LXII. May. tage." But delays, as usual, intervened. The instruc- CHAP. tions to Clinton were not finished till December, nor received by him till May. He was to issue a proclama- 1776. tion of pardon to all but " the principal instigators and abettors of the rebellion, to dissolve the provincial congresses and committees of safety, to restore the regular administration of justice, to arrest the persons and destroy the property of all who should refuse to give satisfactory tests of their obedience." From North Carolina he might proceed at his own choice either to Virginia or to South Carolina, in like manner, "to seize the persons and destroy the property of rebels wherever it could be done with effect." In South Carolina he was to attack and reduce Charleston, as a prelude to the fall of Savannah, and to the restoration of the whole of the sea-coast to the king's government. sea; The fleet and transports, designed to act under Clinton, did not leave Cork harbor till February; they were scattered by a storm soon after going to for two weeks they met constant and most violent adverse gales; they long continued to be delayed by contrary winds; and not till the third of May, after a passage of more than eighty days, did Sir Peter Parker, Cornwallis, and such ships as kept them company, enter Cape Fear River. Most of the transports had arrived before them. All joined "to lament the fatal delays." What was to be done with the formidable armament, was the first question for deliberation. Clinton inclined to look into the Chesapeake, which would bring him nearer New York; but Lord William Campbell earnestly urged upon Sir Peter Parker an attack on May. CHAP. Charleston; and as intelligence was received, “that LXII. the works erected by the rebels on Sullivan's Island 1776. which was the key to the harbor, were in an imperfect and unfinished state, Clinton was induced to acquiesce in the proposal of the commodore to attempt the reduction of that fortress by a sudden attack," to be followed up by such other immediate efforts as might be invited by "a moral certainty of rapid success." With these purposes, the British prepared to retire from North Carolina; but Martin, before leaving his government, sent a party to burn the house of Hooper, a delegate in the continental congress; Cornwallis, with nine hundred men,-it was his first exploit in America,-landed in Brunswick county, and with a loss of two men killed and one taken prisoner, burned and ravaged the plantation of the North Carolina brigadier, Robert Howe; and Sir Henry Clinton, in conformity with his instructions from the king, issued his proclamation on the fifth of May, against committees and congresses, and inviting the people appease the vengeance of an incensed nation," offered pardon to all who would submit, except Robert Howe and Cornelius Harnett. "to CHAPTER LXIII. THE WAY TO RESTORE PEACE. MAY, 1776. LXIII. May. HOPE still rested on the royal commissioners for CHAP. restoring peace; but the British ministers knew nothing of that great science of government which studies 1776. the character, innate energies, and dispositions of a people. The statesman, like others, can command nature only by obeying her laws; he can serve man only by respecting the conditions of his being; he can sway a nation only by penetrating what is at work in the mind of its masses, and taking heed of the state of its development; any attempt in that day to produce in Britain republics like those of New England, could have brought forth nothing but anarchy and civil war; the blind resolve to conform American institutions to the pattern of the British aristocracy, led to a revolution. In its policy towards America, Britain was at war with itself; its own government was distinguished by being a limited one; and yet it claimed for the LXIII. CHAP. king in parliament unlimited power over the colonies. Sandwich was impatient of all restraints on their ad1776. ministration; he desired to exercise over them noth May. ing short of a full and absolute authority, and regretted that the government was cramped by the by the cry of liberty, with which no chief executive power was troubled except that of England. Had conciliation been designed, the commissioners would have been despatched long before; but the measure which had for its object the pacification of English opinion, was suffered to drag along for more than a year, till the news that Howe had been driven from Boston burst upon the public, and precipitated the counsels of the ministry. The letters patent for the commissioners, which were issued on the sixth of May, conferred power on Lord Howe and General Howe, jointly and severally, to grant pardons to such as should give early proofs of their sincere abhorrence of their defection from loyalty and should duly sue for mercy. The two points in controversy were the right of taxation, and the repeal of the changes in the charter of Massachusetts. Lord North, when he relapsed into his natural bias towards justice, used to say publicly that the right of taxation was abandoned; Germain always asserted that it was not. The instructions to the commissioners were founded upon the resolution of the twentieth of February, 1775; which the colonies had solemnly declared to be insufficient. The parliamentary change in the charter of Massachusetts was to be enforced; and secret instructions required that Connecticut and Rhode Island should be compelled, if possible, to accept analogous changes; so that not only was uncon LXIII. May. ditional submission required, but in the moment of CHAP. victory other colonial charters were still further to be violated, in order to carry out the system which the 1776. king had pursued from the time of the ministry of Bute. Lord Howe wished well to the Americans, kept up his friendly relations with Chatham, and escaped the suspicion of a subservient complicity with the administration. It was said by his authority, that he would not go to America unless he had powers to treat on terms of conciliation; he refused to accept a civilian as his colleague, and though his brother was named with him in the commission, he insisted on the power of acting alone; but if his sincerity is left unimpeached, it is at the expense of his reputation for discernment; for the commission for restoring peace was a delusion. The ministers had provided forces, amounting to about forty thousand men; sufficient, as they thought, to beat down the insurrection; and they were resolved, as masters of events, to employ their army with unrelenting firmness. year The friends of liberty in England had never been so desponding. The budget for the included an additional duty on newspapers, which Lord North did not regard as a public benefit, but rather as "a species of luxury that ought to be taxed." Debate in the house of commons brought no result: Fox, who joined calmness of temperament to sweetness of disposition, and, as his powers unfolded themselves, gave evidence of a genial sagacity that saw beyond parliamentary strife the reality of general principles, vainly struggled to keep up the courage of his political friends. A pamphlet, written with masterly ability by Richard Price, on LIBERTY, which he defined to be a govern |