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cated civil war, necessarily involving a foreign one CHAP. also." "A fit and proper resistance," said Wilkes, "is a revolution, not a rebellion. Who can tell, 1775. whether in consequence of this day's violent and 7. mad address, the scabbard may not be thrown away by the Americans as well as by us, and should success attend them, whether, in a few years, the Americans may not celebrate the glorious era of the revolution of 1775 as we do that of 1688? Success crowned the generous effort of our forefathers for freedom; else they had died on the scaffold as traitors and rebels, and the period of our history which does us the most honor, would have been deemed a rebellion against lawful authority, not the expulsion of a tyrant."

During the debate, which lasted till half past two in the morning, Lord North threw off the responsibility of the tax on tea, in order to prepare the way for offering the repeal of that tax as the basis for conciliation. It was too late, for a new question of the power of parliament over charters and laws had intervened. The disavowal offended his colleagues, and in itself was not honest; his vote had decided the measure in the cabinet, and it was unworthy of a minister of the crown to intimate that he had obsequiously followed a chief like Grafton, or yielded his judgment to the king.

Lord George Germaine was fitly selected to deliver the message of the commons at the bar of the lords. "There is in the address one paragraph which I totally disclaim;" said Rockingham; "I openly declare, I will risk neither life nor fortune in support of the measures recommended. Four-fifths of the

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CHAP. nation are opposed to this address; for myself, I shall not tread in the steps of my noble but ill-fated anFeb. cestor, Lord Strafford, who first courted popular 7. favor, and then deserted the cause he had embarked in; as I have set out by supporting the cause of the people, so I shall never, for any temptation whatsoever, desert or betray them."

Mansfield, as if in concert with North, took the occasion to deny having advised the tea tax; which he condemned as the most absurd measure that could be imagined. "The original cause of the dispute," said Camden, "is the duty on tea," and he too disclaimed having had the least hand in that measure. "It is mean," said Grafton, "for him at this time to screen himself, and shift the blame off his own shoulders, to lay it on those of others. The measure was consented to in the cabinet. He acquiesced in it; he presided in the house of lords when it passed through its several stages; and he should equally share its censure or its merit."

A passionate debate ensued, during which Mansfield, in reply to Richmond, praised the Boston port act and its attendant measures, including the regulating act for Massachusetts, as worthy to be gloried in for their wisdom, policy, and equity; but he denied that they were in any degree the fruit of his influence. Now they were founded on the legal opinions and speeches of Mansfield, and he had often in the house of lords been the mouth-piece of Hutchinson, whose opinions reached him through Mauduit. Shelburne insinuated that Mansfield's disclaimer was in substance not correct. Mansfield retorted by charging Shelburne with uttering gross falsehoods;

and Shelburne in a rejoinder gave the illustrious CHAP. jurist the lie.

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9.

On Thursday, the ninth day of February, the lord 1775. chancellor, the speaker, and a majority of the lords and commons went in state to the palace, and in the presence of the representatives of the great powers of Europe, presented to George the Third the sanguinary address which the two houses of parliament had jointly adopted, and which, in the judgment of Rockingham and his friends, " amounted to a declaration of war." The king, in his reply, pledged himself speedily and effectually to enforce "obedience to the laws and the authority of the supreme legisla ture." His heart was hardened. Having just heard of the seizure of ammunition at the fort in New Hampshire, he intended that his language should "open the eyes of the deluded Americans." 66 If it does not,” said he to his faltering minister, "it must set every delicate man at liberty to avow the propriety of the most coercive measures."

CHAPTER XXI.

THE SPIRIT OF NEW ENGLAND.

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FEBRUARY, 1775.

CHAP. ON the day on which the king received the address of parliament, the members of the second provincial congress of Massachusetts, about two hundred and fourteen in number, appointed eleven men as their committee of safety, charged to resist every attempt at executing the acts of parliament. For this purpose they were empowered to take possession of the warlike stores of the province, to make returns of the militia and minute men, and to muster so many of the militia as they should judge necessary. General officers were appointed to command the force that should be so assembled. First of those who accepted the trust was Artemas Ward, a soldier of some experience in the French war. Next him as brigadier, stood Seth Pomeroy, the still older veteran, who had served at the siege of Louisburg.

"Resistance to tyranny," thus the congress addressed the inhabitants of the Massachusetts Bay, "becomes the Christian and social duty of each indi

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vidual. Fleets, troops, and every implement of war CHAP. are sent into the province, to wrest from you that freedom which it is your duty, even at the risk of your lives, to hand inviolate to posterity. Continue steadfast, and with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which Heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us."

These rustic statesmen, in their sincere simplicity, were the true representatives of the inhabitants of Massachusetts. They came together tremulous with emotion, yet resolved from duty never to yield. They were frugal even to parsimony, making the most sparing appropriations ever thought of by a nation preparing for war; yet they held their property and their blood of less account than liberty. They were startled at the lightest rustling of impending danger, but they were no more moved from their deep seated purpose than the granite rock which seems to quiver with the flickering shadow of the overhanging cloud, as the wind drives it by. "Life and liberty shall go together," was their language. "Our exist ence as a free people absolutely depends on our acting with spirit and vigor," said Joseph Warren; and he wished England to know that the Americans had courage enough to fight for their freedom. "The people," said Samuel Adams, " will defend their liberties with dignity. One regular attempt to subdue this or any other colony, whatever may be the first issue of the attempt, will open a quarrel which will never be closed, till what some of them affect to apprehend, and we truly deprecate, shall take effect."

The second provincial congress before its adjournment appointed a committee to prepare in the recess

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