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" visitors."* His illness at this time appears to CHAP. have closely resembled both in kind and duration that which had befallen him in his last administration. He had then been secluded from the world, from the spring of 1767 until the spring of 1769. Now again he was secluded from the world from the spring of 1775 until the spring of 1777, when as we shall find he once more emerged into public life with undiminished brilliancy and powers.

There was only one point of public moment on which during this second period of eclipse the will or the wish of Chatham was displayed. His eldest son, Lord Pitt, had entered the army; had become aide-de-camp to General Carleton in Canada, and in the autum of 1775 was sent home with despatches. The question arising of his return to his post, Chatham, by the hand of his wife, intimated to General Carleton that, "from his fixed opinion "with regard to the continuance of the unhappy "war with our fellow-subjects in America," he deemed it necessary to withdraw his son from such a service. Another officer of rank, a Howard, Earl of Effingham, had already on the same grounds resigned his commission also. These resignations being openly made gave matter for much public comment. That must indeed, cried the friends of the colonists, be a guilty and a wretched war, when even the Minister who con

*To the Duke of Grafton, January 4. 1776. MS.

CHAP. quered Canada will not allow his son to unsheath the sword for its defence !

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In America the approach of winter did not arrest the progress of hostilities. Small privateers were fitted out, in several of the New England ports, to cruise against the British trade. In requital the British chiefs at Boston despatched early in October two vessels under Lieutenant Mowat with a small detachment of troops on board, and with instructions to annoy and destroy the shipping along the southward coast. Lieutenant Mowat appeared off the town of Falmouth, where, far exceeding his original instructions, he set on fire, not only the ships in the harbour but likewise the town itself. About five hundred houses were thus wantonly and cruelly consumed; and at the same time the Lieutenant was reported to have declared that general orders had been given by the British Ministry to burn the seaport towns. Such a report, not promptly contradicted, produced general and just indignation in America; rendering the spirit of resistance both more intense and more widely diffused. It appears, however, from the authentic documents which are still preserved in the State Paper Office, and which the Americans themselves have since published, that no such orders had been given by the British Ministers that at the destruction of Falmouth they expressed concern and surprise, and required, in a tone of reprimand, that all the particulars of

this act should be promptly transmitted to them CHAP. for the inspection of the King.*

In the great southern state of Virginia Lord Dunmore had some time since retired for safety on board the Fowey man-of-war. At this period,

having collected a small naval force, he made a feeble attempt to recover his lost ground. He landed at Norfolk, decreed the establishment of martial law, and issued a proclamation offering freedom to all slaves, the property of rebels, who would repair to his standard and bear arms for the King. Earlier in the contest such an offer, however desperate, might yet have been decisive. But now, the Governor having once already withdrawn from his province, the slaves might reasonably doubt his power to give effect to his intentions. Accordingly Lord Dunmore received the accession of only a few hundred negroes, whom he found an encumbrance far rather than a help. The colonists meanwhile detached a force against him, and his advanced guard under Captain Fordyce was de

* See the extracts from our State Paper Office as obtained by Mr. Jared Sparks and produced by him in a valuable note; (Washington's Writings, vol. iii. p. 520.) He suspects that Admiral Graves, who had some resentment against the people of Falmouth from the obstructions which they had given to the shipment of masts, may perhaps have been implicated in the rash step of his subordinate. But Mr. Sparks adds, "No part "of this reproach can rightfully attach to the British Ministry. "The act had no higher source than the wounded pride of a "subordinate officer coinciding with the hasty resentment of "his superior in command."

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1775.

CHAP. feated in a skirmish at Great Bridge on the 9th of December. Lord Dunmore re-embarked, leaving Norfolk in the hands of the Americans. On the plea that their riflemen upon the wharfs prevented him from obtaining supplies, but in truth with unjustifiable severity, he burned to the ground that whole town, one of the most thriving upon the Chesapeak, and containing no less than eight thousand inhabitants. He lingered for some time longer on the coast, but could achieve nothing beyond this cruel act of vengeance, and at last, sending his liberated slaves to the West Indies, he quitted the shores of this once loyal and contented colony for ever.

It was to the north, however, that the principal hopes of the Congress were at this time directed. Earlier in the year, as I have elsewhere shown, they had passed a Resolution renouncing in most explicit terms the idea of any expedition against or into Canada. This Resolution, passed on the 1st of June, was by their orders translated into French and distributed along the shores of the St. Lawrence. Yet on the 27th of the same month the same Assembly passed other Resolutions instructing Philip Schuyler, one of their new-made Generals, to proceed without delay to Ticonderaga, and, if he found it practicable, "immediately to "take possession of St. John's and Montreal, and pursue any other measures in Canada which might have a tendency to promote the peace

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"and security of these colonies."* The autumn CHAP. came on, however, before the preparations for this object were complete, and two or three thousand men collected on Lake Champlain. Then the command devolved on General Montgomery, an officer of courage and skill, much beloved in private life for his generous and honourable qualities. Under him served Ethan Allen; whilst it was intended that Benedict Arnold, pressing forward from another quarter, should join him upon the St. Lawrence with a body of New England volunteers.

General Carleton, to whom whenever it was found convenient designs of invasion were so readily ascribed, had not in truth a sufficient force for the defence of his own province. He had refused the proffered aid of seven hundred warriors from the Six Nations tribe of Indians; he could muster but few French levies; and only eight hundred British troops served under his command. With means so scanty he could offer no effectual check to the advance of the Americans. They

*Note to Sparks's Washington, vol. iii. p. 41. These last Resolutions being kept secret are not printed in the Journals. Hard task to vindicate on this occasion either the good faith or the consistency of the American rulers! Mr. Sparks attempts it, by pleading that in the interval between their two Resolutions they had received reports that General Carleton was preparing an invasion against themselves. But the apologist forgets that, even some days previous to their Resolution of the 1st of June, they had in the most solemn manner declared themselves in possession of "indubitable evidence" that such an invasion was designed. Look back to p. 92. of this volume.