The reader may gather from those facts, without resorting to that general fact of the disappointment of Sears, in his scramble for "a high office in the American Navy," of which Bancroft has made mention, just what was the reason that that ruffian was so zealous, in his pursuit of the two who had so signally defeated him.

2 Vide pages 128, 130, ante.

" be liable, to such treatment as your Memorialist hath " lately endured, no person will be willing to trust " his children there. That in this case, your Memor- " ialist must lie entirely at the mercy of his creditors " to secure him from a jail, or must part with every- " thing he has to satisfy their just demands.

" Your Memorialist, thinking it his duty to use all "lawful and honorable means to free himself from " his present confinement, mentioned his case to the "judges of the superior court lately sitting in this "town. Those honorable gentlemen thought it a " case not proper for them to interfere in ; he has, " therefore, no remedy, but in the interposition of the " Honorable House of Assembly.

" To them he looks for relief from the heavy hand " of oppression and tyranny,. He hopes and expects "that they will dismiss him from his confinement, " and grant him their protection, while he passes " peaceably through the colony. He is indeed " accused of breaking the rules of the Continental " Congress. He thinks he can give a good account " of his conduct, such as would satisfy reasonable " and candid men. He is certain that nothing can " be laid to his charge so repugnant to the regula- " tions of the Congress, as the conduct of those " people who in an arbitrary and hostile manner " forced him from his house, aud have kept him now "four weeks a prisoner without any means or pros - " pect of relief.