respect which the people merited, as the offspring of the British nation. These well grounded opinions were supported by his Lordship in a most pathetic speech of great length, and were seconded by Lords Camden and Shelburne and the marquis of Rockingham; but they were finally rejected by a majority of two to one.

On the 26th of January, Doctor Franklin, Mr. Bolan and Mr. Lee, offered another petition to the house, stating that they were authorised by the American congress to present it to the king, and had been referred by his majesty to that house, and that they would be able to throw much light upon the subject, if they were permitted to be heard at the bar, in support of its contents. The friends of the ministry refused a discussion on the subject, and insulted the application by remarking that it contained nothing but frivolous and pretended grievances: it was rejected by a large majority. Lord Chatham persevered in his conciliatory scheme and presented to the house the outlines of a bill in the form of a provisional act to settle the disputes in America, and ascertain the supreme legislative authority of the superintending power of Great-Britain over the colonies: this was also rejected, and not allowed even to lie on the table for consideration. This was succeeded by a joint address to the king, thanking him for the firm measures he had adopted to reduce the colonies to subjection, and strongly urged a perseverance of energetic measures to enforce the operation of his laws.

Before the adjournment of parliament, Lord North introduced a bill which he called the conciliatory proposition. The purport of it was, that the British parliament would forbear to tax any colony which should engage to make provision for contributing its proportion to the common defence, and make provision also for the support of civil government, and the administration of justice in each colony. This proposition was founded on no principle of reconciliation. Lord North at length acknowledged that his intention was, to divide the sentiments of the Americans and unite the people of Great-Britain. It was transmitted to the colonial governors in a circular letter from Lord Dartmouth, but the object was at once discovered and it had the effect of irritating and uniting, instead of dividing the public opinion in America.

Lord Effingham said, that whatever had been done in America, must be deemed the consequence of the unjust demands of Great-Britain. "They come to you with fair argument; you haye refused to hear them :-they make the most respectful remonstrances; you have answered them with pains and penalties:-they know they ought to be free; you tell them that they shall be slaves. Is it then a wonder, if they say in despair, that for the short remainder of their lives, they will be free? Is there any one among your lordships, who in a situation similar to that I have described, would not resolve the same? If there could be such a one, I am sure he ought not to be here.

"To bring the history down to the present scene here are two armies in presence of each other; armies of brothers and countrymen, each dreading the event, yet each feeling that it is in the power of the most trifling accident—a private dispute-a drunken afray in any public house in Boston; in short, a nothing-to cause the sword to be drawn and to plunge the whole country into all the horrors of blood, flames and paricide. In this dreadful moment, a set of men, more wise and moderate than the rest, exert themselves to bring us all to reason. They state their claims and their grievances; nay, if any thing can be proved by law and history, they prove them. They propose oblivion, they make the first concessions we treat them with contempt, we prefer poverty, blood and servitude; to wealth, happiness and liberty.

"What weight these observations may have, I don't know; but the candour with which your lordships have indulged me, requires a confession on my part, which may still lessen that weight. I must own I am not personally disinterested. Ever since I was of an age to have any ambition at all, my highest has been to serve my country in a military capacity. If there was on earth an event I dreaded, it was to see my country so situated as to make that profession incompatible with my duty as a citizen. That period is in my opinion arrived, and I have thought myself bound to relinquish the hopes I had formed, by a resigna

tion, which appeared to me the only method of avoiding the guilt of enslaving my country and embruing my hands in the blood of her sons.*

"When the duties of a soldier and a citizen become incompatible, I shall always think myself obliged to sink the character of the soldier into that of the citizen, till such time as these duties shall again, by the malice of our enemies, become united. It is no small sacrifice which a man makes who gives up his profession; but it is a much greater, when a predilection strengthened by habit, has given him so strong an attachment to his profession as I feel. I have however, this consolation, that by making that sacrifice, I give to my country an unequivocal proof of the sincerity of my principles."

Chatham, Effingham, Burke, Richmond, Wilkes, Glynn and Camden, who distinguished themselves as advocates for American rights, on this occasion, were complimented by naming a county after each of them in Georgia, by the constitution of 1777. The other county was called Liberty, from the circumstance of its sending a representative to congress before the province had openly acceeded to the union.

In conformity with a resolution entered into the last year by the corresponding committees of this colony, their deputies met in Savannah, on the 18th of January, endeavouring as near as possi

*

Effingham held a colonel's commission in the British army, which he resigned because his regiment was ordered to America.

ble to conform to the resolutions entered into by the other colonies; and the particular measures now adopted, for carrying into execution the continental association, on condition, that trade and commerce should be extended to this colony by the others, and her delegates received in congress. The apprehension of the consequences, which would attend these measures, gave a temporary check to their joining in the common cause, and the deputies adjourned without coming to any definite agreement.

When these deputies returned to their respective parishes, the cautious steps which had been adopted, received the sanction of their constituents, except in the parish of St. John, where twenty-one members of the committee were convened on the 9th of February, and addressed a eircular letter to the other colonial committees, soliciting their consent to the reception of a member of congress, as a representative from that particular parish. Encouraged by the answers which were received, the committee again convened on the 21st of March, and Doctor Lyman Hall, was unanimously elected to represent that parishin congress at Philadelphia.* In order to insure his reception, sundry resolutions were entered into, binding themselves to exclude from that parish,

* Doctor Hall carried with him from Sunbury, a present of one hundred and sixty barrels of rice, and fifty pounds sterling, for the suffering republicans in Boston, who had opposed the British army under General Gage.