ciliate the favour of the people to their determination. Independence was proclaimed, with great solemnity, at Philadelphia, the 8th of July. The artillery was fired, bonfires were kindled; the people seemed actually delirious with exultation. On the 11th, the manifesto of Congress was published in New York, and was read to each brigade of the American army, which, at that time, was assembled in the vicinity of the city: it was received with universal acclamations. The same evening, the statue of King George III., which had been erected in 1770, was taken down, and dragged through the streets by the sons of liberty. It was decided that the lead of which it was composed should be converted into musket balls. These excesses, if blameable in themselves, were not without utility if considered politically; they excited the people, and hurried them on to the object that was desired. Baltimore, independence having been proclaimed in the presence of cannoniers and militia, the people could not contain their enthusiasm. The air resounded with salutes of artillery, and the shouts that hailed the freedom and happiness of the United States of America. The effigy of the King became the sport of the populace, and was afterwards burnt in the publick square.

At

But, according to description, and the concurrent testimony of Dr. Thacher, who was there at the time, the rejoicings at Boston were the greatest of all. Independence was there proclaimed from the balcony of the state house, in the presence of all the authorities, civil and military, and of an immense concourse of people, as well from the city itself, as from the country.

The garrison was drawn up in order of battle in King street, which, from that moment, took the name of State street; the troops formed in thirteen detachments, to denote the thirteen United States. At a given signal, a salute of thirteen cannon was fired upon Fort Hill, which was immediately answered by an equal number from the batteries of the Castle, of the Neck, of Nantasket, and of Point Alderton. The garrison, in their turn, fired thirteen salutes of musketry, each detachment firing in suecession. The authorities and most considerable inhabitants then convened at a banquet prepared in the council chamber, where they drank toasts to the perpetuity and prosperity of the United States, to the American Congress, to General Washington, to the success of the arms of the confederacy, to the destruction of tyrants, to the propagation of civil and religious liberty, and to the friends of the United States in all parts of the world. All the bells rung in token of felicitation; the joy was universal, and its demonstrations were incessantly renewed. In the evening, all the ensigns of royalty, lions, sceptres or crowns, whether sculptured or painted, were torn in pieces, and burnt in State street.

But in Virginia, according to a celebrated author, it would be impossible to describe the exultation that was manifested.

The Virginia Convention decreed that the name of the King should be suppressed in all the publick prayers. They ordained that the great seal of the commonwealth of Virginia should represent Virtue as the tutelary genius of the province, robed in the drapery of an amazon, resting one hand upon her lance, and hold

ing with the other a sword, trampling upon tyranny, under the figure of a prostrate man, having near him a crown fallen from his head, and bearing in one hand a broken chain, and in the other a scourge. At the foot was charactered the word "Virginia," and round the effigy of Virtue, was inscribed, “ Sic semper tyrannis." The reverse represented a group of figures; in the middle stood Liberty, with her wand and cap; on one side was Ceres, with the horn of plenty in the right hand, and a sheaf of wheat in the left; upon the other appeared Eternity, with the globe and the phonix. At the foot were found these words, "Deus nobis hæc otia fecit."

In the midst of these transports, nothing was forgotten that might tend to inspire the people with affection for the new order of things, and a violent hatred not only towards tyranny, but also against monarchy; the former being considered as the natural result from the latter.

Thus, on the one hand, the American patriots, by their secret combinations, and then by a daring resolution; and on the other, the British ministers, at first by oppressive laws, and afterwards by hesitating counsels, gave origin to a crisis which eventually produced the dismemberment of a splendid and powerful empire. So constant are men in the pursuits of liberty, and so obstinate in ambition.

Paul Allen, in his History of the Revolution, remarks: "The declaration of independence, once published to the world with such solemnity, gave a new character to the contest, not only in the colonies, but in Europe. Before this decisive step, the American peo-✔

ple were regarded by many able and good men as well as sound politicians, on both sides of the Atlantick, rather as children struggling for doubtful privileges with a parent, than as men contending with men for their natural and undisputable rights.

But this deliberate appeal to the nations of the earth, to posterity, and to the God of battles, gave a new political character, an immediate dignity and manhood, to their cause. It was no longer the unholy struggle of subjects against their monarch-of children against their parent-of rash and turbulent men who never measure nor weigh the consequences of their deeds: it was no longer a contest for mere matters of opinion, but for a national existence-for life or death. It became, under the awful sanction of that assembly, the temperate and determined stand of men who had entrenched themselves within the certain and thoroughly understood limits of their rights-of men who had counted the cost dispassionately, and measured the event without shrinking-of men who felt, deliberated, and acted as the representatives of a whole people, conscious of their infirmities and their responsibility, knowing the might of their adversaries and the weakness of their friends, but determined to do their duty to their children, and leave them their inheritance undisturbed and unimpaired. Or if that might not be, and the liberties of Englishmen were no longer the protection of their wives or the birthright of their children, to leave them as widows and orphans to the charity of Heaven."

The declaration of independence was, of itself, a victory—a victory over the passions, prejudices, and fears of a multitude. It drew a line for ever, between

the friends and the foes of America. It left no neutrals. He who was not for independence, unconditional independence, was an enemy. The effect produced on the publick mind by the boldness and unanimity manifested on this occasion by the delegates of the several colonies, operated on the general confidence of the people as much as a similar declaration would have done, had it been adopted and signed by the whole population of the states. In the publick exultation at the time, the murmurs of disapprobation were unheard, and the opposition to be expected from the discontented and factious, who were always a formidable minority, and in the very bosom of the country, was entirely overlooked.