to oppose them. A brief skirmish ensued, in which the Americans were defeated with some loss, and the detachment, proceeding to Concord, destroyed all the stores that they found. But they were not permitted to return unmolested; the militia, assembling in force, furiously assailed their flanks and rear; a constant fire of rifles was maintained from every hedge and every wall which skirted the road, and had not a regiment under the command of lord Percy been sent from Boston to cover their retreat, the entire detachment would have been destroyed. It was late in the evening when the British forces arrived at last within the lines of their own fortifications, having lost 65 killed, 180 wounded, and 28 prisoners.

3. Blood having been thus drawn, the whole of the discontented colonies boldly prepared to maintain the inevitable contest. Volunteers enrolled themselves in every province, and the king's stores were everywhere seized and appropriated to the use of the insurgents. The fortress of Ticonderoga and Crown Point were surprised by a body of militia, and the Americans thus obtained possession of 100 pieces of cannon and a proportionate quantity of ammunition. The towns and villages in the neighbourhood of Boston were garrisoned, and that city thus placed under a stric blockade.

4. General Gage, who commanded the garrison, soon received reinforcements from Great Britain, under the command of generals Howe, Burgoyne, and Clinton. He resolved therefore to commence active operations; but before committing himself to the chances of war, he issued a proclamation, offering pardon to all who should lay down their arms, except Messrs. Hancock and Adams. The Americans treated the proclamation with contempt, and soon after elected Mr. Hancock president of congress.

5. In Charlestown, a place situated to the north of Boston, is an eminence called Bunker's hill, which in some degree commands the harbour; this post the Americans resolved to occupy; and a party was sent over from Cambridge to intrench themselves on the height. This they effected with such rapidity and silence during one of the short nights of June, that the appearance of their works at daybreak was the first notice of their presence. The importance of dislodging the enemy was evident to the British generals, and a detachment under the command of Howe was sent to the peninsula in boats. A tremendous cannonade was opened

on the provincials from the ships and floating batteries in the harbour, and from Cop's-hill in Boston, but the provincials maintained their post with undaunted resolution. They reserved their fire until the royal forces had advanced within sixty yards of their line, and then poured in so close and murderous a discharge, that the assailants were broken, and fled to the water's edge. A second assault was again defeated by the well-aimed and steady fire of the provincials; but when Howe rallied his men to the third attempt, the ammunition of the Americans began to fail, and after an obstinate resistance they were compelled to retreat. In this fierce contest the provincials lost about 450 killed, wounded, and missing; but the victors suffered still more severely; their loss amounted to more than a thousand killed and wounded, of whom 79 were officers. The unusual number of officers that fell is attributed to the fatal aim which the provincials took with their rifles, and to the belief generally prevalent in America, that the war was odious to the great body of the English people, and only supported by the nobility and gentry, from which classes the British officers are generally selected.

6. Another effort to avert the horrors of war was made by the congress, and a second pathetic petition forwarded to his majesty. It was intrusted for presentation to Mr. Penn, a descendant of the great founder of Pennsylvania, and one of the chief proprietors in that province. But public and private remonstrances were equally ineffectual, the petition was not even honoured with an answer.

7. The Americans were far from confining their exertions to the pacific means of petition and remonstrance; with a happy unanimity, they elected George Washington, esquire, commander-in-chief of all their forces; and sent two bodies of militia under generals Montgomery and Arnold to drive the English from Canada. After a brief but brilliant career, Montgomery was killed in an attempt to storm Quebec, and the cruelties perpetrated by the infamous Arnold so alienated the Canadians, that no hope remained of its uniting with the revolted provinces.

8. (A.D. 1776.) Boston was closely blockaded by Wash ington, and the garrison was soon reduced to the greatest distress. Howe, who had succeeded Gage in the command, though a general of great ability, found himself unequal to the difficulties of his situation. The inhabitants of Boston, as well as the garrison, had to sustain the horrors of famine

during the winter; and early in the spring the Americans opened batteries on the neighbouring hills, which swept the town and harbour. Under these circumstances, the town was evacuated by the English, and Washington, entering it, was hailed by the citizens as their deliverer. 9. An expedition undertaken by the British against Charleston, n South Carolina, signally failed. The general (Clinton) was unable to second the naval operations directed by sir Peter Parker; and, after a useless exhibition of bravery, the admiral was forced to retire with the loss of a ship of war, which he burned, to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy.

10. The Americans, and the greater part of their leaders, had hitherto entertained hopes of peacefully accommodating their disputes with England; but the intelligence that the British minister had hired a body of German mercenaries for their subjugation wrought so powerfully on their excited feelings, that they determined to renounce their allegiance. (July 4th, 1776.) On the motion of Richard Henry Lee, member for Virginia, the congress published their declaration of independence, and elected the colonies into free and sovereign states. At the very time that this resolution was adopted, a British fleet was hovering round their coast, a British army was preparing to invade their territories, and symptoms of discouragement and disaffection were perceptible in their own soldiery. Still the congress refused to despair, and prepared to support with spirit the independence which they had so courageously asserted.

11. General Howe did not long remain idle at Halifax, whither he had retired after the evacuation of Boston; he sailed for New York, and being there joined by his brother, lord Howe, with a considerable fleet, he made himself master of that city and Long Island. Following up his triumphs, he expelled the provincial army from the Jerseys, and compelled them to take refuge beyond the Delaware. This rapid success raised the hopes of the British to the highest pitch; the immediate conquest of America was looked upon as absolutely certain, and little seemed wanting to complete so desirable a consummation. 12. But they soon found that Washington, though defeated, was not sub dued, and that his knowledge of the country in a great degree compensated for his inferiority of numbers. Crossing the Delaware in the middle of December, he attacked a body of Hessians at Trenton, and made 900 prisoners; and

then while lord Cornwallis was advancing to recover Tren ton, the indefatigable Americans suddenly appeared in his lordship's rear, and destroyed or captured the greater part of a detachment under colonel Mawhood.

13. A very extraordinary incident took place, about this time, in the East Indies. The council of Madras had plunged the company into an unjustifiable war with the rajah of Tanjore, whom they attacked and took prisoner. Lord Pigot was sent out as governor, with positive orders to restore the rajah, but he had scarcely effected this object, when he was seized and thrown into prison by certain members of the council. This indignity worked so bitterly on his feelings that he sickened and died, leaving behind him a higher character for honour and integrity than most of those who have made fortunes in the East. His persecutors were subsequently brought to trial and punished, but not with severity proportioned to their deserts.

14. (A.D. 1777.) The caution of Washington prevented any decisive engagement in the early part of the new campaign; but the march of Howe towards Philadelphia induced the American general to hazard a battle. The armies met near the Brandywine river, and after a long and fierce battle the English obtained a decisive victory. Philadelphia was immediately surrendered, and occupied by the English forces: : a second attempt made by Washington to retrieve his losses was defeated; and by the aid of the fleet, Howe reduced the fortifications which the Americans had constructed on the banks of the Delaware, and opened free communication with his supplies.

15. But the successes of the English in the southern states were more than counterbalanced by the disaster they experienced in the northern. Early in the year, general Burgoyne, with an army of 7000 men, and a large body of Indians, received orders to advance from Canada into the state of New York, and co-operate with a body of troops which Howe was to send to his assistance. This plan, if successful, would cut off the New England states from the rest of the union, and expose them to be overrun and con quered in detail. Burgoyne's part in this expedition was executed with equal skill and intrepidity; he marched boldly through the country, bearing down all opposition. But the Americans soon assembled an army in his front, and as he had advanced to a distance from his supplies, his situation soon became very hazardous. The operations of the

army, whose assistance he expected, were miserably conducted; sir Henry Clinton did not leave New York till October, and even then, instead of hastening forward to his destination, he employed his troops in burning the unresisting towns and villages, and devastating the country. Whether this tardiness is to be ascribed to the weakness of the general, or to the insufficiency of the orders sent out by the ministry, is not easily ascertained, but from whatever cause, it proved the ruin of the entire expedition. On the 15th of October, general Vaughan, with the van of Clinton's army, could have rescued Burgoyne from all his difficulties, but Vaughan stopped to plunder and burn the little town of Esopus, and before he was again prepared to advance, Burgoyne and his army were prisoners of war to the American army under the command of general Gates.

16. Burgoyne, depending on the advance of the army from New York, had allowed himself to be cooped up in Saratoga; his provisions were exhausted, his ammunition beginning to fail, his troops dispirited, and his lines incapable of long defence. He therefore surrendered on the condition that his troops, after having laid down their arms, should be sent home, provided that they should not serve again in America during the present contest. Burgoyne returned to England on his parole only to experience greater mortifications; the leaders of administration threw all the blame of a failure, attributable solely to themselves, on the unfortunate general; he was refused admittance into the presence of the sovereign, denied the justice of a court martial, and subjected to a series of petty persecutions infinitely more disgraceful to the ministry than to their victim. 17. General Gates, after his victory, advanced to check the outrages committed by Clinton's soldiers; sir Henry retreated to New York before the victorious army, and the American general was consequently enabled to send such a reinforcement to Washington's army, as made it once more a match for that of Howe, and sufficient to protect the province of Pennsylvania from the ravages of the enemy.

Questions for Examination.

1. How were the hopes of the friends of peace disappointed? 2. What were the circumstances of the affair at Lexington?

3. Did the Americans begin the war vigorously?

4. How was the proclamation of general Gage treated?

5. What were the circumstances of the battle of Bunker's hill?