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vember another proclamation was published by BOOK the commissioners, offering a pardon and indemnity to all persons who should within the space of sixty days surrender themselves to any of his majesty's general officers, admirals, &c. and subscribe a declaration of loyalty and obedience. This proclamation being issued during the high tide of success attending the royal arms, very many persons, timid or treacherous, subscribed to the declaration accordingly; but at no time did the congress discover any symptoms of irresolution. They removed indeed their session from Philadelphia to Baltimore in Maryland, where they adopted very vigorous measures both of offence and defence. They declared the property of the subjects of Great Britain taken on the high seas to be lawful prize; they resolved upon raising eighty-eight battalions to serve during the war; they nominated three of their body, of whom Dr. Franklin was one, commissioners to the court of Versailles, to solicit aid and assistance, and to propose the plan of a treaty of friendship, commerce, and alliance; they enlarged the powers of their general, vesting in him a kind of dictatorial authority for the space of six months; and they resolved that all bills of credit emitted by congress should pass current in all transactions, and whoever refused to receive the same in the common course of

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BOOK payment should be deemed an enemy to the liberties of America, and should be treated ac1776. cordingly. SUCH was the state of America at the termination of the campaign of 1776, which though late in its commencement, and short in its duration, abounded in action, and exhibited vicissitudes of fortune singularly important and interesting.

The intelligence of the successes attending the British arms on Long Island and at New York reached England some time before the meeting of parliament, which was convened October 31, 1776. In his speech from the throne, the king, with unguarded and undig nified intemperance of language, informed the two houses," that so daring and desperate was the spirit of those leaders, whose object has only been dominion and power, that they have now openly renounced all allegiance to the crown, and all political connection with this country; they have rejected, with circumstances of indignity and insult, the means of conciliation held out to them, and have PRESUMED to set up their REBELLIOUS CONFEDERACIES as INDEPENDENT STATES. If their TREASON be suffered to take root, much mischief must grow from it to the present system of all Europe." His majesty was happy to inform them, "that the successes already obtained had been so important as te

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give the strongest hopes of the most decisive BOOK good consequences; but notwithstanding this fair prospect, it was necessary at all events to prepare for ANOTHER CAMPAIGN." Addresses, the echo of the speech, were brought forward in both houses; but an amendment, which was in reality another address in a totally different strain, was moved by lord John Cavendish in the house of Commons, and the marquis of Rockingham in the house of lords, containing a masterly recapitulation of the manifold errors of that system which had caused the entire alienation, and at length the open revolt, of so large a part of his majesty's once loyal and affectionate subjects. It concluded with the observation, "that a wise and provident use of the late advantages might be productive of happy effects, as the means of establishing a permanent connection between Great Britain and her colonies, o principles of liberty, and terms of mutual benefit. We should look," said this truly excellent and admirable address, "with shame and horror on any events that should bow them to an abject and unconditional submission to any power whatsoever-annihilate their liberties, and subdue them to servile principles and passive habits by the mere force of foreign mercenary arms.

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The speech from the throne, under the esta

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BOOK blished and decorous pretext of its being the speech of the minister, was treated with the most contemptuous and sarcastic severity. "Where," it was asked, "are those mighty leaders to be found whom the Americans obey so implicitly, and who govern them with so despotic a rule? They have no grandees among them; their soil is not productive of nobility; in no country are there in fact so few individuals possessed of a commanding or extensive influence; the president of their supreme assembly is a merchant; the general of their armies a private gentleman. Nothing could be more evident, than that a sense of common danger and of common suffering had driven them to the necessity of creating leaders who were possessed only of such powers as the people had thought it expedient to entrust them with. In the same spirit of FALSEHOOD it is asserted, that the Americans had rejected with circumstances of indignity and insult the terms of conciliation offered them.' The truth was, that no terms had been offered them but the offer of pardon on unconditional submission, which the ministers well knew they would never accept; nor was even this mock offer made till the whole system of irritation and oppression was completed by the injustice and cruelty of the Capture Act, by which they were put out of the protection of the law, and their property held

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out as common spoil. The position in the BOOK speech, so undeniably true, that no people ever enjoyed greater happiness, or lived under 1778. a milder government, than these now revolted colonies,' implied the severest censure on those who had so wantonly and wickedly departed from a system which had produced such noble and wonderfui effects." The expectation of unanimity from the present situation of affairs was, however, said to be of all the parts of this extravagant speech the most ridiculous. "What! shall we at last concur in measures, because all the mischiefs which we originally predicted have ultimately resulted from them? Have ministers the unparalleled effrontery to call upon us to give OUR sanction to that fatal system which we in vain warned and implored them to shun, and which persisted in must terminate in utter ruin ?” On a division, the amendment was rejected in the house of commons by a majority of 242 to 87, and in the house of peers by 91 to 26, fourteen of whom joined in a protest, in which the proposed amendment was verbatim inserted, in order that it might remain as a perpetual memorial on the journals of that house.

In a few days after the addresses were presented, lord John Cavendish, exhibiting in the house a printed paper, purporting to be a proclamation of his majesty's commissioners in Ame

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