"was in danger; and that preparations ought to be made accordingly."— The governor, a man of warm temper, provoked by the expedients employed to distress him, when he was driven to ravage the coast to provide subsistence for his troops, issued a proclamation which enraged the provincials; by this he declared martial law to be in force throughout the colony, and emancipated all the slaves who should take up arms in the British cause. This ill-judged measure led to more resolute acts of hostility on the side of the provincials. His lordship having retired to Norfolk, on the Chesapeak, they dispatched a thousand men against that town, by that means more effectually to defeat the purpose of his hostile proclamation. -This brought the contest between them to an issue. The provincials, having repulsed a small body of men sent to impede their march, gained possession of the town: and the governor was constrained again to take refuge, with the loyal inhabitants, on board the shipping; where they were soon reduced to great distress. Being refused provisions, and, at the same time, annoyed by the riflemen posted on the wharfs, he adopted the desperate expedient of firing the suburb adjoining to the river. The fatal order was given. And the fire, extending through the town, laid the whole in ashes.-Such was the termination of lord Dunmore's government of Virginia. All the maritime provinces being firmly united among themselves and zealously attached to the common cause, it now became their chief object to gain possession of Canada, or force that colony to join the confederacy, to prevent the annoyance which the united provinces might experience from that quarter. We have now an occasion to observe the bad policy of that scheme by which the English government cunningly devised to make the Canadians a precedent for the establishment of arbitrary power in the colonies, by first introducing the French laws among them. Being subjected to the British crown by the treaty of Paris, they promised themselves all the advantages of a free constitution, and were disgusted when they found that they were deprived of them by the late act of the legislature. The discontent which this created being studiously fomented by the partisans of revolt, when general Carleton, the governor, hoped to have been supported by In November. e d Stedman. 1. 146. Idem. 147. 1775 1775 by them in the reduction of the other provinces, he found some of them indifferent and others disaffected to the interests of government. When he would have prevailed on them to take up arms, they told him, that they did not understand the merits of the contest, and should not interfere in it; but that they were disposed to shew dutiful obedience to the state. And, what is more extraordinary, when he would have availed himself of the mandate of the bishop of Quebec for that purpose, the prelate waved compliance, by saying, that it was contrary to the canons of the roman catholic church. This was a state of mind most favourable to the designs of the confederates. To commence offensive war was, indeed, to deviate from their professed principles; which was to stand on the defensive in the maintenance. of their just rights and liberties. But when reduced to the alternative of either doing this, or waiting an attack from Carleton, an able general, invested with ample authority, who was expecting a reinforcement of troops from England for the express purpose of commencing active operations against them, they did not hesitate which line of policy to embrace: and they were easily brought to consider an act for preventing the governor from executing his hostile designs in the light of a defensive operation. g There were other circumstances auspicious to the revolted cause, beside the temper of the Canadians.-The Indians inhabiting the country near the river St. Lawrence and at the back of the New England provinces had discovered a disposition to observe a neutrality in a contest the grounds of which they did not understand, and in which they did not conceive themselves to be interested. They had reason to think, therefore, that the governor would be assisted by those only whom he could detach from the several nations. Moreover, the execution of their design was essentially forwarded by the reduction of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, which com manded the grand pass between Canada and New York, and was considered as the key of communication. These important fortresses had been taken by surprise, early in the summer, † by a small body of provincials under the command of Ethen Allen, a private adventurer. i + In May. i f Stedman. 130. Ann. Regist. 138. General g Ann. Regist. 1776. 3. Stedman. 131. He endea General Washington, repairing to the American army at Cambridge, entered upon his important charge with a perfect sense of the arduous nature of it, and especially of the difficulties that must arise in the formation of a regular army, at once, from men totally unacquainted with the use of arms, assembled by the momentary impulse which the love of liberty, or the fear of being deprived of what they conceived to be their rights, had given them. And in the first measures adopted by him for that purpose we may perceive that judgment, that cool, discerning mind and knowledge of human nature with which his character is strongly marked. voured to attach his countrymen to his person and the standard under which they were to fight by paying every possible attention to their comfort. He laboured, with the assistance of his subordinate generals and officers, to improve them in tactics. He enforced discipline and subordination by his own example. He endeavoured to prevent a contest for rank by impressing those who offered themselves for commissions with a due sense of the stake for which they were to contend, and a persuasion that such distinctions were of small moment when compared with the honour which they might all obtain by a spirited discharge of their duty in promoting the common welfare. k He was at the head of 14,500 men, when the congress, encouraged by the behaviour, of their troops at Lexington and Bunker's Hill, and the successes of Ethen Allen, planned an expedition for the conquest of Quebec; and made their preparations for it with all possible dispatch, on account of the intelligence received that Carleton was preparing for the recovery of Ticonderoga and Crown Point.-The force destined for it consisted of 3000 men, commanded by general Montgomery, an officer of popular character and distinguished merit. Marching with this small army from New York, he crossed lake Champlain, and made himself master of forts St. John and Chambleé, on the Sorel, after a short resistance.General Carleton advanced to Montreal, with a view of opposing his progress. But, his force being far inferior to Montgomery's, he deemed it advisable to abandon that fortress: which, in consequence, fell into the hands of the American general.—Nor was this the only circumstance of distress that attended Carleton. Whilst he was retreating before this body of k Ramsay. 1. 223. Life of Washington. 78. 98. 1775 1775 of provincials, a formidable enemy unexpectedly presented himself from a different quarter.-Arnold, an officer of great enterprise, proposed to general Washington, then with the army near Boston, to march with a detachment of 1500 men, to co-operate with Montgomery in his expedition against Quebec. His proposals being approved, he left the grand army in October; and, in defiance of the extreme difficulties of a march through such a country at that season, he made his way up the Kennebek river on rafts; and, descending along the banks of the Chandiere, which falls into the St. Lawrence, he encamped on point Levy, opposite to Quebec. So confident had Carleton been of the support of the Canadians and the strength of the city, that he had said, in the preceding year, that a corporal's command was sufficient for its defence: and, in consequence of his representations, such as were the ruin of the royal cause in the commencement of this war, he was left with only two regiments to guard the province of Canada. His military talents, and those of his brave lieutenant, colonel Maclean, were now to be exerted, to extricate him from the embarrassment in which a false confidence had involved him. Not a moment was now to be lost. Passing through the enemy's vessels lying in the river, in a boat with muffled paddles," by night, he reached the city; thanked Maclean for his excellent conduct; and prepared for a vigorous defence.-On Montgomery's arrival, a summons to surrender was sent to Carleton; which he treated with disdain. The provincial generals, then, being unprovided with proper artillery for carrying on a regular siege, resolved to attempt the reduction of the city by storm.-An assault was, in consequence, given in two different quarters, under the conduct of the two provincial commanders. Montgomery led 900 men to the attack with that intrepidity which marked his character, and fell a sacrifice to a tremendous discharge of the royal artillery: And his troops, after a short resistance, gave way.— Arnold's attack was made with greater effect. He was soon disabled by a wound. But the subordinate officer, advancing with great ardour, possessed himself of the two first barriers. On attempting the third, he was repulsed by the garrison, after a severe conflict.-Arnold was then obliged to suspend his operations. Yet, unwilling to relinquish his enterprise, he encamped his troops on the heights of Abraham; where he hoped to recruit his forces and intercept the governor's supplies. " The events which had already occurred in this contest were correspondent to the sentiments of those who had opposed the measures of government respecting America; who had foretold that the Americans, although little acquainted with the art of war, would fight vigorously in defence of what they conceived to be their rights; and that great advantages would be enjoyed by the natives in carrying on war in a mountainous and woody country, intersected by large rivers.-Other prophecies, which related to the same chain of events, remained still to be accomplished: that, when our strength should be diminished by the war, our natural enemies of the house of Bourbon, actuated more powerfully by inveterate enmity towards Great Britain, from whose naval force it had experienced such humiliating defeats in the late war, than by a regard for their own essential welfare considered as possessors of colonies, would take advantage of our intestine dissensions; and, uniting with the revolted provinces, would eventually give them success. These presages were founded on general principles, on the nature of man, and on the character and relative situation and circumstances of the parties interested. And the events which ensued not only justified them, but led on to revolutions in other states so disastrous and of such magnitude, that no prophet of the present age was sagacious or daring enough to foretel them. From a contemplation of these distant objects we must return to the civil transactions in England, and the last efforts made by the friends of peace. On the meeting of parliament in the autumn,† his majesty addressed the two houses in a speech strongly expressive of a determination to pursue coercive measures, and breathing that confidence of success with which the king himself and his ministers were unfortunately possessed.-Warm debates ensued on the subject of the address, especially in the house of lords; where the opposition was strengthened by the accession of the duke of Grafton. That nobleman had lately resigned the privy seal. On this occasion, he, in the most dutiful manner, expressed his disapprobation of the war, in a personal interview with his majesty; repeating the reasons which he had before given for it in a private letter to the prime minister. And 1775 + October 26. A Ramsay. and 1. 233. Stedman, 140. 2. See Russia. 1774 |