dlord and the nearest approach yet made to an
American millionaire, was expected to charm the Canadian
noblesse; while the fact that he and his exceedingly
diplomatic brother were devout Roman Catholics was thought
to be by itself a powerful argument with the clergy.

When they reached St Johns towards the end of April the
commissioners sent on a courier to announce their arrival
and prepare for their proper reception in Montreal. But
the ferryman at Laprairie positively refused to accept
Continental paper money at any price; and it was only
when a 'Friend of Liberty' gave him a dollar in silver
that he consented to cross the courier over the St
Lawrence. The same hitch occurred in Montreal, where the
same Friend of Liberty had to pay in silver before the
cab-drivers consented to accept a fare either from him
or from the commissioners. Even the name of Carroll of
Carrollton was conjured with in vain. The French Canadians
remembered Bigot's bad French paper. Their worst suspicions
were being confirmed about the equally bad American paper.
So they demanded nothing but hard cash--_argent dur_.
However, the first great obstacle had been successfully
overcome; and so, on the strength of five borrowed silver
dollars, the accredited commissioners of the Continental
Congress of the Thirteen Colonies made their state entry
into what they still hoped to call the Fourteenth Colony.
But silver dollars were scarce; and on the 1st of May
the crestfallen commissioners had to send the Congress
a financial report which may best be summed up in a
pithy phrase which soon became proverbial--'Not worth
a Continental.'

On the 10th of May they heard the bad news from Quebec
and increased the panic among their Montreal sympathizers
by hastily leaving the city lest they should be cut off
by a British man-of-war. Franklin foresaw the end and
left for Philadelphia accompanied by the Reverend John
Carroll, whose twelve days of disheartening experience
with the leading French-Canadian clergy had convinced
him that they were impervious to any arguments or
blandishments emanating from the Continental Congress.
It was a sad disillusionment for the commissioners, who
had expected to be settling the affairs of a fourteenth
colony instead of being obliged to leave the city from
which they were to have enlightened the people with a
free press. In their first angry ignorance they laid the
whole blame on their unfortunate army for its 'disgraceful