. "I fear," writes the English secretary at war, Lord Barrington, "we shall not suppress the rebellion, though we may, and probably shall, beat the rebels." The sagacious Judge Livingston, on the other side of the Atlantic, had long been of the same opinion. "It is intolerable," were his words to his family, as far back as the year 1773, "that a continent like America should be governed by a little island three thousand miles away. America must and will be

independent."

'General, afterward Sir William Howe, on the death of his brother, the celebrated admiral, in 1799, succeeded him as fifth Viscount Howe. He died in 1814.

CHAPTER II.

Reluctance of the Americans to Break off from the "Old Country" The "Olive Branch" Petition to the King - No Answer Given to It — The Lake Forts Taken by the Americans - Unconciliatory Royal Speech on Opening Parliament Warm Debates - Duke of Grafton Retires from Office Lord George Germaine Appointed Secretary for American Affairs Speech of Edmund Burke in Favour of Conciliation. -"Lord North's Prohibitory Bill" Passed - Fox's Motion for Inquiry Negatived by the Commons, and the Duke of Grafton's Plan of Conciliation Rejected by the LordsMontreal Occupied by the Americans Siege of Quebec The Americans Evacuate Canada.

SLIGHT reason as there was for the Americans to retain their ancient affection for Great Britain, they nevertheless attributed their wrongs rather to the aristocratic form of her government than to any unfriendly feelings on the part of the British nation, and, accordingly, the great mass of the American people were still reluctant to break off the ties which united them to the "old country," without making a further attempt to effect a reconciliation. Under these circumstances, it was proposed and carried in Congress in the month of June, that, on condition of Great Britain foregoing altogether her assertion of right to tax her colonies,

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and also conceding them a free commerce, America, on her part, would not only continue to vote pecuniary aids to the mother country, but would undertake to discharge the whole of her debts within the space of a century. Congress, at the same time, drew up a petition to the king, in which - styling him the "king's most excellent Majesty," and preferring their complaints in the most loyal and dutiful language — they humbly entreated him to exercise his benevolence and magnanimity in reëstablishing peace and unity between the two countries. This document, on the success of which the Americans rested their last fleeting hopes of being able to avert the horrors of civil war, was tenderly designated by them "The Olive Branch." Its safe transmission to Great Britain was entrusted to Richard Penn, an honoured proprietary of Pennsylvania, who in due time sailed with it to England, attended by the sanguine hopes and ardent prayers of every lover of peace throughout the great continent of America.

It was on the 1st of September that Penn placed in the hands of the amiable and well-intentioned Earl of Dartmouth this memorable appeal, on which depended the integrity of a great empire and the freedom or bondage of millions. Dartmouth, a timid and cautious statesman, received it, pending a consultation with his colleagues, in ominous silence. Constituted as the Cabinet was, its fate may be readily conceived. To the Norths,

the Dartmouths, and the Sandwiches, nothing could be easier than to arrive at the conclusion that Congress, being a self-constituted body, and its constituents being in open rebellion, had put themselves beyond the pale of recognition. And such, unhappily, proved to be the result of their deliberations. It was coldly intimated to the American. people that no notice could be taken of their petition. Thus, then, did Great Britain fling away the last chance of conciliating the colonies, and preventing the dismemberment of the empire! And what were likely to be the feelings of the American people, — of the husbandman hesitating to sharpen his bayonet; of the wife trembling for the safety of her husband; of the mother for her son,when, after weeks, if not months, of hope deferred, the fact became known, over the length and breadth of the land, that their "Olive Branch" lay a dead letter in a secretary of state's office, and that the words, "No answer would be given," constituted the only recognition which it would probably every receive? Then it was, that indignation effectually took the place of ancient sympathies and affections! Then it was, that the brave vowed to stand by the brave, and the timid sought to animate the timid. From that moment,

whenever the man of peace urged the unrighteousness of shedding human blood; whenever the philanthropist descanted on the awful consequences of plunging into civil war; whenever the waver