XXII.

Feb.

faith. "Your brother died there in the cause of CHAP. freedom; they have shown their gratitude to your name and family by erecting a monument to him." 1775. "If you go,” said many of them, "we hope you may fall." "We cannot wish success to the undertaking," said many more. "My going thither," wrote Howe in apology, "is not my seeking. I was ordered, and could not refuse. Private feelings ought to give way to the service of the public. There are many loyal and peaceable subjects in America; the insurgents are very few in comparison. When they find they are not supported in their frantic ideas by the more moderate, they will, from fear of punishment, subside to the laws. This country must now fix the foundation of its stability with America, by procuring a lasting obedience."

At the same time, Lord Howe, the admiral, was announced as commander of the naval forces and pacificator; for it was pretended that the olive branch and the sword were to be sent together.

Of the two major generals who attended Howe, the first in rank was Sir Henry Clinton, son of a former governor in New York, related to the families of Newcastle and Bedford, and connected by party with the ministry. The other was John Burgoyne. A bastard son of one peer, he had made a runaway match with the daughter of another. In the last war he served in Portugal with spirit, and was brave even to rashness. His talent for description made him respectable as a man of letters; as a dramatic writer, his place is not among the worst. He was also a ready speaker in the house of commons, inclining to the liberal side in politics; yet

CHAP.

XXI ready to risk life and political principles for the darling object of effacing the shame of his birth, by winFeb. ning military glory with rank and fortune.

1775.

His service in America was preceded by a public parade of his principles. "I am confident," said the new devotee in the house of commons, "there is not an officer or soldier in the king's service who does not think the parliamentary right of Great Britain a cause to fight for, to bleed and die for." The assertion was extravagant; many of the best would not willingly bear arms against their kindred in America.

In reply to Burgoyne, Henry Temple Luttrell, whom curiosity once led to travel many hundreds of miles along the flourishing and hospitable provinces of the continent, bore testimony to their temperance, urbanity, and spirit, and predicted that, if set to the proof, they would evince the magnanimity of republican Rome. He saw in the aspect of infant America, features which at maturer years denoted a most colossal force. "Switzerland and the Netherlands," he reminded the house, "demonstrate what extraor dinary obstacles a small band of insurgents may surmount in the cause of liberty."

While providing for a reinforcement to its army, England enjoined the strictest watchfulness on its consuls and agents in every part of Europe, to intercept all munitions of war destined for the colonies. To check the formation of magazines on the Dutch island of St. Eustatius, which was the resort of New England mariners, the British envoy, with dictatorial menaces, required the States General of Holland to forbid their subjects from so much as transporting military stores to the West Indies, beyond the abso

XXII.

lute wants of their own colonies. Of the French CHAP. government, preventive measures were requested in the most courteous words.

Meantime, an English vessel had set sail immediately to convey to the colonies news of Lord North's proposal, in the confident belief that, under the mediation of a numerous army, provinces which neither had the materials for war, nor the means of obtaining them, would be divided by the mere hint of giving up the point of taxation. "The plan," said Chatham, "will be spurned; and every thing but justice and reason, prove vain to men like the Americans." "It is impossible," said Fox, "to use the same resolution to make the Americans believe their government will give up the right of taxing, and the mother country that it will be maintained."

Franklin sent advice to Massachusetts by no means to begin war without the advice of the continental congress, unless on a sudden emergency; "but New England alone," said he, "can hold out for ages against this country, and if they are firm and united, in seven years will win the day." "By wisdom and courage, the colonies will find friends everywhere;" thus he wrote to James Bowdoin of Boston, as if predicting a French alliance. a French alliance. "The eyes of all Christendom are now upon us, and our honor as a people is become a matter of the utmost consequence. If we tamely give up our rights in this contest, a century to come will not restore us, in the opinion of the world; we shall be stamped with the character of dastards, poltroons, and fools; and be despised and trampled upon, not by this haughty, insolent nation only, but by all mankind. Present

1775.

Feb.

XXII.

CHAP. inconveniences are, therefore, to be borne with fortitude, and better times expected."

1775. Feb.

"Every negotiation which shall proceed from the present administration," wrote Garnier to Vergennes, "will be without success in the colonies. Will the king of England lose America rather than change his ministry? Time must solve the problem; if I am well informed, the submission of the Americans is not to be expected."

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE BOSTON MASSACRE.

FEBRUARY-MARCH, 1775.

XXIII.

1775.

THE French minister judged rightly; the English CHAP government had less discernment and was deceived by men who had undertaken to secure New York to Feb. the crown, if their intrigues could be supported by a small military force.

But the friends of the British system in that colony were not numerous, and were found only on the surface. The Dutch Americans formed the basis of the population, and were in a special manner animated by the glorious example of their fathers, who had proved to the world that a small people under great discouragements can found a republic. The story of their strife with Spain, their successful daring, their heroism during their long war for freedom, was repeated on the banks of the Hudson and the Mohawk. It was remembered, too, that England herself owed her great revolution, the renovation of her own political system, to Holland. How hard, then, that the superior power which had been the fruit of