r a voyage
to Europe, and that, therefore, General Howe contemplated the shorter
voyage to Sandy Hook or Delaware; and they further pretended that some
of the British soldiers had secreted their cartouch-boxes, which were,
they said, comprehended in the technical term "arms," and upon such
futile and unfounded pretensions they gravely concluded that the
convention was broken. The British officers denied these allegations,
and the whole subject was referred to a committee of congress, who,
in their report, substantiated them by fallacy, and thereupon it was
resolved that "the embarkation of Lieutenant-General Burgoyne and the
troops under his command, should be suspended until a distinct and
explicit ratification of the convention of Saratoga should be properly
notified by the court of Great Britain to congress." The men were then
thrown into prison, and the British transports were ordered to quit the
neighbourhood of Boston without delay. Burgoyne addressed a letter of
remonstrance to congress, and insisted on the embarkation of his army
as stipulated in the convention; but a committee to whom this letter was
referred, reported that it contained no arguments sufficient to induce
congress to alter their resolutions, and the men were still kept in
prison. Burgoyne then demanded that he, at least, should be permitted
to return to England upon his parole, which request was readily granted,
and it was in this manner that he had been allowed to come home, leaving
his army behind him. The whole affair reflects the greatest disgrace
upon the members of congress, and Washington and Gates share in that
disgrace; the former for having joined hand-in-hand with congress in
the affair, and the latter for not preventing the act of perfidy, or
throwing up his commission if he had not sufficient influence to prevent
it. All the American leaders, however, seem to have parted company
with faith and honour, and they rejoiced in the prospect of keeping
Burgoyne's troops prisoners of war till the war should be ended, being
well convinced that the court of Great Britain would not make the
required notification.

LAFAYETTE'S EXPEDITION TO CANADA.

During the preceding year, while the treaty between France and America
was pending, the Marquess de Lafayette, a warm-hearted and warm-headed
young Frenchman, who had imbibed the political notions of the new
school of philosophy, which had for some time been sowing the seeds
of revolution in