troops arrived from Fincastle. Following orders tardily received from Dunmore, the army, leaving a garrison at Point Pleasant, dashed across the Ohio to defy new battles. After a march of eighty miles through an untrodden wilderness, on the twenty-fourth of October they encamped on the banks of Congo creek in Pickaway, near old Chillicothe. The disheartened Indians threw themselves on the mercy of the English; and at Camp Charlotte, which stood on the left bank of Sippo creek, about seven miles south-east of Circleville, Dunmore admitted them to a conference.

Before the council was brought to a close the Shawnees agreed to deliver up their prisoners without reserve; to restore all horses and other property which they had carried off; to hunt no more on the Kentucky side of the Ohio; to molest no boats on the river; to regulate their trade by the king's instructions, and to deliver up hostages. Virginia has left on record her judgment, that Dunmore's conduct in this campaign was "truly noble, wise, and spirited." The results inured exclusively to the benefit of America. The Indians desired peace; the rancor of the white people changed to confidence. The royal governor of Virginia and the Virginian army in the valley of the Scioto nullified the act of parliament which extended the province of Quebec to the Ohio, and in the name of the king of Great Britain triumphantly maintained for Virginia the western and northwestern jurisdiction which she claimed as her chartered right.

The western Virginians, halting at Fort Gower, on the north of the Ohio, on the fifth of November, took their part in considering the grievances of their country. They were "blessed with the talents" to bear all hardships of the woods; to pass weeks comfortably without bread or salt; to sleep under the open sky; to march farther in a day than any men in the world; and to use the rifle with a precision that to all but themselves was a miracle. Professing zeal for the honor of America, and especially of Virginia, they held themselves bound to publish their sentiments; they promised continued allegiance to the king, if he would but reign over them as "a brave and free people." "But," said they, "as attachment to the real interests and just rights of America outweigh

every other consideration, we resolve that we will exert every power within us for the defence of American liberty, when regularly called forth by the unanimous voice of our countrymen."

On the ninth, the general committee of South Carolina summoned a convention of the inhabitants of their colony by representation. In the apportionment of representatives, Charleston, on the proposal of Charles Pinckney, obtained thirty, keeping up the inequality which began in the committee; at the desire of "the country gentlemen," six were allowed to each of nineteen parishes, which lay along the sea and in the lowlands; while all the upland territory was divided into four very large districts, to each of which ten only were conceded. This is the origin of the unequal distribution of political power which long prevailed in South Carolina; of one hundred and eighty-four representatives, the low country elected all but forty.

On the twenty-first, the Maryland convention was reassembled, and unanimously approved the proceedings of congress. It most earnestly recommended that all former differences about religion or politics, the feuds of so many generations between Catholics and Protestants, between the friends and the foes of the proprietary government, be forever buried in oblivion; it conjured every man, by his duty to God, his country, and his posterity, to unite in defence of their common rights and liberties; and it promised, to the utmost of its power, to support Massachusetts against the attempt to carry the late act of parliament into execution by force.

CHAPTER VI.

THE FOURTEENTH PARLIAMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN.

OCTOBER 1774-JANUARY 20, 1775.

"IT is the united voice of America to preserve their freedom, or lose their lives in defence of it. Their resolutions are not the effect of inconsiderate rashness, but the sound result of sober inquiry and deliberation. The true spirit of liberty was never so universally diffused through all ranks and orders of people in any country on the face of the earth as it now is through all North America. If the late acts of parliament are not to be repealed, the wisest step for both countries is to separate, and not to spend their blood and treasure in destroying each other. It is barely possible that Great Britain may depopulate North America; she never can conquer the inhabitants." So wrote Joseph Warren, and his words were the mirror of the passions of his countrymen. But the king never once harbored the thought of concession, and "left the choice of war or peace" to depend on the obedience of Massachusetts.

At the elections to parliament the question was represented as though Massachusetts refused to pay a very moderate indemnity for property destroyed by a mob, and resisted an evident improvement in its administrative system from a deliberate conspiracy with other colonies to dissolve the connection with the mother country. Many of the members who were purchasing seats expected to reimburse themselves by selling their votes to the government.

Lord Varney, who had hitherto gratuitously brought Edmund Burke into parliament, had fallen into debt, and sold his borough for the most he could get. Burke coquetted

with Wilkes for support at Westminster; "the great patriot" preferred Lord Mahon; but the borough elected tories. Burke fell into melancholy, and thought of renouncing public life, for which he owned himself unfit. There seemed for him no way into the house of commons except through a rotten borough belonging to Rockingham. This was his best hope, when, on the eleventh of October, he was invited to become a candidate at Bristol against Viscount Clare, who, in the debates on the stamp act, had stickled for "the pepper-corn" from America. He hastened to the contest with alacrity, avowing for his principle the reconciliation of British superiority with American liberty; and, after a struggle of three weeks, he and Henry Cruger of New York were chosen to represent the great trading city of western England.

Bristol was almost the only place which changed its representation to the advantage of America. Wilkes was successful in the county of Middlesex, and, after a ten years' struggle with the king, took his seat without opposition.

William Howe was the candidate for Nottingham. To the questions of that liberal constituency he answered that the ministry had pushed matters too far; that the whole British army would not be sufficient to conquer America; that, if offered a command there, he would refuse it; and that he would vote for the repeal of the four penal acts of parliament.

The elections were over, when, on the eighteenth of November, letters of the preceding September, received from Gage, announced that the act of parliament for regulating the government of Massachusetts could be carried into effect only after the conquest of all the New England colonies; that the province had warm friends throughout the continent; that the people in Carolina were "as mad" as in Boston; that the country people in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island were exercising in arms and forming magazines of ammunition and such artillery, good and bad, as they could procure; that the civil officers of the British government had no asylum but Boston. In a private letter, Gage proposed that the obnoxious acts should be suspended. In an official paper he hinted that it would be well to cut the colonies adrift, and leave them to anarchy and repentance; they had grown opu

lent through Britain, and, were they cast off and declared aliens, they must become a needy people. The king heard these suggestions with scorn, and said to North: "The New England governments are now in a state of rebellion; blows must decide whether they are to be subject to this country or to be independent." Franklin warned his nearest friends that there was no safety for America but in total emancipation.

The fourteenth parliament was opened on the last day of November. The speech from the throne fixed attention on the disobedience in Massachusetts. In the house of lords, Hillsborough moved an address, expressing abhorrence of the principles of that province. After a long and vehement debate, his motion prevailed by a vote of about five to one. But Rockingham, Shelburne, Camden, Stanhope, and five other, peers, entered a protest against "the inconsiderate temerity which might precipitate the country into a civil war." "The king's speech," wrote Garnier to Vergennes, "will complete the alienation of the colonies. Every day makes conciliation more difficult and more needed."

On the fifth of December the new house of commons debated the same subject. Fox, Burke, and others spoke warmly. The results of the congress had not arrived; Lord North could therefore say that America had as yet offered no terms; at the same time he avoided the irrevocable word rebellion. Some called the Americans cowards; some questioned their being in earnest; Barré declared the scheme of subduing them "wild and impracticable;" the minister was sustained by a very great majority.

To escape impending difficulties, Lord North wished to send out commissioners of inquiry; but the king would not listen to it.

Friends of Franklin were next employed to ascertain the extent of his demands for America; and he wrote "hints on the terms that might produce a durable union between Great Britain and the colonies." Assuming that the tea duty act would be repealed, he offered payment for the tea that had been destroyed, support of the peace establishment and government, liberal aids in time of war on requisition by the king and parliament, and, if Britain would give up its monopoly of