r and place unto which
they call them." In Rhode Island, where the Royal Charter was so
liberal that it lasted until 1842, all power reverted annually to the
people, and the authorities had to undergo re-election. Connecticut
possessed so finished a system of self-government in the towns, that
it served as a model for the federal Constitution. The Quakers of
Pennsylvania managed their affairs without privilege, or intolerance,
or slavery, or oppression. It was not to imitate England that they
went into the desert. Several colonies were in various ways far
ahead of the mother country; and the most advanced statesman of the
Commonwealth, Vane, had his training in New England.

After the outrage on board the Dartmouth in Boston harbour the
government resolved to coerce Massachusetts, and a continental
Congress met to devise means for its protection. The king's troops
were sent to destroy military stores that had been collected at
Concord; and at Lexington, on the outward march, as well as all the
way back, they were assailed by militia. The affair at Lexington,
19th April, 1775, was the beginning of the War of Independence, which
opened with the siege of Boston. Two months later the first action
was fought at Bried's Hill, or Bunker Hill, which are low heights
overlooking the town, and the colonials were repulsed with very little
loss.

The war that followed, and lasted six years, is not illustrious in
military annals, and interests us chiefly by the result. After the
first battle the colonies declared themselves independent. Virginia,
acting for herself only, led the way. Then the great revolutionist,
who was the Virginian leader, Jefferson, drew up the Declaration of
Independence, which was adopted by the remaining states. It was too
rhetorical to be scientific; but it recited the series of ideas which
the controversy had carried to the front.

Thirty thousand German soldiers, most of them from Hesse Cassel, were
sent out, and were at first partially successful; for they were
supported by the fleet, which the estuaries carried far inland. Where
the European army had not that advantage things went badly. The
Americans attacked Canada, expecting to be welcomed by the French
inhabitants who had been so recently turned into British subjects.
The attack failed dramatically by the death of General Montgomery,
under the walls of Quebec, and the French colonists remained loyal.
But an expedition sent from Canad