of our

have done honour even to the most veteran troops. They did not return a shot, until the king's forces had advanced almost to the works, when they began, and kept up for some time such a dreadful and continued fire upon them, as threw our troops into confusion, and killed many bravest men and officers. The troops, however, were instantly rallied, and returning to the charge with fixed bayonets, and irresistible fury, they forced the works in every quarter, and compelled the provincials to abandon the post, and withdraw to the continent. This advantage, however, was not gained but at a very great expence. Almost one half of the detachment was either killed or wounded, the numbers of which together amounted to one thousand and fifty-four,

The number of officers that fell in this action, compared to that of the private men, was greatly beyond the usual proportion; and this is said to have been owing to the following circumstance:-The Americans had trained, and employed on this occasion, a certain set of soldiers, called marksmen or riflemen, who excelled all others in taking a sure and steady aim. They had likewise furnished them with a new kind of muskets, called rifle-barrelled guns, which not only carried the ball to a greater distance, but sent it in a more straight and direct line than the common firelocks. Thus our officers were marked out, and dispatched by these riflemen with almost as fatal a certainty, as a bird is shot by a fowler when perched upon a tree.

To understand their motive for this conduct it may be proper to observe, that during the whole course of the war the Americans expressed a particular animosity to the officers of the British army beyond what they shewed to the common men, and probably from an opinion, that the war was disapproved of by the great body of the English nation, and was chiefly approved and supported by the nobility and gentry, of which two classes of people the officers of the army are in general composed. They, probably, too, had another end in view; and that was to entice the common mep to desert from the army, and if not immediately to join the American forces, at least to become. settlers in the country, and thereby add to its strength and population; nor could any thing withstand the strong temptations that were thrown in their way for this purpose, but their fidelity to their king, and their attachment to their native soil.

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The spirit displayed by the New-Englanders on this occasion, no doubt, encouraged the congress to proceed with greater alacrity in their military preparations. They had, some time before, given orders for raising and paying an army, and they now published a declaration of the motives that compelled them to take up arms, and their determined resolution not to lay them down, till all their grievances were redressed, that is, till the obnoxious acts of parliament were repealed. They likewise appointed Mr. Washington, one of the delegates for Virginia, to be commander in chief of all the American forces.

But to shew, at the same time, that they had no intention of separating themselves from the mother-country, they presented an address to the inhabitants of Great-Britain, another to the people of Ireland, and a petition to the king, in which they disclaim all thoughts of independence, and declare, that they wish for nothing more ardently than a reconciliation with the parent-state, upon what they call just and reasonable terms. And, in the opinion of many people, such terms might have been granted them at this time, as would at once have gratified their ambition, and would neither bave hurt the honour nor the interest of England. For this purpose several plans were proposed by the minority; but they were all rejected.

Our ministers, indeed, seem now to have been possessed with the romantic notion of conquering America by force of arms, which, perhaps, was at no time practicable; or had it been, the keeping it in subjection would have cost us more than all the advantage we could ever have derived from it. Perhaps, indeed, no country is worth retaining that cannot be preserved otherwise than by a military force. So strong, however, was the delusion under which the ministry then laboured, that they were incapable of having their eyes opened even by the very interesting intelligence they received from Mr. Peun, one of the most wealthy and best-informed gentlemen in America. He was a de

scendant of the great Penn who had founded the colony of Pennsylvania; he was himself one of the chief proprietors of that province; and he had brought over the last petition to the king from the American congress. He was now examined in the house of lords, and the sum of his evidence tended to prove, that the colonies had not yet formed any design of erecting themselves into independent states; that, on the contrary, they were extremely desirous

of compromising all differences with the mother-country upon equitable terms; but that, if their present application for this purpose (meaning the petition) was rejected, there was great reason to fear that they would enter into alliances with foreign powers: and if once such alliances were made, it would be no easy matter to dissolve them. No regard, however, was paid to his information; and as to the petition itself, he was told by the ministry, that no answer would be returned to it.

It is easy to imagine what an impression such a haughty and contemptuous treatment must make upon the minds of the Americans, elated, as they were, with the honour they had acquired by their gallant behaviour in the battle of Bunker's-hill, and now, perhaps, for the first time, beginning to feel their strength as a people. The fact is, that during the whole of this unhappy quarrel, our ministers seem to have entertained too mean an opinion of the spirit, as well as of the resources of the Americans. This, it is thought, was the critical moment for putting an end to all differences with the colonies, without proceeding to turther hostilities; but this moment being once lost could never be recovered.

The Americans were not satisfied with acting merely on the defensive, or within the limits of the associated provinces. A party of New-England and New-York militia made an incursion into Canada, under the generals Montgomery and Arnold. They reduced the forts of Chamblee and St. John, and even the town of Montreal. They actually attempted to take the city of Quebec by storm; but Montgomery being killed, and Arnold wounded in the assault, they were obliged to desist from the enterprise; and a large body of troops arriving soon after from England, they were finally compelled to evacuate the province.

The army, however, in Boston, was now reduced to a most miserable condition. General Howe, who had succeeded general Gage in the command of it, though an officer of spirit, and of great military skill, and even fruitful in resources and expedients, found himself totally unequal to the difficulties of his situation. He was effectually cut off from all communication with the continent of America, from which he could not expect the least supply of provisions; the store-ships from England not only arriving slowly, but several of them were even intercepted by the enemy. In a word, the army, as well as the inhabitants of Boston, were in the nost imminent danger of perishing

by hunger. To add to their distress, the Americans had erected some strong batteries upon the adjacent hills, from whence in the spring they began to play upon the town

with incredible fury; and now assailed at once by A. D. the horrors of war and of famine, neither of which 1776. it was in their power to repel, they found it indispensably necessary to evacuate the place. The army accordingly, and such of the inhabitants as chose to follow its fortunes, being put on board some transports, they set sail from Boston, and, after a quick passage, arrived safely at Halifax, in Nova Scotia. General Howe had no sooner quitted the town than general Washington took possession of it, and being assisted by some foreign engineers, he soon fortified it in such a manner as to render it almost impregnable.

About the same time an expedition was undertaken against Charles-Town, the capital of South Carolina, which shewed us to be as little acquainted with creeks and harbours on the coast of America, as we soon after appeared to be with the interior geography of the country. The fleet was commanded by Sir Peter Parker; the land-forces by generalClinton. The troops were disembarked upon a place called Long Island, separated from another named Sullivan's Island only by a strait,' which was said to be no more than eighteen inches deep at low water. Upon this vague report our commanders planned the expedition; and the success was such, as might have been expected. The enemy had erected some strong batteries upon Sullivan's Island, in order to obstruct the passage of the ships up to the town. This post the admiral attacked with great gallantry; but when the troops attempted to pass from the one island to the other, in order to second his efforts, they found the strait instead of eighteen inches, to be no less than seven feet deep. The consequence was, that the admiral, after continuing the action for the space of ten hours, and after having lost some of his bravest men and officers, and even a ship of war, which he was obliged to burn to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy, was at last forced fo give up the enterprise as altogether impracticable,

The news of this miscarriage, and of the mistake that gave rise to it, were received in England with the most perfect indifference. The fact is, that our ministers, and indeed a great part of the people, seem at this time to have fallen into a state of the most unaccountable listlessness and

inattention to the national, honour and the national interest. The people at large appeared to have been of opinion, that as no great honour could be derived from success in this war, so no great disgrace could be incurred by a failure in it; and losses and disappointments, which, had we been engaged in hostilities with a foreign enemy, would have fired the nation with resentment, and called down the utmost weight. of public vengeance upon the authors of them, were now passed over as common and trivial occurrences.

The Americans now began to think that matters had been carried to too great an extremity between them and the mother-country, ever to admit of any sincere or lasting reconciliation. They likewise reflected, that while they continued to acknowledge themselves subjects of the British empire, they were naturally regarded by the rest of the world as rebels fighting against their lawful sovereign; and that this might prevent foreign states from entering into any public treaty or alliance with them. Moved, therefore, by these considerations, they published, about this time, their famous declaration of independence, by which they disclaimed all allegiance to the crown of GreatBritain, and erected themselves into free and sovereign states.

General Howe did not remain long inactive at Halifax. Setting sail from that place, he arrived off New York; and being there joined by his brother, lord Howe, with a large fleet and considerable reinforcements, he drove the enemy first from Long Island, then from the city of New York; and he compelled them to abandon Kingsbridge, at the extremity of New York Island, where they had thrown up some very strong works. He even pursued them to a place called White Plains, where he had a slight skirmish with them; but not being able to bring them to a general engagement, he returned to New York, where he fixed his headquarters.

The affairs of the congress were reported at this time to be in a very desperate situation. As their troops had been enlisted only for a certain term, which was now expired, their army is said to have dwindled down from twenty-five thousand to three thousand men. Two strokes, however, which general Washington soon after struck, and which contributed equally to raise the spirits of his own men, and to damp those of the British troops, seem to correspond very ill with this opinion. On the night of Christmas-day