prehensions were soon realized. No sooner had the evacuation taken place at Charleston than the rebels, like so many furies, or rather devils, entered the town, and a scene ensued, the very repetition of which is shocking to the ears of humanity. The Loyalists were seized, hove into dungeons, prisons, and prevosts. Some were tied up and whipped, others were tarred and feathered; some were dragged to horse-ponds and drenched till near dead, others were carried about the town in carts with labels upon their breasts and backs with the word "Tory," in capitals, written thereon. All the Loyalists were turned out of their houses and obliged to sleep in the streets and fields, their covering the canopy of heaven. A universal plunder of the friends to government took place, and, to complete the scene, a gallows was erected upon the quay facing the harbour, and twenty-four reputable Loyalists hanged in sight of the British fleet, with the army and refugees on board. This account of the evacuation of Charleston I had from a British officer who was upon the spot, ashore at the time, and an eye-witness to the whole. No doubt the Loyalists upon the evacuation of Savannah shared the same fate with their brethren in South Carolina.

CHAPTER XII.

THE next thing the new Ministry had to do, was to patch up a peace with their cordial friends, the rebels of America. For this purpose the Congress had Commissioners at Paris, to wit, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Henry Laurens, and John Jay, Esqs., four as artful and designing men as the thirteen revolted Colonies could boast of. As a match for these the British Ministry sent a Mr. Richard Oswald, originally a baker of bread, by which he made his fortune as a contractor for the British army in Germany during the last war. His co-commissioner upon this serious business was one Caleb Whiteford, a vintner in the city. These were the people intrusted with the making of a peace, upon which the welfare, the dignity, the honour, nay, the salvation of Great Britain, in some measure depended. The negotiation was kept on foot long enough to serve the purposes of Malagrida.

He

'The American Commissioners objected to the form of Oswald's commission, and refused to treat unless it was altered. Oswald, upon this, desired Jay to draw such a one as would come up to his own wishes, which was done and sent to Eng. land, and so bent were the new Ministry upon a peace, that Jay's commission went through all the different forms, and was transmitted to Paris in a very few days, so that the British Commissioners absolutely acted under a commission dictated by the American Commissioners.

dabbled in the stocks, and realized more than 100,ooo sterling. This done, the business went on apace, and, without entering into any preliminary articles to serve as a basis and foundation upon which a peace adequate and honourable might be formed and obtained, certain "provisional articles" were entered into, and signed by the commissioners on each side, on the 30th of November, 1782, which were to be "inserted in, and "constitute, the treaty of peace proposed to be con"cluded between Great Britain and the United States "of America; but which were not to be conclusive "until peace should be settled between Great Britain. "and France." The preamble to these "provisional articles" recites that the plan was to form a peace upon principles of liberal equity and reciprocity. On the 20th of January, 1783, preliminary articles of peace were agreed upon, signed, and exchanged between the Ministers Plenipotentiary of Great Britain and France; upon which the "provisional articles" between Great Britain and America became valid, effectual, binding upon the parties, and in full force as the treaty of peace.

By the first of the "provisional articles" Great Britain acknowledges the thirteen rebel colonies "to be free, "sovereign, and independent States," treats with them. as such, and relinquishes all claim to the government, property, and territorial rights, of the same.

By the second article, the boundaries between Great Britain and the Independent States in America are ascertained and settled, by which the new Ministry ceded all the Western posts, gave the Americans the free navigation of all the lakes, and also ceded a tract of land never included in the bounds of the Colonies nor ever claimed by the revolters, comprehending as many

square miles as would cover above one half of all Europe. In which were also included, all the towns, castles, settlements, improvements, and huntinggrounds of the faithful Indians, allies of Great Britain, who had assisted her in all her wars from the first settlement of America down to the very conclusion of this disgraceful peace. In speaking of this article, a judicious, sensible writer expresses himself thus:

Few people are able to form an adequate idea of "the extent of the districts ceded to the United States "of America at the conclusion of the late war. It will "not be amiss, therefore, to compare them with coun"tries with whose situation and extent we are more acquainted. The following measurements are made "with accuracy.

"The river Ohio is navigable from Fort Pitt to its "mouth, which is 1164 miles. The lands on the banks. of Ohio, and between the Alleghany mountains, the "lakes Ontario and Erie, and the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, contain 233,200 square miles, nearly equal to Great Britain and France, whose contents are 235,237 square miles.

"The lands between the Illinois, lakes Huron and Superior, and the Mississippi at the falls of St. Anthony, contain 129,030 square miles, nearly equal to "Great Britain and Ireland, which are 131,800 square "miles.

"The lands from St. Anthony's Falls to the south line, from the Lake of the Woods to the head of "the Mississippi, contain 60,000 square miles, which "is more than Holland, Flanders, and Ireland, which "are 57,908 square miles.

"The thirteen States of America contain 207,050 square miles, nearly as large as all Germany, Flan

ders, Holland, and Switzerland, which contain 207,483 square miles."

There does not appear to be much "reciprocity" in this article. It may with propriety be asked, what right had Great Britain to dispose of the lands and territories of her Indian allies? They were not the subjects of Great Britain. They were distinct, separate nations, had a government, religion, and laws, of their own. They They were no parties to the peace. They had no Commissioners at Paris. Is this article, then, binding upon them, or not? A reasonable, impartial, and an unprejudiced man would answer in the negative.

By the third article the people of the United States are to enjoy unmolested, "the right to take fish of every "kind upon the Great Bank, and all the other banks "of Newfoundland, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and "at all other places in the sea where the inhabitants "used to fish; and also to take fish of every kind on "such part of the coast of Newfoundland as British "fishermen should; also, in the coasts, bays, and "creeks of all other his Britannic Majesty's domin"ions in America, with full liberty to dry and cure fish "in any of the unsettled bays, harbours, and creeks "in Nova Scotia, the Magdalen Islands, and Labrador." I defy the most judicious negotiator that ever existed to point out the "reciprocity" contained in this article.

The fourth article stipulates, "that creditors on "either side shall meet with no lawful impediment to "the recovery of the full value, in sterling money, of "all bona fide debts theretofore contracted." This article is most undoubtedly reciprocal. "Bona fide debts "on both sides are to be recovered in sterling money,' but mark the event. Some of the States immediately