of the Crown was to reconcile the Colonies. The
actual policy, and its physical demonstrations, repelled, and did not
conciliate. Military acts, easily done by the force in hand, were
needlessly done. Military acts which would be wise upon the basis of
anticipated resistance were not done.

Threats and blows toward those not deemed capable of resistance were
freely expended. Operations of war, as against an organized and skilful
enemy, were ignored. But the legacies of English law and the inheritance
of English liberty had vested in the Colonies. Their eradication and
their withdrawal were alike impossible. The time had passed for
compromise or limitation of their enjoyment. The filial relation toward
England was lost when it became that of a slave toward master, to be
asserted by force. This the Americans understood when they environed
Boston. This the British did not understand, until after the battle of
Bunker Hill. The British worked as against a mob of rebels. The
Americans made common cause, "liberty or death," against usurpation and
tyranny.

THE OUTLOOK.

Reference to map, "Boston and vicinity," already used in the January
number of this Magazine to illustrate the siege of Boston, will give a
clear impression of the local surroundings, at the time of the American
occupation of Charlestown Heights. The value of that position was to be
tested. The Americans had previously burned the lighthouses of the
harbor. The islands of the bay were already miniature fields of
conflict; and every effort of the garrison to use boats, and thereby
secure the needed supplies of beef, flour, or fuel, only developed a
counter system of boat operations, which neutralized the former and
gradually limited the garrison to the range of its guns. This close
grasp of the land approaches to Boston, so persistently maintained,
stimulated the Americans to catch a tighter hold, and force the garrison
to escape by sea. The capture of that garrison would have placed
unwieldy prisoners in their hands and have made outside operations
impossible, as well as any practical disposition of the prisoners
themselves, in treatment with Great Britain. Expulsion was the purpose
of the rallying people.

General Gage fortified Boston Neck as early as 1774, and the First
Continental Congress had promptly assured Massachusetts of its sympathy
with her solemn protest against that act. It was also the intention of
General Gage to fortify Dorchester Height