The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

PART I.] PRIVATE LETTERS. 399
advices from Boston it seems, that General Gage is exceedingly disconcerted at the quiet and steady conduct
of the people of the Massachusetts Bay, and at the
measures pursuing by the other- governments. I dare
say he expected to force those oppressed people into
compliance, or irritate them to acts of violence before
this, for a more colorable pretence of ruling that and the
other colonies with a high hand.
I shall set off on Wednesday next for Philadelphia,
where, if you have any commands, I shall be glad to
oblige you in them; being, dear Sir, with real regard,
Your most obedient servant.
P. S. Pray what do you think of the Canada Bill?
TO CAPTAIN ROBERT MACKENZIE. *
Philadelphia, 9 October, 1774.
DEAR SIR,
Your letter of the 13th ultimo from Boston gave me
pleasure, as I learnt thereby, that you were well, and
might be expected at Mount Vernon in your way to or
from James River, in the course of the winter.
When I have said this, permit me with the freedom
of a friend (for you know I always esteemed you) to
Captain Mackenzie had been a captain of the Virginia regiment, commanded by Washington in the French War, and a friendly intimacy seems
always to have subsisted between them. Mackenzie had obtained a commission in the regular army, and was now attached to the forty-third regiment of foot. He was wounded at the battle of Bunker's Hill, while fighting in that regiment. He wrote as follows to Washington from Boston,
September 13th, 1774.
"Mro Atcheson can sufficiently inform you of the state of this unhappy
province, of their tyrannical oppression over one another, of their fixed aim
at total independence, of the weakness and temper of the mainsprings that
set the whole in motion, and how necessary it is, that abler heads and bet