Reign of George III. (Continued.) page 3

In the south, affairs had been as ill conducted by the English commanders as in the north they had been carried on well. Governor Martin had made an effort to recover North Carolina. He had collected a number of Highlanders, recently emigrated to America, and a number of backwoodsmen, called Regulators, and sent them, under the command of colonels Macdonald and Macleod, to compel the inhabitants to submission. They were to be supported by regular troops to be landed at Wilmington, and general Clinton was daily expected with the reinforcements from England. But Clinton did not appear, and the impatient Highlanders and Regulators, in marching from Cross Creek to Wilmington, were decoyed into a swamp, and there attacked and beaten. Macleod and most of the Highlanders were taken prisoners, and the Regulators, such as escaped, made again for the woods.

On the 3rd of May lord Cornwallis arrived on the coast with a squadron of transports, convoyed by Sir Peter Parker, with several ships of war, and containing seven regiments of infantry. General Clinton arrived soon after, and took the command of the troops; and, in concert with Parker, he determined to attack Charleston, the capital of South Carolina, whose trade was of vital interest to the colonies, and to take or destroy it. On the 4th of June they appeared off Charleston, and landed on Long Island. They found the mouth of the harbour strongly defended by fortifications on Sullivan's Island, and by others on Hadrell's Point on its north, nearly reaching to the island, and connected with it by a bridge of boats. On the point lay encamped the American general Lee, with upwards of five thousand five hundred regulars and militia, and some artillery. Clinton threw up two batteries on Long Island to command those on Sullivan Island, whilst Parker, from the ships, was to assist in covering the landing of the troops on that island. Clinton was informed that he could easily cross from one island to the other by a ford; and consequently, on the morning of the 28th of June, Sir Peter Parker drew up his men-of-war - three vessels of fifty guns each, and six frigates of twenty-eight guns each, besides another of twenty-four guns and the Thunder bomb. With springs upon his cables, he opened a sharp fire on the fort on Sullivan Island, under cover of which Clinton proceeded to cross the ford, and to co-operate from the land. But he had been deceived; what was called a ford, he found impassable. He was compelled to reimbark his troops, and meantime Parker's vessels, also unacquainted with their ground, ran upon a shoal, where one of them struck. Under these unfortunate circumstances, the Americans, from the island and from Hadrell's Point, poured a tremendous fire into the ships, doing dreadful execution. The battle continued till nine or ten o'clock at night, nearly twelve hours. Captain Morris, of the Bristol, was killed, and captain Scott, of the Experiment, wounded beyond almost all hope of his life. The ships were greatly damaged The Bristol had one hundred and eleven killed and wounded, and the Experiment seventy-nine. The Actaeon frigate, not being able to be got off the shoal, was set fire to by Parker, and burnt to the water's edge. Clinton sailed away, after this ignominious attempt to join general Howe, but some of the vessels were compelled to remain some time at Long Island to relit.

The Americans were, of course, greatly elated by this success. Colonel Moutrie, who defended the fort, was highly complimented for his bravery; the garrison were much applauded; and a sergeant received a present of a sword from the people of Charleston for his gallant conduct on the occasion. The safety of the fort and town, however, depended on the army of general Lee, for, had he not protected it from the first, the fort on Sullivan Island would have been easily reduced, and the town exposed to bombardment.

In Virginia, lord Dunmore made a last endeavour to rouse the loyal portion of the population. His plan had something impracticable in it. He sent out a Mr. Connelly, a native of Pennsylvania, to excite the people of the interior and of the back settlements to arms. They were to engage several Indian tribes to join them, and Connelly, collecting a body of men at Pittsburgh, was to burst into Virginia, with his miscellaneous host and his Indian allies, and, descending the Potomac to Alexandria, was then to be met by lord Dunmore and such forces as he could muster. But Connelly was recognised, seized in the back settlements, and conveyed to Philadelphia in irons, where his papers were examined, revealing the whole plan, and completely putting an end to lord Dunmore's operations. Connelly was treated with much severity by the Americans.

But whilst these conflicts were taking place, the revolution was marching on at full speed, and had reached its acme - the Declaration of Independence. The continental congress, on the 15th of May, passed a resolution that it was necessary for such of the States as had not framed for themselves such constitutions as were required by the altered circumstances of the country, to forthwith frame such as should be conducive to their safety and welfare. This was published in all the newspapers, accompanied by a statement that, as the king of England, in concurrence with his parliament, had excluded the people of those colonies from his protection, it became indispensable to abolish the constitution established by that power, and frame one for themselves. Here was a plain declaration; there was no longer any mistake. Congress had voted for independence, and it was curious to see the immediate effect of this, in causing a number of double-dealing patriots to throw off their dissimulation, and put in their eager claims for the first promulgation of this idea. John Jay, of New York, zealously claimed it for himself; and the friends of Dr. Franklin claimed it as boldly for him, notwithstanding his continual protestations in England, to the last moment of his stay there, that he desired nothing of the kind. His own private letters, however, already quoted, justify the claims of his friends, which at once establish his duplicity and his patriotism.

There was no man in the colonies, nevertheless, who contributed so much to bring the open declaration of independence to a crisis as Thomas Paine, the celebrated author of " The Rights of Man " and of " The Age of Reason."

Paine was originally a quaker and staymaker at Thetford, in Norfolk. He renounced his quakerism and his staymaking, became an exciseman, and then an usher in a school, reverting again to the gauging of ale firkins. In 1772 he wrote a pamphlet on the mischiefs arising from the inadequate payment of the excise officers, laying them open to bribes, &c. This pamphlet having been sent to Franklin, induced him to recommend the poor author to emigrate to America. Paine adopted the advice, and settled at Philadelphia in 1774. He there devoted himself to political literature, wrote for the papers and journals, finally edited the " Philadelphia Magazine," and, imbibing all the ardour of revolution, wrote, in January of the present year, a pamphlet called " Common Sense."

This pamphlet was the spark which was all that was needed to fire the train of independence. It at once seized on the imagination of the public, cast all other writers into the shade, and flew, in thousands and tens of thousands of copies, over all the colonies. It ridiculed the idea of a small island, three thousand miles off, ruling that immense continent, and threatening, by its insolent assumption, the expanding energies of three millions of men, more vigorous, virtuous, and free, than those who sought to enslave them. During the winter and spring this lucid and admirably reasoned pamphlet was read and discussed everywhere, and by all classes, bringing the conviction that immediate independence was necessary. The common fire blazed up in the congress, and the thing was done. As for Paine, poor as the country was, the congress of Pennsylvania voted him three hundred pounds; the university of that province conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts; he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society, founded by Franklin, and afterwards clerk of the committee of foreign affairs. In a word, he became the great oracle on subjects of government and constitutions, and contrived, both by personal exertions and through the press, to urge on the utter separation of the colonies from the mother country. We shall hereafter find him as busily employed in co-operating in the revolution of France - the offspring of the present revolution - as a member of the French national assembly.

Besides pamphlets, sermons to the people and harangues to the soldiers were assiduously addressed, to bring the mass to the fusion point of independence. George III. and England were depicted in terrific colours as Pharaoh and the land of bondage; the poor afflicted Americans were the oppressed children of Israel. A British officer in disguise, listened to a speech addressed to a body of militia by their colonel, in which he was both scriptural and classical, embellishing his oration with quotations from Caesar and Pompey, brigadier - generals Putnam and Ward! The people addressed on the subject of independence often turned round with very posing questions, as, " What do you mean by independence? " and on one occasion a correspon- dent of Washington informed him that the answer was, 14 We mean a form of government to make us independent £>f the rich, and every man able to do as he pleases."

Amongst the provinces employing themselves to carry out the recommendation of the congress, by framing new constitutions, that of New York was emboldened by the presence of Washington and his army to disregard the royalists, and to frame a perfectly independent system. Governor Morris took the lead in the ultra party, and declared that the time was now come for asserting entire independence. On the 27th of May, a resolution to that effect was passed, asserting that, as governor Tryon had voluntarily abdicated (the fact being he had fled for his life), it was necessary to fill up his office according to the inherent rights of the people, to abolish the old assembly, which had been called under regulations passed by Great Britain, now become hostile, and to elect a new assembly, and establish a new government totally independent of all foreign and external power. The delegates of the assembly were instructed to support these principles in the congress.

The assembly of Virginia, meeting in convention at Williamsburg on the 6 th of May, drew up a declaration of rights, a document which afterwards became the model for the celebrated " rights of man " with the French revolutionists. In this declaration it was asserted that the rights of the people cannot exist with hereditary monarchy; and in the fourth article it was affirmed, that the idea of u a man being born a magistrate, a legislator, or a judge, is unnatural and absurd." And, accordingly, Richard Henry Lee, as one of their delegates, on the 7th of June, moved in the general congress, that " these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; that measures should immediately be taken for procuring the assistance of foreign powers, and a confederation be formed to bind the colonies more closely together."

This all-important question was adjourned to the next day, the 8th of June, when it was debated in a committee of the whole house. As the whole debate, however, took place with closed doors, as all great debates of congress did, to hide the real state of opinion, and to give to the ultimate decision the air of unanimity, the reports of it are meagre and unsatisfactory. We know, however, that Lee the original mover, was supported by his colleague Wythe, and most energetically by John Adams; that it was as vigorously opposed by John Dickenson and his colleagues, Wilson, of Pennsylvania, and Robert Livingstone, of New York, by Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina. Moreover, a considerable number of members from different states opposed the motion, on the ground, not of its being improper in itself, but, as yet, premature. Six colonies declared for it, including Virginia; Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, were expressly against it. New York, Delaware, and South Carolina, were not decided to move yet; and it was proposed to give them time to make up their minds. Dr. Zubly, of Georgia, protested against it, and quitted the congress. To give time for greater unanimity, the subject was postponed till the 1st of July; but, meantime, a committee was appointed to draw up a declaration of independence. The members of this committee were only five, namely, Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia; John Adams, of Massachusetts; Roger Sherman, of Connecticut; Richard R. Livingstone, of New York; and Benjamin Franklin, of Pennsylvania. Besides this, two other committees were appointed - one to draw up a plan of confederation, and the other to prepare a scheme of the terms proper for foreign alliances. A board of war was also established, and John Adams was nominated its chairman - a post, says the American historian, Hildreth, " which gave him a full insight into the details of affairs, and compelled him to complain, like Washington, that, even in this infant age of our republic, corruption abounded, and a predominating avarice, which threatened the ruin of America; the golden age of pure, disinterested patriotism, being much like all other golden ages - a thing at a distance, which will not bear a close inspection."

On the 1st of July the report of the committee was read, together with the form of declaration as drawn up by Jefferson, but afterwards remodelled by Franklin and the committee. Nine states now voted for independence. Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted against it. Delaware and South Carolina requested an adjournment to the next day, in order to make up their minds, when they voted for it, a new delegate having arrived from Delaware with firmer instructions. New York held out against independence, general Howe having now arrived at Sandy Hook, and the provincial congress having retired from New York to White Plains. Jay and governor Morris, from that state, were, however, vehement for independence, asserting that the congress of New York ought to be dissolved, and delegates sent up to a new and more popular congress. Morris said that congress had, in fact, established an independent sovereignty of its own; it had coined money, raised armies, and regulated commerce. It alone required one thing more - to enter into foreign alliances; and even that they had dabbled in. They were treating with Canada, and France and Spain they ought to treat with; the rest was but a name.