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the almost rage of the same writer at the attempt to pull away the other substantial prop of Chatham's fame,—the popular general. He says of it, "A government shameless or ill advised enough to treat with disregard the obligation due to public services, not only sets a most pernicious example to its subjects, but does a flagrant injury to society. Reflections, such

as these, crowded upon my mind the moment I heard that the late commander-in-chief had been dismissed, without ceremony, from his government of Virginia. I was grieved to see such a man so treated; but when I considered this step as an omen of the real resolution of the ministry with respect to America, I forgot, as he himself will do, the private injury, and lamented nothing but the public misfortune.”

Lord Chatham doubtless saw, in prospective, the course of things in Old England and in New, and dreaded the consequences; dreaded a solution of continuity in the politics of the mother country and her offspring. This was a period of anxious solicitude with wise men on both sides of the Atlantic. The celebrated Horace Walpole, writing to his kinsman, General Conway, about that time, says, "The long expected sloop is arrived at last, and is indeed a man of war! The general CONGRESS have voted (1.) A non-importation. (2.) A nonexportation. And (3.) A non-consumption. The Americans, at least, have acted like men, gone to the bottom at once, and set the whole upon the whole. Our conduct has been that of pert children; we have thrown a pebble at a mastiff; and are surprised it was not frightened. Now we must be worried by it, or must kill the guardian of the house, which will be plundered the moment little master has nothing but the old nurse to defend it."

It was well that General Amherst was not sent out Prefect to this country, where Lord Botetourt met little else than mortification. Matters had proceeded too far, for even the prudent and popular Sir Jeffery Amherst to have managed with satisfaction to himself and to America. Patrick Henry in the South, and Samuel Adams in the North, had fixed their steady

eyes on Independency; and nothing short of it could pacify those political seers and the few, who, at that early period, felt like them upon the great question of self-government. Not long after the period to which I refer, their sentiments became general; when every thing about us, even the face and course. of nature, the still small voice of religion,―all,—all were construed into so many calls, more or less loud, for a separation of vast America from the small island of Britain.

While war and vengeance were denounced by the ministry against the rebellious people of Massachusetts, the Governor of Virginia was instructed to use the gentlest promises of kind relief and satisfaction towards the Southern Colonists. Accordingly, Lord Botetourt says to the Assembly of Virginia, in May, 1769, "I think myself peculiarly fortunate to be able to inform you, by a letter from the Earl of Hillsborough, that his Majesty's present administration have at no time entertained a design to propose to Parliament to lay any further taxes upon America for the purpose of raising a revenue, and that it is their intention to propose, in the next session of Parlia ment to take off the duties upon glass, paper, and colors, upon consideration of such duties having been paid contrary to the true principles of commerce."

In answer to the speech of the royal Governor to the House of Burgesses, they say to him, "We have examined it [the conciliatory proposition] minutely; we have viewed it in every point of light in which we are able to place it, and with pain and disappointment we must ultimately declare, it only changes the form of oppression without lightening the burden." And, after saying that "Lord Chatham's bill on the one hand, and the terms of the Congress on the other, would have formed a basis for negotiation, which a spirit of accommodation, on both sides, might perhaps have reconciled," they close with these impressive words. "We have decently remonstrated with Parliament; they have added new injuries to the old. We have wearied our King with supplications; he has not deigned to answer us. We have appealed to the native honor and justice

of the British nation; their efforts in our favor have been hitherto ineffectual. What then is to be done? That we commit ourselves to the even-handed justice of that BEING who doeth no wrong; earnestly beseeching Him to illuminate the councils, and prosper the endeavours of those to whom America hath confided her hopes, that, through their wise direction, we may again see re-united the blessings of liberty and property, and the most permanent harmony with Great-Britain." After expressing loyalty to the King and amity to the mother country, they adjourned. But four days after, they, in imitation of the Assembly of Massachusetts when they constituted their Provincial Congress, formed themselves into a Convention of Delegates to supply the place of the House of Burgesses, and went on in their legislative duties in the same form and order, making their parliamentary business a continuation, rather than a revolution of government.

Maryland, Virginia's offspring, followed her example; and amongst other spirited resolves, their convention voted unanimously, that "We do unite as one band, and solemnly pledge ourselves to each other and to America, that we will, to the utmost of our power, support the present opposition carrying on, as well by arms as the continental association restraining our commerce." They moreover voted to enroll forty companies of "minute-men," of every effective freeman between sixteen and fifty, practising physicians and those persons who, from their religious principles, cannot bear arms in any case, excepted." Thus was war lit up at both ends of the United Colonies, which neither Chatham nor Amherst could have averted, so long as the wretched policy of Britain was that of playing one colony against the other, on the imbecile maxim of Divide and conquer.

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CHAPTER XII.

TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF JUNIUS'S LETTERS.

In the foregoing chapter we have inserted notices or sketches of those distinguished persons who appear prominent in the volumes of JUNIUS, omitting Sir William Draper, as a mere military character, incidentally brought before the public, and little connected with the design of this inquiry. Those personages were Lord Camden, Lord Mansfield, Henry Fox, Lord Holland, the Duke of Bedford, Duke of Grafton, and General, Lord Amherst.

We have overcome our reluctance to multiply pages, from a persuasion that we are bound to show, on our hypothesis, how Lord Chatham came to feel affinity, or affiliation, with Lord Camden; and how, also, repulsion as it regarded Lord Chief Justice Mansfield; and that the same affinity and repulsion pervade likewise the pages of JUNIUS. We deemed it of some importance to dwell a little upon the mixed feelings of Lord Chatham and of JUNIUS towards Lord Holland, a man of heterogenous composition, superinduced on a firm and honorable character. It was impossible to skip over the antipathy between JUNIUS and the Duke of Bedford, Lord Bute's representative in arranging the articles of the peace at the court of Versailles; he who tried to demolish the triumphal arch which Fame had erected, out of French materials, to the honor of Pitt, Earl of Chatham.

Not having, at first view, a clear sight of the cause which produced the remarkable vituperation of JUNIUS towards the Duke of Grafton, we were compelled to bestow more time and attention upon that political camelion, than the subject was really worth, unless it were to confirin the notion, prevalent in this country, that George the Third was in reality his own minister from 1762 to the peace with these United States

Wedwell with more interest on the article respecting General Amherst, as a link in the chain of our own history, and as exhibiting instances of abounding cunning and deficient wisdom in the efforts of the crown to force America to submit to her arbitrary system of internal taxation. I say internal, in contradistinction to the external contribution, connected with that superintendence which regulates and controls trade and navigation; the one being private, individual, and sacred; the other extended, and of complicated consideration, reaching as far as ships can sail or winds can blow. The majority of Parliament, without confining the remark to the country gentlemen, never appeared to us to understand this vital distinction.

Americans experience a pleasant consociation of ideas, whenever the names of Sir Jeffery Amherst and William Pitt * are mentioned. They recall to mind a happy period in our colonial history, as it regards those eminent characters, and bring up the pleasant idea of confidential friendship, entwining the palm of the soldier with the laurel of the statesman.

That JUNIUS should write a dozen Letters, under various. signatures, expressive of his disgust at the treatment of General Amherst, and that the British public generally knew that treatment was a backhanded stroke at Lord Chatham, are facts of no small importance in establishing our idea of the authorship of JUNIUS. That disinterested nobleman bore the abuse in sullen silence as it regarded individuals; but he denounced, in the

* We recollect seventeen towns in the United States, named in honor of Pitt. One built on the site of old Fort Pitt, at the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela, forming the Ohio; now the Birmingham of America, in which are a national arsenal and very extensive armory. This flourishing town is called Pittsburg. Another of the same name in the county of Chatham, North Carolina. In New Hampshire and Massachusetts, several called Pittsfield, Pittston, Pittsville. Pittsford, &c. In New Hampshire is a flourishing town called Amherst; in Massachusetts another with a college, called after the General; one or more in the State of New York, and two in Virginia, besides certain mineral springs, bearing the name of Amherst. These are tokens of regard and gratitude, more lasting than statues, and more in character than graven images.

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