uld doubt that the cowardly
farmers whom Sandwich derided, and their leaders, the voluble lawyers
whom Sandwich despised, would be cowed now into quiescence, only
thankful that things were no worse? The best and wisest in England
were among those who did doubt, but they were like Benedict in the
play--nobody marked them, or at least nobody responsible for any
control over the conduct of affairs. Official confidence was suddenly
and rudely shaken. The lawyers proved to be men of deeds as well as of
words. The disdained farmers showed that the descendants of the men
who had fought with beasts and with Indians after the manner of
Endicott and Standish had not degenerated in the course of a few
generations. Over the Atlantic came news which made the Boston
Massacre, the burning of the "Gaspee," and the Boston Tea-party, seem
trivial and insignificant events. An astounded Ministry learned that a
formal Congress of Representatives of the different colonies had been
convened and had met in Philadelphia, and had drawn up a Declaration of
Rights. Chatham admired and applauded their work. To the King and the
King's ministers it was meaningless when it was not offensive. But the
colonists showed that they could do more than meet in Congresses and
draw up {174} splendid State Papers. The next news was of acts of war.
Gage schemed a raid upon the stores of powder and arms accumulated by
the disaffected colonists in Concord. Warning of his plan was carried
at night by a patriotic engraver named Paul Revere to every hamlet
within reach of a horse's ride. There was a skirmish at Lexington on
the road to Concord between the King's troops and a body of minute-men,
which resulted in the killing and wounding of many of the latter and
the dispersal of their force. An expedition that began with what might
in irony be termed a victory for the British arms ended in a disaster
as tragic as it was complete. Concord forewarned had nothing to yield
to the English soldiers who invaded her quiet streets; but the
surrounding country, equally forewarned, answered the invasion by
sending bodies of armed farmers and minute-men from every point of the
compass to the common centre of Concord. There was a sharp, short
fight on Concord Bridge, which ended in the repulse of the royal troops
and the death of brave men on both sides. Then the British officer
decided to retreat from Concord. It proved one of the most memorable
retreats in histor