of their fellow-citizens, it was impossible to provide immediately for so large a number of officers and soldiers, in such a manner as their convenience required, or as from the articles of convention they might reasonably expect. The officers remonstrated to General Burgoyne, that six or seven of them were crowded together in one room, without any regard to their respective ranks, in violation of the 7th article of the convention. General Burgoyne, on the 14th of November, forwarded this account to General Gates, and added, "the public faith is broken." This letter, being laid before Congress, gave an alarm. It corroborated an apprehension, previously entertained, that the captured troops on their embarkation would make a junction with the British garrisons in America. The declaration of the general, that "the public faith was broken" while in the power of Congress, was considered by them as destroying the security which they before had in his personal honour, for in every event he might adduce his previous notice to justify his future conduct. They therefore resolved, "That the embarkation of Lieutenant-general Burgoyne, and the troops under his command, be postponed till a distinct and explicit ratification of the convention of Saratoga be properly notified by the court of Great Britain to Congress." General Burgoyne explained the intention and construction of the passage objected to in his letter, and pledged himself, that his officers would join with him in signing any instrument that might be thought necessary for confirming the convention, but Congress would not recede from their resolution. They alleged, that it had been often asserted by their adversaries, that "faith was not to be kept with rebels," and that therefore they would be deficient in attention to the interests of their constituents, if they did not require an authentic ratification of the convention by national authority, before they parted with the captured troops. They urged farther, that by the law of nations, a compact broken in one article, was no longer binding in any other. They made a distinction between the suspension and abrogation of the convention, and alleged that ground to suspect an intention to violate it was a justifying reason for suspending its execution on their part, till it was properly ratified. The desired ratification, if Great Britain was seriously disposed to that measure, might have been obtained in a few months, and Congress uniformly declared themselves willing to carry it into full effect, as soon as they were secured of its observance by proper authority on the other side.

About eight months after, certain royal commissioners, whose official functions shall be hereafter explained, made a requisition respecting these troops-offered to ratify the convention, and required permission for their embarkation. On inquiry it was found, that they had no authority to do any thing in the matter which would be obligatory on Great Britain. Congress therefore resolved, "that no ratification of the convention, which may be tendered in consequence of powers which only reach that case by

construction and implication, or which may subject whatever is transacted relative to it, to the future approbation or disapprobation of the parliament of Great Britain, can be accepted by Congress."

Till the capture of Burgoyne the powers of Europe were only spectators of the war between Great Britain and her late colonies, but soon after that event they were drawn in to be parties. In every period of the controversy, the claims of the Americans were patronised by sundry respectable foreigners. The letters, addresses, and other public acts of Congress, were admired by many who had no personal interest in the contest. Liberty is so evidently the undoubted right of mankind, that even they who never possessed it feel the propriety of contending for it, and whenever a people take up arms either to defend or to recover it, they are sure of meeting with encouragement or good wishes from the friends of humanity in every part of the world.

Among the officers who distinguished themselves in this and the subsequent campaigns, was Baron Frederick William Steuben, a Prussian officer, who served many years in the armies of the great Frederick, was one of his aids, and held the rank of lieutenant-general. He arrived in New Hampshire from Marseilles in November, 1777, with strong recommendations to Congress. He claimed no rank, and only requested permission to render as a volunteer what services he could to the American army. He was soon appointed to the office of inspector-general, and he

established a uniform system of manoeuvres; and by his skill and persevering industry, effected, during the continuance of the troops at Valley Forge, a most important improvement in all ranks of the army. He was a volunteer in the action of Monmouth, and commanded in the trenches of Yorktown on the day which concluded the struggle with Great Britain.

During his command, Lord Cornwallis made his overture for capitulation. The proposals were immediately despatched to the commander-inchief, and the negotiation progressed.

The Marquis de Lafayette, whose turn it was next to mount guard in the trenches, marched to relieve the baron, who, to his astonishment, refused to be relieved. He informed General de Lafayette that the custom of the European war was in his favour; and that it was a point of honour which he could neither give up for himself nor deprive his troops of; that the offer to capitulate had been made during his guard, and that in the trenches. he would remain until the capitulation was signed or hostilities commenced. The marquis immediately galloped to head-quarters: General Washington decided in favour of the baron, to the joy of the one, and to the mortification of the other of those brave and valuable men. The baron remained till the business was finished. After the peace, the baron retired to a farm in the vicinity of New York. The state of New Jersey had given him a small improved farm; and the state of New York gave him a tract of sixteen thousand acres of land in the county of Oneida.

The baron died at Steubenville, New York, November 28, 1794, aged sixty-one years. He was an accomplished gentleman, and a virtuous citizen; of extensive knowledge and sound judgment.

N the 3d of December the news arrived in London of Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga, and was whispered about town, though without any particulars. This, it was concluded, must drive ministers from their posts, and make room for those who had been so long and so loudly struggling for them. Accordingly, in the afternoon, Colonel Barré rose in the House of Commons, with a severe and solemn countenance, but hardly, as we believe, with sadness of heart, and asked Lord George Germaine what news he had received by his last expresses from Quebec; and called upon him to tell him, upon his word of honour, what had become of General Burgoyne and his brave army. The haughty secretary was constrained to confess that he had received the unhappy intelligence; adding, however, that it was not official, and had not yet been authenticated. It had been brought, he said, by express from Quebec, where it had been received from Ticonderoga, to which place it had been carried by the reports of deserters. It was, he observed, a most unfortunate affair, but he expressed a hope that the House would suspend their judgment; declaring, in a cold, self-satisfied tone, that, if he had been in fault in planning the expedition, he was there to answer for it. Barré, who well knew the part that the hero of Minden had taken in framing the scheme, said that the man who planned so rash and incoherent an expedition was alone to blame. Charles Fox, Burke, and others continued the attack, and revelled in descriptions of the loss and disgrace we had sustained. The solicitor-general, Wedderburn, came to the rescue of his official superiors: he represented that the greatness of the national character particularly showed itself in rising above a temporary misfortune; that victory had often followed defeat; that this was not the first time a

British army had been reduced to such hard extremities; that, during the war of the succession, General Stanhope had been compelled to surrender himself and his whole army prisoners of war in Spain; and that the disgrace only served to raise an enthusiastic ardour which soon effaced the stigma and achieved glorious successes. Lord North brought back the attention of the House to the business of the day, which was, to vote supplies; observing that these were indispensable, whether we were to look to peace or to the prolongation of war. On the next day-the 4th of December-the Marquis of Rockingham, the Dukes of Richmond and Manchester, and Lord Shelburne, met and agreed that a motion should be made in the Upper House for the production of Burgoyne's instructions; and they hoped that Chatham's health would enable him to come to London on the morrow to make it. The Duke of Grafton and several other opposition lords were out of town before the sad news arrived. On the 5th, Chatham was in his place to make the motion. He began a long and