being required, the legislature of that province eyinced much greater enthusiasm and alacrity, and at once assented to the measure. A corps of five hundred men was raised immediately, prudent officers were selected, and the whole equipped in the best manner that the resources of the province would permit. Dr. Thornton was selected to accompany it as a surgeon, and in the course of the expedition gave evidence of those superior talents which afterwards brought him forwards into public notice in a still more distinguished manner. Colonel William Pepperell, a merchant of unblemished reputation and engaging manners, was appointed to the chief command. Before he accepted this appointment, he consulted with the celebrated George Whitfield, who, in some degree, encouraged the measure, and gave it the appearance of a crusade, by giving as a motto for their flag, Nil desperandum Christo duce. On the first of May, he invested the city of Louisburg. The New Hampshire troops, animated with enthusiastic ardour, partook of all the labours and dangers of the siege, and were employed, during fourteen successive nights, with straps over their shoulders, and sinking to the knees in mud, in drawing cannon from the landing place to the camp, through a morass. A curious exploit of lieutenant general Vaughan, a son of lieutenant governor Vaughan of New Hampshire, inspirited the exertions of the besiegers, and damped the courage of the besieged. Having set the warehouses in the north-east part of the harbour on fire during the night, the smoke was driven by the wind into the grand battery, which created so much terror and confusion among the French, that they abandoned the battery, and retired to the city. The next morning, as Vaughan was returning with only thirteen men, he crept up the hill which overlooked the battery, and observed that the chimnies of the barracks were without smoke, and the staff without a flag. He then bribed

a Cape Cod Indian to crawl in at an embrasure, and open the gate; and, having obtained full possession, addressed the following note to the commanding general: "May it please your honour to be informed, that, by the grace of God, and the courage of thirteen men, I entered the royal battery about nine o'clock, and am waiting for a reinforcement and a flag." In the mean time, a hundred men were despatched in boats to retake the battery; but the intrepid Vaughan, in the face of a brisk fire from the city and the boats, prevented their landing, with his gallant little party, until reinforcements arrived. The successful result of this siege could scarcely have been anticipated, and arose in a great degree from the unprepared and mutinous state of the garrison. It was conducted in a tumultuous manner; for, although the army presented a formidable front to the enemy, the rear was a scene of confusion and frolic: while some were on duty at the trenches, others were racing, wrestling, pitching quoits, firing at marks or at birds, or running after shot from the enemy's guns, for which they received a bounty. A vigorous sortie would have caused the destruction of the scattered besiegers. A plan, indeed, for the reduction of a regularly constructed fortress, drawn by a lawyer, to be executed by a merchant, at the head of a body of husbandmen and mechanics, did not afford very flattering prospects of success. However, on the seventeenth of June, mutiny, discontent, and the want of provisions and stores, induced Rochambeau to surrender, and "the Dunkirk of America" was occupied by the New England troops. If any one circumstance, says a writer of that period, had taken a wrong turn on our side, and if any one circumstance had not taken a wrong turn on the French side, the expedition must have miscarried. The news of this important victory astonished Europe; but the enterprising spirit of New England gave a serious alarm to

those jealous fears which had long predicted the independence of the colonies, and great pains were taken in England to ascribe all the glory to the navy, and lessen the merit of the army.

Dr. Thornton of course participated in the perils of this fortunate expedition, and it is a creditable evidence of the professional abilities and attention of the medical department, that, from among a division of five hundred men, only six individuals died from sickness, previous to the surrender of the town, notwithstanding they had been subjected to excessive toil and constant exposure.

At the commencement of the revolutionary war, Dr. Thornton still resided in Londonderry, and held the rank of a colonel in the militia. He was also commissioned a justice of the peace, under the administration of Benning Wentworth, who was superseded in favour of his nephew, John Wentworth, in 1766; but similar civil appointments, conferring, in any case, little distinction, became so numerous, and were so easily procured during the time of governor Benning Wentworth, that the office was almost rendered contemptible. When he assumed the chair, he found only twenty-five justices of the peace in the whole province; but, in the first commission which he issued, he nominated as many in the town of Portsmouth alone. Numerous publications, ridiculing this profusion of "conservatores pacis," appeared, among which was a pasquinade, published in 1765, and attributed to judge Parker. He humorously observes that

Then, with important air and look,
The sons of Littleton and Coke

Swarming appear'd, to mind the Squires;
(What honours such a post requires !)
These skilful clerks always attending,
Help'd to despatch all matters pending;
Took care that judgment (as it should,)
Was rendered for the man that sued ;
Aided their honours to indite,

And sign'd for those who could not write.
Who but must think these happy times,
When men, adroit to punish crimes,
Were close at hand ?-and, what is better,
Made every little tardy debtor

Fulfil his contract, and to boot,

Pay twice his debt in costs of suit."

In 1775, when the British government was dissolved, and a provincial convention formed for temporary purposes, Matthew Thornton was appointed the first president.

Although the co-operation of the inhabitants of New Hampshire with the other colonies, in their opposition to the Stamp Tax, did not appear very cordial, from their omission to send delegates to the congress of 1765, yet the state assembly, at their next meeting, adopted the same measures, and forwarded petitions to England, similar to those which had been prepared by congress. The provinces of New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Virginia, were unrepresented; but the legislators of the two last were not in session, and the former alone, although joining in the general opposition, declined sending delegates to the convention. This defalcation, so destructive to the unanimity which ought to have characterized the proceedings of the oppressed colonists, probably arose from the exercise of the same influence which created a reluctance on the part of the merchants of Portsmouth to adopt the

non-importation agreement, in 1769; but the popularity and power of governor Wentworth were unable to cope with the spirit of patriotism, strengthened by the conviction that their whole intercourse with the other colonies would be suspended, unless they followed the general example, by forming an association similar to those which had been elsewhere adopted; this was accordingly affected in 1770. But notwithstanding these appearances, the popular spirit of New Hampshire was decidedly, but temperately displayed upon all proper occasions, in opposition to the odious tax which had been imposed. Effigies of the distributor of stamps were exhibited at Portsmouth, and he was compelled publicly to deliver up his commission and instructions, which were mounted on the point of a sword, and carried in triumph through the town: an oath was also administered to him, purporting that he would neither directly nor indirectly attempt to execute his office. The stamp act was to commence its operations on the first day of November, 1765, when the New Hampshire Gazette appeared with a mourning border: the bells tolled, and a funeral procession was made for the Goddess of Liberty; but, on depositing her in the grave, some signs of life were supposed to be discovered, and she was carried off in triumph.

The events which succeeded, and the gradually increasing opposition of the people, until the overthrow of the royal government in the province, have been already mentioned and need not be here repeated. Dr. Thornton took an active and zealous part in all of them, and was looked up to by the whole community as one of the firmest of the patriots, and one of the most prudent leaders. On the flight of governor Wentworth, he arose amid a perilous and appalling scene, to the presidency of the provincial convention. On the second of June, 1775, a few days previous to the flight of the British governor, an address to the inhabitants of the state was pre