Various causes act upon it in its course.

When the appeal was made to arms, a great majority of those who guided the councils and led the forces of America, wished only for a repeal of the acts of parliament which had occasioned their resistance to the authority of the crown; and would have been truly unwilling to venture upon the unexplored field of self-government.

For some time, prayers were offered for the king, in the performance of divine service; and, in the proclamation of a fast by congress, in June, 1775, one of the motives for recommending it, was, to beseech the Almighty "to bless our rightful sovereign King George III.

and inspire him with wisdom." [Illustration: Independence Hall, Philadelphia _In this unpretentious brick building, erected in 1729-34, and intimately associated with the birth of the nation, the Continental Congress met, Washington was made Commander-in-Chief of the American army in 1775, and the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776, and read to the people assembled in the street.

It is now a museum of Revolutionary and historical relics._] [Sidenote: Measures leading to independence.] The prejudices in favour of a connexion with England, and of the English constitution, gradually, but rapidly yielded to republican principles, and a desire for independence.