titled to the benefits of the cartel; and the menace of retaliation alone prevented their proceeding to the last extremity against him. During the royal fuccesses in the Jerseys, General Clinton, with two brigades of British and two of Heffian troops, with a squadron of men of war, was detached to the attack of Rhode Island-which being in no condition of defence, was abandoned to them without refiftance. It was taken poffeffion of by General Clinton on the very day that General Wafhington croffed the Delawar.

The affairs of America were now in the opinion of many verging to a crifis; for, though it might reafonably be expected that the first operations of so great a force as that now employed by Great Britain would be fuccessful in a certain degree, it could scarcely be imagined that such a feries of difafters could happen in so short a time. But the event of the campaign, though now in appearance brought very near to a termination, shewed in a. striking manner the caprice of fortune, and the folly of those who in a hazardous and dangerous war rely on a constant and uninterrupted tide of fuccess. When General Washington retreated across the Delawar, he trembled for the fate of America; and talked of retiring for fafety with the remains of his army to the receffes of the Alleghahany mountains, expecting to have been immediately followed by the British forces. For, though

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the boats were by a timely precaution removed to the Pennsylvanian shore, the neighbourhood fupplied ample materials, which art and industry might foon have constructed into rafts and flotillas fufficient for the transportation of the troops. But it was remarked by men of difcernment, that nothing of the vast or decisive appeared in the plans of the English General, and the troops now in the full career of fuccess were ordered into winter cantonments, forming an extensive chain from Brunswick to the Delawar, and down the banks of that river for many miles, so as to compose a front at the end of the line looking over to Pennsylvania. General Washington having perfect information of this difpofition exclaimed in the spirit of a vigilant and fagacious commander, " Now is the time to clip the wings of the enemy while they are so spread."

Very early in the morning of the 26th December (1776), a day purposely selected on the suppofition that the preceding festivity might favor the project of furprise, General Washington croffed the Delawar, not without extreme difficulty from the quantity of ice in the river, nine miles above Trenton, and immediately began his march in the midst of a storm of snow and hail at the head of his troops, which exceeded not three thousand in number, and reached Trenton by day-break. Here about one thousand fix hundred men were sta

tioned, chiefly Heffians, under the command of P3 Colonel Colonel Rahl, who, being unsuspicious of danger, were thrown into confufion at the first attack. Colonel Rahl himself being mortally wounded, the disorder increased, and abandoning their artillery, they attempted to make their retreat to Prince-town; but finding this impracticable, and being now overpowered, and nearly surrounded, the three regiments of Rahl, Lossberg, and Knyphausen, laid down their arms, and furrendered themselves prisoners of war, the remainder of the troops escaping with difficulty by way of Bordentown. In the evening General Washington repassed the Delawar, carrying with him the prisoners, their artillery, and colors, and entered the city of Philadelphia in triumph. The charm was now diffolved; and it being found by experience that the Europeans were not invincible, great numbers of the Americans, who had deserted their colors, again repaired to the standard of their commander, who foon found himself at the head of a confiderable army, in a condition once more to cross the Delawar; and Lord Cornwallis, who was actually at New York in his way to England, found himself under a neceffity of returning to the defence of the Jerseys.

The English General, approaching the American army strongly posted near the town of Trenton, made immediate dispositions for an attack; but in the dead of night (January 2, 1777), General Washington filently withdrew his troops, leaving fires burning in his camp, and the usual patroles, in order to deceive the enemy; and by a circuitous march arrived by fun-rise at Prince-town. Here the fourth brigade of British troops, confifting of the seventeenth, fortieth, and fifty-fifth regiments, were posted under the command of Colonel Mawhood, who had just begun his inarch in order to join Lord Cornwallis, when he fell in with the van-guard of the American army. Though engaged with a far fuperior force, the Colonel, at the head of his own corps, with extraordinary gallantry fought his way through the thickest ranks of the enemy-the other regiments making separate retreats by different roads: they suffered however very feverely in this unequal conflict, and were in a great measure disabled for future service. General Washington diftinguished himself on this occafion by fignal exertions of personal valor. On this disafter, Lord Cornwallis, finding himself out-manœuvred by his antagonist, abandoned his Camp at Trenton, and retired with precipitation to Brunswick. The licentious ravages of the foldiery, particularly of the German mercenaries, during the time they were in poffeffion of the Jerseys, had excited the utmost resentment and deteftation of the inhabitants; and the fortune of war now feeming to run againft them, the whole country rose in arms: the Militia collected in large bodies, and the British troops were every where attacked with fuccess-at Woodbridge, at Elizabeth-town, at Newark, and the royal troops retained only the two posts of Brunswick and Amboy, both holding an open communication with New York by sea, In the detail of military operations, the civil transactions which took place during the campaign must not be fuffered to escape our attention.

On the 19th of September (1776), the Commiffioners of the Crown, Lord Howe and the General, caused a proclamation to be published, promifing in his Majefty's name a revision of all such inftructions as might be construed to lay an improper restraint on the freedom of legislation in the Colonies, and also to concur in the revisal of such Acts by the operation of which they might think themselves aggrieved. Though it was impoffible to conjecture what was really meant by a promise so vague, had a declaration of this nature been made with good faith at an earlier period of the dispute, it might doubtless have been attended with happy effects; but when a civil war had actually commenced, to indulge the most distant idea that the Americans would lay down their arms on the mere promise of a revision of the Acts of that government whose authority they had renounced, was an idle and puerile expectation.

In the month of October the inhabitants of the city and ifland of New York, then in the poffeffion of the English, presented a petition to the Commis