As soon as congress was organised, Mr. Hancock laid before that body the depositions showing that, in the battle of Lexington, the King's troops were the aggressors; together with the proceedings of the provincial congress of Massachusetts on that subject. The affairs of America were now arrived at a crisis to which they had been, for some time, rapidly tending; and it had become necessary for the delegates of the other provinces finally to determine, either to embark with New England in war, or, by separating from her, to surrender the object for which they had jointly contended, and submit to that unlimited supremacy which was claimed by parliament. Even among the well informed, the opinion, that the contest would ultimately be determined by the sword, had not become general. The hope had been indulged by many of the popular leaders, that the union of the colonies, the extent and serious aspect of the opposition, and the distress which their non-importation agreements would produce among the merchants and manufacturers of the parent state, would induce administration to recede from its high pretensions, and restore harmony and free intercourse. This opinion had derived strength from the communications made them by their zealous friends in England. The divisions and discontents of that country had been represented as much greater than the fact would justify; and the exhortations transmitted to them to persevere in the honourable course which had been commenced with so much glory, had generally been accompanied with assurances that success would yet crown their patriotic labours. Many had engaged with zeal in the resistance made by America, and had acted on a full conviction of the correctness of the principles for which they contended, who would have felt some reluctance in supporting the measures which had been adopted, had they believed that those measures would produce war. But each party counted too much on the divisions of the other; and each seems to have taken step after step, in the hope that its adversary would yield the point in contest, without resorting to open force. Thus, on both sides, the public feeling had been gradually conducted to a point, which would, in the first instance, have been viewed with horror, and had been prepared for events, which, in the beginning of the controversy, would have alarmed the most intrepid. The prevailing sentiment in the middle and southern colonies still was, that a reconciliation, on the terms proposed by America, was not even yet impracticable, and was devoutly to be wished; but that war was to be preferred to a surrender of those rights, for which they had contended, and to which they believed every British subject, wherever placed, to be unquestionably entitled. They did not hesitate therefore which part of the alternative to embrace; and their delegates united cordially with those of the north, in such measures as the exigency required. The resolution was unanimous that, as