warning, and sent General Maxwell with a
brigade of Jersey troops to co-operate with Major-general Dickinson
and the militia of that State in breaking down the bridges and
harassing the enemy, should they actually attempt to march through it.

In the meantime, the commissioners empowered under the new
Conciliatory Bills to negotiate the restoration of peace between Great
Britain and her former colonies, arrived in the Delaware in the
Trident ship-of-war. These were Frederick Howard, Earl of Carlisle;
William Eden (afterwards Lord Auckland), brother of the last colonial
governor of Maryland; and George Johnstone, commonly known as Governor
Johnstone, having held that office in Florida. The commissioners
landed at Philadelphia on the 6th of June, and discovered to their
astonishment that they had come out, as it were, in the dark, on a
mission in which but a half confidence had been reposed in them by
government. Three weeks before their departure from England, orders
had been sent out to Sir Henry Clinton to evacuate Philadelphia and
concentrate his forces at New York; yet these orders were never
imparted to them. Their letters and speeches testify their surprise
and indignation at finding their plan of operations so completely
disconcerted by their own cabinet.

The orders for evacuation, however, were too peremptory to be evaded,
but Johnstone declared that if he had known of them, he never would
have gone on the mission. The commissioners had prepared a letter for
Congress, merely informing that body of their arrival and powers, and
their disposition to promote a reconciliation, intending quietly to
await an answer; but the unexpected situation of affairs occasioned by
the order for evacuation, obliged them to alter their resolution, and
to write one of a different character bringing forward at once all the
powers delegated to them. On the 9th of June, Sir Henry Clinton
informed Washington of the arrival of the commissioners, and requested
a passport for their secretary, Dr. Ferguson, the historian, to
proceed to Yorktown bearing a letter to Congress. Washington sent to
Congress a copy of Sir Henry's letter, but did not consider himself at
liberty to grant the passport until authorized by them.

Without waiting the result, the commissioners forwarded, by the
ordinary military post, their letter, accompanied by the "Conciliatory
Acts" and other documents. They were received by Congress on the 13th.
The reading of th