ave recommended, for
the support of the constitutional rights of Great Britain, and the
protection of the commercial interests of my kingdom." Wilkes was
prevented from making a reply by a hint from the lord in waiting, and
the king directed a notice to be issued a few days after, that the king
would not receive any address from the city except in its corporate
capacity. This address had, indeed, been got up by a minority of the
livery: the majority were in favour of the measures adopted.

DEPARTURE OF FRANKLIN.

During the month of April, while parliament was deliberating on the
course to be pursued in the colonies, Dr. Franklin suddenly left
England. Before he left he put in his protest against the measures
adopted by the ministry and the British parliament, into the hands of
Lord Dartmouth. On the evening before his departure, he had, also,
a long interview with Burke, in which he expressed regret for the
calamities which he anticipated as the consequence of ministerial
resolutions, and again professed his attachment to the mother country,
under whose rule America had enjoyed so many happy days. Yet there can
be no question but that Franklin's principal motive for leaving England
was to widen the breach which existed between her and the colonies, and
to aid them in the struggle for independence.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICANS.

In the mean time military preparations had been continued in America.
Inflamed by publications and harangues on every side, the Americans
had been active in preparing for the approaching contest. No thought
of concession or conciliation was entertained: provincial and private
meetings all breathed the language of defiance to the mother country,
and threatened resistance to taxation, external or internal, as well as
to every other act of coercion. A great impetus was given to the popular
movement by the resolutions of congress. A few assemblies there were,
indeed, as that of New York, who at first refused to admit these
resolutions, but they were soon induced to join the confederation. Every
province prepared its levies and its cannon and its military stores for
the deadly strife. And at length that strife commenced. While the
houses of parliament in England were yet echoing with the oratory of its
empassioned members, the hillsides of America were reverberating with
peals of musketry. The banner of revolt was first unfolded in the
province where the spirit of resistance first sh