CHAP. but, through the mediation of the "Select Men" of LIII. Boston, there was in some degree a tacit under1776. standing, that if during the embarkation the troops were not molested, the town should not be injured. During this interval, however, Castle William was wholly dismantled and in great part demolished. On the morning of the 17th the last of the British troops embarked, and that same afternoon Boston was entered by General Israel Putnam and the American vanguard. Washington himself visited the town next day, and found himself enthusiastically welcomed. The British fleet however, with the troops on board, remained ten days longer in Nantasket Roads. As it proved they were only completing the preparations for their voyage, but Washington might reasonably apprehend that they designed a parting blow. His apprehensions on this subject were increased by the moderate esteem in which he held the men of Massachusetts. Thus he writes: "I am taking every precaution I can "to guard against the evil; but we have a kind "of people to deal with who will not fear danger "till the bayonet is at their breast; and then "they are susceptible enough of it.” * Having with much ado made the ships seaworthy, General Howe set sail, directing his course *To Joseph Reed, March 25. 1776. Washington's army at this time, by the Adjutant's return, amounted to 21,800 men, of which number however 2,700 were sick. (Life, by Sparks, p. 175.) Howe's troops by their Provision Returns were only 7,579 besides the men in hospital, amounting to between five and six hundred more. (American Archives, vol. v. p. 489.) LIII. 1776. to Halifax, which he designed as the head quarters CHAP. of his army until the reinforcements from England should arrive. From the grievous deficiencies of the transport service he had been compelled to leave behind a large amount of stores and ordnance, and to spike many excellent pieces of artillery. On the other hand he had taken with him, at their own urgent request, above a thousand of the inhabitants of Boston, who had espoused the cause of the parent-state, and who dreaded on that account the vengeance of their countrymen. Before they had embarked they had, as Washington informs his brother, publicly declared that" if "they thought the most abject submission would 66 procure them peace they never would have "stirred." Indeed throughout this contest, and amidst all the qualities displayed by the Americans many of those qualities being entitled to high respect and commendation-there was none certainly less amiable than their merciless rancour against those among them who adhered to the Royal side. In reference to those, a ferocious saying came to be current in America, that though we are commanded to forgive our enemies, we are nowhere commanded to forgive our friends.† In * Letter to John Augustine Washington, March 31. 1776, as printed in the American Archives. + Grahame's History, vol. iv. p. 321. Mr Grahame does not seem to be aware that this saying is quoted by Bacon in his Essay on Revenge, and ascribed to the invention of Cosmo Duke of Florence. LIII. 1776. CHAP. reference to them true Jedburgh justice was more than once administered-first the punishment, then the accusation, and last of all the evidence! In reference to them, even the ordinary feelings of compassion were suspended. Even so generous and exalted a mind as Washington's does not always form an exception to this remark. Thus in the letter to his brother, from which I just now quoted, he speaks of the exiles from Boston in terms that he would never surely have applied to any other of the human race. By all accounts . "there never existed a more miserable set of To the Americans the recovery of Boston, after no many struggles and so protracted a blockade, became a natural topic of triumph. The Congress voted that in commemoration of this great event there should be struck a Medal in gold and bronze; and it was struck accordingly, not indeed for lack of an artist in America, but by their direction, in France. * It was ordered that in token of their *This fine medal is not in the collection of the British Museum, but I have seen it there in the Cabinet belonging to Mr. Hawkins, and I have another in my own possession. It has often been engraved. On the one side appears the head LIII. gratitude the Medal should bear the effigy and the CHAP. praise of Washington as Assertor of their Freedom; and this vote was accompanied by another of 1776. cordial thanks.-Washington remained a few days longer at Boston, busy in levelling the works upon the Neck and making other needful arrangements. By that time it was well understood that the next main object of British enterprise was to be New York; and to New York, therefore, Washington and the greater part of his army now repaired. He found time however for a rapid visit to Philadelphia, so as to concert his future measures with the leaders of the Congress. In England meanwhile the expected reinforcements were being urged, though scarcely with the requisite vigour and celerity. The Cabinet had entertained some hopes of Russian auxiliaries, but the negotiation for that object could not be matured. Early in the year treaties were signed with the Landgrave of Hesse for taking into British pay twelve thousand of his men; with the Duke of Brunswick and other petty potentates of Germany for five thousand more. These little Princes, seeing the need of England, which did not choose to lean, as she might and should have done, on her own right arm, insisted on obtaining, and of Washington-ADSERTORI LIBERTATIS ;-on the other side a view of the American officers on Dorchester Heights with Boston in the distance and the inscription BOSTONIUM RECUPERATUM ;-HOSTIBUS PRIMO FUGATIS; by these last words plainly renouncing all the idle vaunts of Lexington, LIII. 1776. CHAP. did obtain, most usurious terms. Under the name of levy-money there was to be paid to them the price of thirty crowns for every foot-soldier. Under the name of subsidy each of their Serene Highnesses was moreover to be indulged with a yearly sum, irrespective of the pay and subsistence of the troops; and on the plea that in this case no certain number of years was stipulated as the term of service, the Landgrave of Hesse claimed and was promised a double subsidy, namely 450,000 crowns a year! The men were to enter into pay before they began to march! The subsidies were to be continued for one full year at least, after the war was over and the troops had returned to their respective homes! Never yet in short was the blood of brave men sold on harder terms. The disgrace of this transaction to the German Princes who engaged in it requires little comment. If the rude Swiss mountaineers of the middle ages have been justly reproached for their mercenary practice, how much more justly will that reproach apply to educated men of the eighteenth century! Even now the traveller, as he lingers over the delicious garden-slopes of Wilhelms-Höhe, may sigh to think at what sacrifice they were adorned— how many burgher's sons from the adjoining town of Cassel were sent forth, for no object beyond replenishing the coffers of their Sovereign, to fight and to fall in a quarrel not their own. The ablest by far of the German Princes at that time, Frederick of Prussia, was not in general a man of compas |