*Vide page 221, ante.
See, also, General Howe to Lord George Germavne, "New Yobk "Island, 25 September, 1776;" the same to the same, "New-York, 30 " November, 1776 ; " Speech of Sir William Howe before a Committee of the Home of Commons, April 29, 1779, -- Almon's Parliamentary Register, xii. 323 ; Testimony of the Earl of Cornwallis before a Committee of the House of Commons, May 6, 1779. -- Almon's Parliamentary Register, xiii., 3 ; etc.
2 Vide page 212, ante.
That disappointment was expressed to the Hume Government, in the General's despatch of the twenty-fifth of September, 1776, in these words : " We muBt also have recruits from Europe, not finding the Americans disposed to serve with arms, notwithstanding the hopes held out "to me, upon my arrival at this post." In his Speech before a Committee of the House of Commons, on the twenty-ninth of April, 1779, the General repeated the expression of his disappointment, on that subject, in these emphatic words: "I must, here, add, that I found the Americans " not so well-disposed to join us, and to serve, as I had been taught to "expect." The careful student of the history of that period will also bear testimony, in confirmation of what General Howe thus wrote and said, that the Americans, those who had been persecuted and outraged because of " suspicions " that they were " disaffected," notwithstanding the very reasonable reasons which they had for thus transferring their strength to the Royal Army, generally remained at their homes, with their families, without voluntarily taking up arms, in either Army ; and that the Loyal Battalions were composed, almost exclusively, of the floating population, largely men of foreign birth or Americans whose immoralities or necessities had induced them to enter (he service.