George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

‘ [216] us.’¹ Such were the dreams of John Adams,

chap. IX.} 1755

while teacher of a New England free school. Within twenty-one years he shall assist in declaring his country's independence; in less than thirty, this master of the town school of Worcester, after a career of danger and effort, shall stand before the king of Great Britain, the acknowledged Envoy of the free and United States of America.

The military operations in America might be respectively explained as acts of defence, to be settled by an adjustment of boundaries. The capture of the Alcide and the Lys by Boscawen, known in London on the fifteenth of July,² was an act of open hostility, and it was considered what instructions should be given to the British marine. The princess, mother of George the Third, inveighed most bitterly ‘against not pushing the French every where; the parliament would never bear the suffering the French to bring home their trade and sailors.’³ She wished Hanover in the sea, as the cause of all misfortunes. Newcastle suggested trifles, to delay a decision. ‘If we are convinced it must be war, I,’ said Cumberland, ‘have no notion of not making the most of the strength and opportunity in our hands.’ The Earl of Granville was against meddling with trade. ‘It is vexing your neighbors for a little muck.’ ‘I,’ said Newcastle, the prime minister, ‘think some middle way may be found out.’ He was asked what way. ‘To be sure,’ he replied, ‘Hawke must go out; but he may be ’