some of the obnoxious commodity, they requested him to return it; and he instantly complied. Thus again was another notable scheme of the British Government rendered completely abortive.

BATTLE OF LEXINGTON.

A CONSIDERABLE quantity of military stores having been deposited at Concord, 18 miles from Boston, General Gage, who commanded the British troops in that city, determined to destroy them. In pursuance of his design, he, on the evening of the 18th of April, 1775, despatched a party of 800 grenadiers and light infantry under Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, who crossed Charles river from the foot of Boston common to Phips's farm in Cambridge, about eleven o'clock at night, and commenced a quick but silent march for Concord. Though they attempted to preserve secresy, yet the friends of liberty were too vigilant not to notice their departure, and many messengers were immediately sent to alarm the country. Of these, Colonel Revere, Mr. Dawes, and three or four others of the most active, fell into the hands of a party of British officers, who kept them as prisoners for a time, but, becoming alarmed at the firing of a party of militia at drill near Lexington meeting-house, they took the horses from their captives and rode off. The following account of the battle is given by one of the most celebrated orators of New England.

"The Committee of Safety had set the preceding day at West Cambridge; and three of its respected members, Gerry, Lee, and Orne, had retired to sleep, in the public house, where the session of the committee was held. So difficult was it, notwithstanding all that had passed, to realize that a state of things could exist, between England and America, in which American citizens should be liable to be torn from their beds by an armed force at midnight, that the members of the Committee of Safety, though forewarned of the approach of the British troops, did not even think it necessary to retire from their lodgings. On the contrary, they rose from their beds and went to their windows to gaze on the unwonted sight, the midnight march of armies through the peace

ful hamlets of New England. Half the column had already passed, when a flank guard was promptly detached to search the public house, no doubt in the design of arresting the members of the Committee of Safety, who might be there. It was only at this last critical moment, that Mr. Gerry and his friends bethought themselves of flight, and without time even to clothe themselves, escaped naked into the fields.

"By this time Colonel Smith, who commanded the expedition, appears to have been alarmed at the indications of a general rising throughout the country. The light infantry companies were now detached and placed under the` command of Major Pitcairne, for the purpose of hastening forward, to secure the bridges at Concord; and thus cut off the communication between this place and the towns north and west of it. Before these companies could reach Lexington, the officers already mentioned, who had arrested Colonel Revere, joined their advancing countrymen, and reported that five hundred men were drawn up in Lexington, to resist the king's troops. On receiving this ex, aggerated account, the British light infantry was halted, to give time for the grenadiers to come up, that the whole together might move forward to the work of death.

The company assembled on Lexington Green, which the British officers, in their report, had swelled to five hundred, consisted of sixty or seventy of the militia of the place. Information had been received about nightfall, both by private means and by communications from the Committee of Safety, that a strong party of officers had been seen on the road, directing their course toward Lexington. In consequence of this intelligence, a body of about thirty of the militia, well armed, assembled early in the evening; a guard of eight men under Colonel William Munroe, then a sergeant in the company, was stationed at the house of the Rev. Mr. Clark; and three men were sent off to give the alarm at Concord. These three messengers were however stopped on their way, as has been mentioned, by the British officers, who had already passed onward. One of their number, Elijah Sanderson, has lately died at Salem at an advanced age. A little after midnight, Messrs. Revere and Dawes arrived with the certain information that a very large body of the royal troops was in