that they would heed the resolves of that self-constituted body of
knaves, ignoramuses, and rebels, calling themselves the Continental
Congress."

"Are you not too severe on that body of men, father?" said Miss
Haviland, lifting her expressive eye reprovingly to the face of the
speaker. "I have recently read over a list of the members of the
Congress; when I noticed among them the names of men, who, but a short
time since, stood very high, both for learning and worth, as I have
often heard you say yourself. Now, what has changed the characters of
these men so suddenly?"

"Why is it, Sabrey," said the old gentleman, with an air of petulance,
and without deigning any direct answer to the troublesome
question,--"why is it that you cannot take the opinion of your
friends, who know so much more than you do about these matters,
instead of raising, as I have noticed you have lately seemed inclined
to do, questions which seem to imply doubts of the correctness of the
measures of our gracious sovereign and his wise ministers?"

"Why, father," replied the other, with an ingenuous, but somewhat
abashed look, "if I have raised such questions, in relation to the
quarrel between the colonies and the mother country, I have gone on
the ground that the party which has the most right on its side would,
of course, have the best reasons for its measures; and as I have not
always been able to perceive good reasons for all the king's measures,
I had supposed you would be proud to give them."

The old gentleman, though evidently disturbed and angry at this reply,
did not seem inclined to push the debate any further with his