r next year, will put the whole continent in arms, from
Nova Scotia to Georgia."[138] On the following day, the same prudent
statesman wrote to another American friend, also in England: "The most
peaceful provinces are now animated; and a civil war is unavoidable,
unless there be a quick change of British measures."[139] On the 29th
of October, the eccentric Charles Lee, who was keenly watching the
symptoms of colonial discontent and resistance, wrote from
Philadelphia to an English nobleman: "Virginia, Rhode Island, and
Carolina are forming corps. Massachusetts Bay has long had a
sufficient number instructed to become instructive of the rest. Even
this Quakering province is following the example.... In short, unless
the banditti at Westminster speedily undo everything they have done,
their royal paymaster will hear of reviews and manoeuvres not quite so
entertaining as those he is presented with in Hyde Park and Wimbledon
Common."[140] On the 1st of November, a gentleman in Maryland wrote to
a kinsman in Glasgow: "The province of Virginia is raising one company
in every county.... This province has taken the hint, and has begun to
raise men in every county also; and to the northward they have large
bodies, capable of acquitting themselves with honor in the
field."[141] At about the same time, the General Assembly of
Connecticut ordered that every town should at once supply itself with
"double the quantity of powder, balls, and flints" that had been
hitherto required by law.[142] On the 5th of November, the officers of
the Virginia troops accompanying Lord Dunmore on his campaign against
the Indians held a meeting at Fort Gower, on the Ohio River, and
passed this resolution: "That we will exert every power within us for
the defence of American liberty, and for the support of her just
rights and privileges, not in any precipitate, riotous, or tumultuous
manner, but when regularly called forth by the unanimous voice of our
countrymen."[143] Not far from the same time, the people of Rhode
Island carried off to Providence from the batteries at Newport
forty-four pieces of cannon; and the governor frankly told the
commander of a British naval force near at hand that they had done
this in order to prevent these cannon from falling into his hands, and
with the purpose of using them against "any power that might offer to
molest the colony."[144] Early in December, the Provincial Convention
of Maryland recommended that all person