yet offer, any terms but pardon on abfolute fubmiffion. From this detail and these premises, they dedaced the neceffity of the act of independency, afferting, that it wonld have been impoffible for them to have defended their rights againft fo powerful an aggreflor, aided by large armies of foreign mercenaries, or to have obtained that affiftance from other states which was abfolutely neceffary to their prefervation, whilft they acknowledged the fovereignty, and confeffed themfelves the fubjects of that power, against which they had taken up arms, and were engaged in fo cruel a war.

They boafted of the fuccefs that had in general attended their cause and exertions, contending that the present state of weakness and danger, did not proceed from any capital lofs, defeat, or from any deject of valour in their troops, but merely from the expiration of the term of those short enliftments, which had in the beginning been adopted from an attention to the cafe of the people. They affured them that foreign ftates had already rendered them effential fervices, and had given the most politive assurances of further aid. And they excited the indignation and animofity of the people, by expatiating upon the unrelenting, cruel, and inhuman manner, in which, they said, the war was carried on, not only by the auxiliaries, but even by the British forces them felves.

Complaints of this kind held a diftinguished place in all the American publications of that time. Some of them, indeed, contained nothing else but details of rapes, zapine, cruelty and murder. Though thefe accounts were undoubtedly

highly exaggerated, it is, however, to be apprehended, that too much room was afforded for complaints of that nature. The odium began with the Heflians, and has fince ftuck closely to them, though the British troops were far from efcaping a fhare of the imputation. The former, naturally fierce and cruel, ignorant of any rights but thofe of defpotifm, and of any manners, but thofe eftablished within the narrow precinct of their own government, were incapable of forming any diftinction between ravaging and deftroying an enemy's country, where no prefent benefit was intended but plunder, nor no future advantage expected but that of weakening the foe, and the reducing of a malecontent people, (who, though in a ftate of rebellion, were ftill to be reclaimed, not destroyed) to a due fenfe of obedience to their lawful fovereign.

It has been faid, that in order to reconcile them to fo new and ftrange an adventure, fome idea had been held out to them in Germany, that they fhould obtain large portions of the lands which they were to conquer in America, and that this notion, however abfurd, made them at firft confider the ancient poffeffors as their natural enemies; but that when they found their error, they confidered the moveable plunder of the country, not only as a matter of right, but an inadequate recompence for undertaking tuch a voyage, and engaging in fuch a

fians. The former, contending themselves for freedom, and filled with the higheft notions of the natural rights of mankind, regarded with equal contempt and abhorrence, a people, whom they confidered as the moft fordid of all mercenary flaves, in thus refigning all their faculties to the will of a petty defpot, and becoming the ready inftruments of a cruel tyranny. They reproached them with the higheft poffible degree of moral turpitude, in thus engaging in a domeftic quarrel, in which they had neither intereft or concern, and quitting their homes in the old world to butcher a people in the new, from whom they never had received the fmalleft injury; but who, on the contrary, had for a century paft afforded an hofpitable afylum to their harraffed and oppreffed countrymen, who had fled in multitudes to escape from a tyranny, fimilar to that under which these were now acting, and to enjoy the bleflings of a liberty moft generoufly held out to them, of which these mercenaries would impiously bereave the German as well as English Americans.

Such fentiments, and fuch reproaches, did not fail to increase their natural ferocity and rapacioufnefs; and it is faid that they continued in a courfe of plunder, until they at length became fo encumbered and loaded with fpoil, and fo anxious for its prefervation, that it grew to be a great impediment to their military operations.

However difagreeable this conduct was, and contrary to the mature of the British commanders, it was an evil not easily to be remedied. They could not venture to

hazard the fuccefs of the war, in fo diftant a fituation, and such precarious and critical circumftances, by quarrelling with auxiliaries who were nearly as numerous and powerful as their own forces. Allow ances were neceffarily to be made for a difference of manners, opi. nions, and even ideas of military rules and fervice. Without opening any general ground of diflike or quarrel, it required all the constancy, and all that admirable equanimity of temper which diftinguish General Howe's character, to reftrain the operation of thofe piques, jealousies, and animofities, the effects of national pride, emulation, and a difference of manners, which no wifdom could prevent from springing up in the two armies,

It was scarcely poffible that the devaftation and disorders practifed by the Heffians, should not operate in fome degree in their example upon the British troops. It would have been difficult to have punished enormities oa

which were practifed without re ferve or apprehenfion on the other, Every fuccessful deviation from order and difcipline in war, is certainly and speedily followed by others ftill greater. No relaxation can take place in either without the moft ruinous confequences. The foldier, who at first hrinks at trifling exceffes, will in a little time, if they pafs without question, proceed, without hesitation, to the greatest enormities.

From hence sprung the clamour raised in America of the defolation which was spread through the Jerfeys, and which by taking in friends and moderate men, as well as enemies, did great injury to

the

the royal caufe, uniting the latter more firmly, and urging to activity, or detaching, many of the former. Nor could the effect be confined to the immediate fufferers; the exaggerated details which were publifhed of these enormities, ferving to embitter the minds of men exceedingly through all the colonies. Thefe accounts being alfo tranfmitted to Europe, feemed in fome degree to affect our national character; in France particularly, where the people in general, thro' the whole course of this conteft, have been strongly American, they were readily received and willingly credited. Among other enormities which received the cenfure of our neighbours in that country, the deftruction of the public library at Trenton, and of the college and library at Princetown, together with a celebrated orrery made by Rittenhoufe, faid to be the best and fineft in the world, were brought as charges of a Gothic barbarity, which waged war even with literature and the fciences.

In about a month after the tak ing of New York, the inhabitants of that city and ifland prefented a petition to Lord and General Howe, the commiffioners for reftoring peace to the colonies, figned by Daniel Horfemanden, Oliver De Lancy, and 946 others, declaring their allegiance, and their acknowledgement of the Conftitutional Supremacy of Great Britain over the colonies; and praying, that in purfuance of the former declarations iffued by the Commiffioners, that city and county might be reftored to his Majesty's peace and protection.

This petition to the Commif

fioners was followed by another to the fame purpofe, from the freeholders and inhabitants of Queen's County in Long Island. It was obferved of these petitions, that the acknowledgment of the Conftitutional Supremacy in one, and of the Conftitutional Authority of Great Britain in the other, were very guardedly expreffed, all mention of parliament being omitted, and the great question of unconditional fubmiffion left totally at large. It is also remarkable, that though the inhabitants of York Ifland and Queen's County, befides raifing a confiderable body of troops for the King's fervice, and establishing a strong militia for the common defence, had given every other teftimony of their loyalty which could be expected or wifhed, yet thefe petitions were not attended to, nor were they restored to thofe rights which they expected in confequence of the declarations, as well as of the late law for the appointment of Commiffioners.

The critical fituation of Philadelphia, which a night or two's froft would have laid open to the British forces, obliged the Congrefs, about the clofe of the year, to confult their own fafety by retiring to Baltimore, in Maryland. In this flate of external danger, the diffentions which fprung up among themselves were not lefs alarming to the Americans. We have formerly fhewn that the declaration of independency had met with a ftrong oppofition in Philadelphia, not only from thofe who were called or confidered as Tories, but from many, who in all other matters had been among the moth forward in oppofing the claims of the crown and parliament. The

carrying

carrying of the question by a great majority throughout the province, was far from leffening the bitterness of those who oppofed it, amongst whom were most of the Quakers, a great and powerful body in that colony; fo that the difcontented in this bufinefs, forgetting in the prefent their ancient animolity, with all its operating caufes, coalefced with the Tories or loyalifts, whom they had formerly perfecuted, and confidered as betrayers, and inveterate enemies of their country, thus compofing all together a very formidable party.

In confequence of this diffention, and of the ill fuccefs of the rebellious arms during the greater part of the campaign, which difpofed many to look to their fafety, a Mr. Galloway, the family of Allens, with other leading men, either in Pensylvania or the Jerfeys, fome of whom had been members of the Congrefs, fled to the Commiffioners at New York, to claim the benefits of the general pardon which had been offered; expecting, as matters then flood, to return fpeedily home in triumph. These were, however, much lefs troublesome and dangerous to the Americans, than those who kept their ground, who were fo numerous and powerful, that upon the approach of the British forces to the Delaware, they prevented the order for fortifying the city of Philadelphia from being carried into execution. This eccentric and alarming movement in the feat of life and action, oblige General Washington, weak as he was, to detach three regiments, under the command of Lord Stirling, effectually to quell the oppo. fition of that party, and to give efficacy to the meafure of fortifying

the city. This decifive conduct anfwered all its purpofes, except that of fortifying the city, a defign which feems to have been abandoned as not practicable, or not neceffary at that time.

As the feafon grew too fevere to keep the field, and the frofts were not yet fufficiently fet in for the paffage of the Delaware, it became neceffary towards the middle of December to put the British and auxiliary forces under cover. They were accordingly thrown into great cantonments, forming an extenfive chain from Brunswick on the Rariten to the Delaware, occupying not only the towns, pofts, and villages, which came within a liberal defcription of that line, but thofe alfo on the banks of the Delaware for feveral miles, fo that the latter compofed a front at the end of the line, which looked over to Penfylvania.

Things were now in fuch a fituation, that there feemed to be as little probability of interrupting the defigns, or endangering the fecurity on the one fide, as of renewing the fpirit, or retrieving the weaknefs, on the other. In this ftate of affairs, a bold and spirited enterprize, which fhewed more of brilliancy than real effect in its firit appearance, became capable in its confequences of changing in a great measure the whole fortune of the war. Such extraordinary effects do fmall events produce, in that last and most uncertain of human decifions.

Colonel Rall, a brave and experienced officer, was stationed with a brigade of Heffians, confifting of three battalions, with a few British light-horse, and 50 chaffeurs, amounting in the whole to