The Siege of Boston

The Siege of Boston is by Allen French. The preface says the author has endeavored to produce a brief and readable account of the Siege of Boston, and of the events which brought it about. The preface adds that the author's main endeavor has been to treat the subject as a single organic series of events.

The text says the king was able to gather round him, in Parliament or the civil service, his own party, the King's Friends, who served him for the profit that they got. According to the text, the king's rights, as he interpreted them, were to tax without representation, to limit trade and manufactures, and to interfere at will in the management of colonial affairs. Andrews wrote on May 6 that near half the inhabitants have left the town already, and another quarter, at least, have been waiting for a week past. The text says hundreds of the better class went out, and about five thousand of the poor, who were quartered among the different towns at public expense.