for the right of navigating the Mississippi, inasmuch as they hold no territory on that river-that as his Majesty would probably conquer the Floridas during the present war, he trusted there would be no cause of dispute left concerning them, between Spain and the United States-and that on the 4th article, his Catholick majesty considered, that as the lands lying on the east side of the Mississippi, whereon settlements were prohibited by the proclamation of 1763, were possessions of the crown of Great Britain, and therefore proper objects of conquest by Spain, and might probably be conquered during the present war, and that as the United States held no possession of these territories before the war, and had no foundation for a claim in the right of their former sovereign, it would be adviseable to restrain the southern states from making any settlements or conquests therein. The Minister added that the king his master, united by blood to his Catholick Majesty, and by treaties of alliance to the United States, was extremely desirous of seeing a lasting friendship between the two parties; and that he cannot consider the independence of the United States as secure, until this friendship shall be established.

The difficulty of obtaining money from the several states for carrying on the war, forced Congress to the expedient of calling upon them for supplies of provision and forage in lieu of it; but this species of taxation was found to be so partial in its operation, so difficult of execution, and so inconvenient, that it was abandoned before any effect was produced from it, and another experiment adopted. This was to call in by taxes, all the old emission of paper, to the amount of 200 millions of dollars, and issue in new

paper one twentieth of that sum, under the guarantee of the several states. Four tenths of these new bills were to be subject to the order of Congress, and the remaining six tenths to that of the several states; to be redeemable in specie within six years, and to bear an interest of 5 per cent. They were to be made receiv- able in the payment of taxes, at the rate of specie, whereas the old bills in circulation were only receiv able at the rate of forty for one, notwithstanding the assurances of Congress, only a few months before, and the boasted honour and good faith of republicks.

Congress expected by these resolutions, to cancel the old bills, and give a fixed value to the currency; besides supplying the several states with the means of furnishing the army supplies required of them, and themselves with money for carrying on the war. But none of these good effects were produced; only a few of the states complied with the requisitions, and the small amount of new paper issued, (for its emission was made to depend on the proportions of the old, that came in forty to one,) added but little to the means which their exigencies demanded.

On the 20th of March they fixed the value of loan certificates from September 1777 to this time, giving such a rate to their paper, as to secure to the lender the return of his money, and to free the publick from a debt for which they had recieved no value. They recommended also to the several states a revision of their laws concerning the tender of continental bills in the discharge of debts, with a view to such. an amendment of them as should be thought just in the present state of the currency.

The beginning of the present year found the army of Washington hutted at Morristown, and suffering

all the hardships, privations and wants, which had once before attended them in their winter quarters at Valley Forge. The cold was more intense than it had ever been known to be before in this climate, within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. A few days after Sir Henry Clinton had sailed for the south, the navigation was entirely closed, and the communication to New-York and to its adjacent islands, across the ice was as safe, as if they had formed a part of the main land. Carriages and wagons of the heaviest weight could be every where transported across the North River, and the eastern channels, as upon a solid bridge; and by the middle of January, snows had fallen to the depth of several feet. So unusual indeed was the severity of this winter, that it has to this day borne the distinctive epithet of the hard winter. The force which Sir Henry Clinton had left in New-York, of regulars, was so small, that the royal Generals became alarmed at the facility thus opened to an attack, and every means were speedily taken to embody corps of defence, from all orders and classes of people in the city; the whole, however, did not amount to more than 6000 men-a force very inadequate to the protection of the city and its dependencies, if Washington had been in a situation to profit by the advantages which nature offered to him. But his army was reduced almost to dissolution. had neither provision of any kind, nor money to purchase them; and the credit of Congress was so far exhausted, that it would procure him nothing. For many days, the soldiers were compelled to share the scanty food of the horses.

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In this situation, Washington found himself compelled to declare to the civil authorities of Jersey,

that unless the inhabitants would afford their aid, he should be reduced to the alternative of disbanding his army, or of granting them permission to supply themselves with food wherever they could find it. The magistracy, with a promptitude which does them infinite credit, adopted the necessary measures to comply with the General's requisitions; and the proportions of bread stuffs and cattle, allotted to each county were furnished with a punctuality and readiness that does equal honour to the people. But to the disgrace of the soldiers, this generous and patriotick effort to relieve them, when despair stared them in the face, was so soon forgotten, that before the end of January, we find the following reproach inserted in general orders. "The General is astonished and mortified, that notwithstanding the last order, the inhabitants in the vicinity of the camp, are absolutely a prey to the plundering and licentious spirit of the soldiery. From daily complaints and a formal representation of the magistrates, a night scarcely passes, without gangs of soldiers going out of camp, and committing every species of robbery, depredation, and the greatest personal insult. These violences are committed on the persons and property of those, who, on a late alarming occasion for the want of provision, manifested the warmest attachment to the army, by affording it the most generous and plentiful relief.”

This licentious spirit of the soldiery, which no efforts of Washington could restrain, and which occasionally broke out in the perpetration of enormities which no degree of privation could excuse, was at once the cause of their repeated sufferings, and the apology of the people for the reluctance so often manifested in affording the means of relief within their

power. It sufficiently accounts for, if it does not wholly excuse, that general appearance of unfriendliness to the cause of independence, even among those whose all was at hazard in the issue of our struggle. No discrimination was made by the soldiers in their depredations, between those who were ready to divide with them their last loaf, and those who from avarice or disaffection withheld their plentiful stores. It cannot be wonderful, then, that our armies were so often without bread in the midst of a country where it abounded.

Thus were the two northern armies situated during the first months of the year 1780, the large detachments sent from both to the south, having reduced them to the necessity of confining their operations to the defence of their respective stations. Lord Stirling, indeed, attempted an expedition to Staten Island, with the troops of his division about the middle of January; but it resulted in disappointment, for the ice, which had afforded him the easy means of invasion, gave to the enemy also such facilities of drawing reinforcements from New-York, that his lordship was glad to take the advantage of the night, and retreat without having effected any thing.

Towards the beginning of April, the situation of the commander in chief assumed a much more alarming appearance, than it had worn under all the calamities of the winter. A dissatisfaction began to manifest itself among the troops, which threatened a general mutiny. They had suffered without complaint, all the hardships which could arise from want of food and want of clothing, through the severest winter ever experienced; and now when their distresses from these causes were at an end, and when