172 Evacuation of Boston. [me to make effective sallies ; and Washington was left in peace to drill his raw levies into adequate soldiership. Then, as throughout the war, his difficulty was to retain his civilian troops, eager to return to their farms or business the moment that the period contracted for had expired. Another evil from which the American army suffered was lack of ammunition. Nevertheless Washington succeeded, early in March, 1776, in occupying the heights to the south-west of the town, whence he was able to carry on a bombardment to which the British could make no effective reply. After enduring this for a fortnight, Howe decided to evacuate the town. He was able to provide a sufficiency of transports to carry off his army together with those inhabitants who, by their loyalty to the British cause, had incurred the vengeance of their countrymen. The British fleet, though it had not been able to check the isolated operations of American whale-boats, succeeded in guarding Howe's transports, which reached Halifax unmolested. In England the friends of the colonists were still fighting a losing and, as it must now have seemed, a hopeless cause. In August, 1775, the delegates from Congress had reached England, armed with a petition or, as it might be more fitly called, a remonstrance, addressed to the King. It was hardly a matter for complaint if the Ministry refused to receive a petition from subjects who were actually raising troops against the Crown and countenancing men who had fired on the King's soldiers. Complaint at least did not fitly lie in the mouth of Congress, after their own refusal to consider seriously North's scheme of conciliation. On October 26 Parliament met; and the colonial policy of the Ministry was set forth in the King's speech. To the general announce- ment that the colonists would be dealt with vigorously as rebels was added the statement that it was intended to procure foreign troops to act against them. When that took the form of a definite ministerial proposal, it at once met with protest; and, when the news reached America, it did much to exasperate the colonists and confirm their spirit of resistance. Indeed among the many errors committed by the English government in the prosecution of the war there was hardly any more harmful than the hiring of Hessian troops. It emphasised the fact that Englishmen no longer looked upon the colonists as fellow-subjects; while the anger caused by the misconduct of which some of the Germans were guilty, and the discredit which was thus brought on our army, far more than outweighed their military services. Undeterred by the failures of the previous session, the friends of America still strove against the policy of the government. Burke in the House of Commons proposed a bill embodying a compromise. The formal question of the right to tax was not to be touched upon. In practice the right was to be abandoned, but commercial duties might be levied, the application of the proceeds being left to each individual colony. All the measures complained of by the Americans were to be
