ter which separated this end of the town from the main, they were compelled to make the whole circuit of the peninsula and enter it by the narrow slip just mentioned. In addition to these troubles and difficulties, guards of soldiers were stationed at every entrance to the town, before whom it was necessary to undergo an examination, and by whom the peaceable passengers were harrassed and questioned at every turn.

But the high, patriotick, noble spirit of the people of Boston, was not to be crushed by these or any oppressions. They struggled with heroick fortitude and patience against every added evil, and while their oppressors were fondly flattering themselves that they must at length sink under their calamities, they were quietly preparing to rise in the majesty of their united strength, and claim an acknowledgement of their rights, at the sacrifice of their lives. A martial spirit seemed to infuse itself into the whole people at once. Those who had been accustomed to use their guns only for amusement, now learned to use them as soldiersthose who had never before Landled a musket, now made it the business of the day to learn its excercise; and while the husbands were employed in these labours and excercises, their wives were preparing the ammunition.

In the midst of these preparations, and while the whole people of the Province seemed to consider their Charter as dissolved, his Majesty's new Crown officers attempted to enter upon the duties of their new appointments. Many of the new Counsellors refused to accept-Jurors refused to take the oath, or to serve under the new state of things-The Courts of Justice were suspended-and the people with one accord refused to acknowledge any regulations but those which

their charter prescribed. And as if an all wise Providence had decreed that no interval of calm should allay this noble feeling of independence, on the 1st of September, the Governour ordered a military force to possess themselves of the powder which belonged to the Provincial Arsenal at Charlestown, opposite to Boston. The report of this hostile movement, as it was considered, occasioned an assemblage of the people in arms at Cambridge, to the number of several thousand, who were scarcely restrained by their more prudent brethren from an immediate attack on the King's troops at Boston. Out of this first rumour and its consequences grew another which spread still more extensively, that the fleet were actually bombardiug the town; and upwards of thirty thousand men, were on their way to Boston in the course of two days. These appearances occasioned some alarm to the Governour, and the host of his Majesty's new officers at Salem, who under the fear that they could not be safe at such a distance from the troops, in a few days returned with all the appurtenances of office to the outlaw, ed town of Boston.

CHAPTER IX.

Events of 1774 continued-Conduct of General Gage-Meeting of the people of Suffolk-Governour's Cadets disband themselves Meeting of the Congress Sundry resolutions thereofTheir letter to General Gage-Declaration of Rights-Articles of Association-addresses to the King and people-General Gage calls a meeting of the General Court-Countermands the order-The members assemble to form a provincial Congress→ Their proceedings-Conduct of the other Colonies.

The Governour had very soon after the arrival of the troops, taken possession of and fortified the isthmus before spoken of, which connects the towns of Boston and Roxbury, called Boston Neck-the only entrance by land, into the town of Boston, and therefore the only route by which, according to the Port Bill, the merchants and traders could carry on their business. The Governour's plea for thus guarding the only point of communication with the main land, was the frequent desertion of the soldiers; but a single centinel could have as effectually answered this purpose as a battalion of men. That the soldiers did desert was true, and that they deserted as frequently after this precaution had been taken as before, is equally true. For, besides that many of the newly arrived troops felt a repugnance at being made the instruments of oppression to their fellow subjects and brethren, they found the service an irksome one on other accounts, Every means in the power of the Americans were used to prevent them from receiving supplies of provision and every other article of necessity for which they were dependent upon the country;

and so ingenious were the countrymen in the invention of accidents, that scarcely a cart laden with military stores got safe to town. The consequence was that the soldiers suffered many hardships which they endeavoured to escape by desertion.

But it was evident that the Governour's motive for fortifying the Neck was not that which he assigned. He hoped by keeping a body of soldiers continually in the view of the citizens, to awe them into submission to the new regulations. Such indeed had been the object of all the measures of his two predecessours; and their want of success should have taught General Gage the folly of the experiment. This measure served only the more to exasperate the people, and the subsequent seizure of their powder proved that his Excellency designed something more than

a mere menace.

The people of Suffolk county, therefore, soon after this occurrence, in defiance of the Act of Parliament and his Excellency's proclamation, forbidding all publick assemblies, held a meeting, and adopted several spirited resolutions, by which they declared themselves constitutionally exempt from all obedience to the late measures of the British Parliament, that the government of the Province was in fact dissolved, and that they should consider all persons who dared to act in any official capacity under the new regulations as open enemies of their country.

We omitted to mention, while on the subject of Parliamentary proceedings in the preceding chapter, that one of the last measures of the session was an Act mak

ing more effectual provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec. Though it would seem at first sight that the operations of this Act could not

possibly affect the interests of the Colonies south of the Lakes, yet it was so managed as to leave a conviction in the minds of all the Colonists, that the fate of Quebec was but the prelude to their own. Besides that by this act the boundaries of the Province were extended considerably beyond the limits assigned to it by the treaty of 1763, the Government of Quebec was converted into the most odious despotism, and the Catholick Clergy placed upon a footing in direct hostility to the genius and spirit of the English Constitution, and the sentiments and principles of the American Colonies. This could not fail to alarm them for the safety of the Protestant religion, the free enjoyment of which according to the dictates of their own consciences, had been the chief cause of the first emigrations. Hence in all subsequent meetings of the people, as well as in the proceedings of the Congress, this subject was mentioned as one of the grievances of which they had to complain.

The people of Suffolk showed by their proceedings that their opposition to the measures of Government was not prompted by a licentious disposition to quar rel for trifles. They recommended, on the contrary, a decent, quiet and orderly behaviour to their fellow citizens, and sent an address to the Governour, dictated by a spirit of firmness which convinced him that they would defend their rights to the utmost. They sent a copy of their Resolves, and of their letter to the Governour, with his answer, to the Congress at Philadelphia, upon whose judgment they rested the decision of their future conduct.

The Governour, about the same time, deprived Mr. Hancock of his commission as Colonel of the corps of Cadets a volunteer company of gentlemen of the first