CH. xxvii FRIENDS BEFORE KING GEORGE III. 339 



science. Much he must have revolved in his mind. The 

 inveterate policy which bore sway in Britain was fully 

 known to him : he had weighed it to the last ounce : 

 he had hoped beyond hope for its amendment : he had 

 cast all he was and had in the balance if so be it might 

 avail. 



By the time he landed on the American shores the 

 sword had been drawn at Lexington (April 19) . Bunker's 

 Hill (June 17) soon followed. Franklin nevertheless 

 entertained for some months (as we shall see) thoughts 

 of possible peace : he thought that the non-importation 

 policy would yet bring England to reason ; but he moved 

 step by step away from these counsels to those of war, 

 until the later events of the year, especially the burning 

 of Charleston and Falmouth by the British, turned him 

 into a separatist, inflexible, persistent, and, alas, bitter ! 



On March 17 Fothergill, with T. Corbyn, Jacob Hagen 

 and Barclay, acting on behalf of English Friends, presented 

 a petition to the king for a peaceful settlement : presuming 

 not, they said, to justify the excesses committed, but 

 trusting that men might be found to compose the present 

 differences, and establish a reconciliation on that firm 

 foundation the reciprocal interest of each part of the 

 British Empire. The king had no liking for petitions 

 that conflicted with his own policy ; but he granted a 

 gracious hearing to the Friends, though he gave none to 

 the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London. The Friends 

 often exercised their long-established right of approach 

 to the sovereign direct : Fothergill was generally chosen 

 to head the deputation, as in 1761 and 1763 ; and the 

 king thought well of the Quakers : " they retain," he 

 wrote to North, " that coolness which is a very strong 

 characteristic of that body." 1 It may be recalled that 

 the royal hat was reverently doffed when Thomas Shillitoe 

 delivered to the monarch a religious message in the stable- 

 yard at Windsor in 1794. 



In June a short address was sent out by the Yearly 

 Meeting to colonial Friends. Their position was difficult. 



1 Geo. III. op. cit. i. 202. 



