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the enormous armies kept on foot by the emperor, and the king of Prussia, exacted such a multitude of recruits, that the agents of England could not hope to procure them in any considerable number. Moreover, the intervention of France and the commissioners of Congress with those sovereigns, or that disposition to favor the American cause, which unequivocally manifested itself in all parts of Europe, had already determined several German princes to refuse a passage through their states to those feeble parties of recruits which, with incredible pains and expense, were gleaned by the British agents. But there was one consideration which, more than any other, impeded the success of their negotiations; the moment was manifestly approaching when France would declare herself in favor of the Americans, no longer by secret intrigues, or the tacit protection afforded to their privateers, but openly, and with arms in hand. Already all her preparations for war, and especially her maritime armaments, were completed. The late victories of the Americans upon the borders of the Hudson, and even the constancy they had exhibited after their reverses upon the banks of the Delaware, were sufficient pledges that their cause might be espoused without any hazard of finding in them a fickle, a faithless, or a feeble ally. The occasion so long and so ardently desired by the French for humbling the British power and arrogance, was at length offered them by propitious fortune. Their wishes were admirably served by the blind obstinacy of the British ministers and generals, who had judged as erroneously of the nature and importance of things, as of the valor and constancy of the Americans. It was not at all doubted in England, that France would avail herself of the means which presented themselves to her grasp, to repair her ancient losses. This inevitable crisis took strong hold of the public attention, and all perceived the necessity either of a long, and in no common degree perilous struggle, or of an accommodation upon little honorable terms, with that very people whose petitions had always been rejected, and who had been exasperated by so many outrages, before they were assailed by so cruel a war. Though the ministers and their adherents failed not to advance plausible reasons to justify themselves, and to authorise their conduct, yet the general opinion inclined to consider it as the more prudent counsel to listen at length to the demands of the Americans, and to adopt the course of procedure repeatedly proposed by the orators of the opposition, who had recommended that hostilities should be suspended, and a negotiation set on foot, which might lead to an admissible adjustment. Heavy complaints were heard on all parts, that so many favorable occasions for reconciliation, had been allowed to escape, as if it was intended to wait the arrival of that fatal moment when it would no longer be possible either to negotiate with honor, or to fight with glory; and when, instead of any hope of subduing or conciliating America, there was too much reason to fear the loss of other inestimable portions of the British empire.

All the attempts made previous to that time, for reducing the Americans to submission by force of arms, having proved completely abortive, it was bitterly regretted that, before undertaking new efforts, the failure of which must secure the triumph of the enemy, there had not been a disposition to listen to the conciliatory propositions submitted to parliament by the Earl of Chatham, in the sitting of the thirtieth of May, of the year last elapsed. Foreseeing the calamities which were about to fall upon his country, since the ministers were resolved to prosecute extreme measures, and perceiving distinctly that to the dangers of an intestine struggle, would soon be added the perils of a foreign war, this illustrious man, though bowed with age, and laboring under a painful malady, had caused himself to be carried to the House of Lords, where, in that strain of admirable eloquence, which always chained attention, he exerted the most magnanimous efforts to appease animosities, to extinguish the flames of war, to procure the repeal of those disastrous laws which had lighted them, and opposed an insuperable bar to the return of concord.

'My lords,' he said, this is a flying moment, perhaps but six weeks left to arrest the dangers that surround us. The gathering storm may break; it has already opened, and in part burst. It is difficult for government, after all that has passed, to shake hands with the defiers of the king, defiers of the parliament, defiers of the people. I ain a defier of nobody; but if an end is not put to this war, there is an end to this country. I do not trust my judgment in my present state of health; this is the judgment of any better days; the result of forty years attention to America.

'They are rebels; but what are they rebels for? Surely not for defending their unquestionable rights? What have these rebels done heretofore? I remember when they raised four regiments on their own bottom, and took Louisburgh from the veteran troops of France. But their excesses have been great. I do not mean their panegyric; but must observe in attenuation, the erroneous and infatuated counse's which have prevailed; the door to mercy and justice has been shut against them. But they may still be taken up upon the grounds of their former submission. I state to you the importance of America; it is a double market; the market of consumption and the market of supply. This double market for millions, with naval stores, you are giving to your hereditary rival. America has carried you through four wars, and will now carry you to your death, if you don't take things in time. In the sportsman's phrase, when you have found yourselves at fault, you must try back. You have ransacked every corner of Lower Saxony; but forty thousand German boors never can subdue ten times the number of British freemen; they may ravage, they cannot conquer.

But you would conquer, you say! Why, what would you conquer; the map of America? I am ready to meet any general officer on the subject. What will you do out of the protection of your fleet? In the winter, if together, your troops are starved; and if dispersed, they are taken off in detail. I am experienced in spring hopes and vernal promises; I know what ministers throw out; but at last will come your equinoctial disappointment. They tell you-what? That your army will be as strong as last year, when it was not strong enough. You have got nothing in America but stations. You have been three years teaching them the art of war; they are apt scholars; and I will venture to tell your lordships, that the American gentry will make officers enough, fit to command the troops of all the European powers. What you have sent there, are too many to make peace, too few to make war. If you conquer them, what then? You cannot make them respect you; you cannot make them wear your cloth. You will plant an invincible hatred in their breasts against you. You are giving America to France at the expense of twelve millions a year. The intercourse has produced every thing to her; and England, old England, must pay for all. Your trade languishes, your taxes increase, your revenues dwindle; France, at this moment, is securing and drawing to herself that commerce which created your seamen, which fed your islands, which was the principal source of your wealth, prosperity and power. We have tried for unconditional submission; try what can be gained by unconditional redress. shall thus evince a conciliatory spirit, and open the way to concord. 'The ministers affirm there is no sort of treaty with France. Then, there is still a moment left; the point of honor is still safe. The instant a treaty appears you must declare war, though you had only five ships of the line in England; but France will defer a treaty as long as possible, to wait the effect of our selfdestroying counsels. You are now at the mercy of every little German chancery; and the pretensions of France will increase daily, so as to become an avowed party in either peace or war. The dignity of the government is objected; but less dignity will be lost in the repeal of oppressive laws, than in submitting to the demands of German chanceries. We are the aggressors. We have invaded the colonists as much as the Spanish armada invaded England. Mercy cannot do harm; it will seat the king where he ought to be, throned in the hearts of his people; and millions at home and abroad, now employed in obloquy and revolt, would pray for him. The revocation I propose and amnesty, may produce a respectable division in America, and unanimity at home. It will give America an option; she has yet had no option. You have said, "Lay down your arms,” and she has given you the Spartan answer, "Come, take.""

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Neither the authority of such a man, nor the force of his speech, nor present evils, nor yet the fear of future, were sufficient to procure

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the adoption of his proposition. Those who opposed it, contended that it would by no means satisfy the Americans, since from the outset they had aimed at independency. They talked of the dignity of the realm, of the weakness of France, of the number of loyalists ready to declare themselves, the moment an occasion should offer itself; they harangued upon the tyranny of Congress, already become insupportable to all the Americans, upon the emptiness of its treasury, and the rapid depreciation of the bills of credit; finally, they enlarged upon that impatience which was universally manifested for the return of order, and the blessings enjoyed by the rest of the subjects of the British government.

In the midst of these contradictions had been agitated the question of peace and war, while the veil of uncertainty still shaded the future, and experience had not yet ascertained the effect of all the forces sent into America. But now the trial had been made, and the result being on the one hand so calamitous, and so dubious on the other, the obstinacy of ministers was almost universally condemned, while the wisdom and foresight of the earl of Chatham, were extolled to the skies. That such opinions should have been entertained by those whose interests and passions were so immediately concerned, is certainly no matter of astonishinent; but it may be advanced with confidence, that the measure proposed by this, in other respects, most sagacious statesman, would have resulted in very doubtful consequences, to use no stronger words.

At this time, the Americans had already declared their independ ence; what the proposed concessions, seconded by formidable armies, might have operated before this declaration, they could no longer have done after it, especially when by the effect of this very declaration, and of the resistance made to the arms of Howe upon the territory of New Jersey, the Americans confidently expected to obtain the succours of France. Besides, if, at this epoch, the issue of a negotiation was uncertain, it would indubitably have reflected little honor upon the government, to have condescended to an arrangement, without having first made a trial of the efficacy of the armies it had collected and sent to America, with so much effort, and at so heavy an expense. Victory too, as it was reasonable to think, would have produced submission, or at least conditions more favorable to Great Britain.

The ministers therefore being resolved to continue the war, exerted their utmost diligence to repair those evils which the faults of men, or an inauspicious destiny, had drawn upon the state in the course of the preceding year. Their attention was first directed to the means of raising new troops, and of procuring more abundant pecuniary resources than had been granted them by the parliament. They reflected, that although there was a powerful party in the kingdom who condemned the American war, still there existed another who

approved it highly, either from conviction or from their devotion to the ministry. To this class they addressed themselves, not doubting their readiness to assist them with zeal in procuring the men and the funds they wanted. Dreading, however, the clamors of the opposition, who might represent this levy of soldiers and money, though voluntary, as a violation of the constitution, they carried this scheme into effect in the recess of parliament, which happened at the beginning of the current year, and which, with the same object in view, they prolonged beyond the accustomed term. They were the more sanguine in their hopes of success, inasmuch as, since the declaration of independence, and the secret alliance with France, of which every day furnished new evidences, the greater part of those who had shown themselves at first the warmest partisans of the Americans, had now deserted them, and gone over to the ministerial party. The ministers accordingly despatched their agents into the different provinces of the kingdom, and especially those where they had the greatest influence, with instructions to spur the inhabitants to enlist, and to lend their support to the state by voluntary gifts. These emissaries were to expatiate on the ingratitude of the Americans, the enmity of France, the necessities of the country, the glory and splendor of the English name, which must be transmitted unsullied to posterity. Their exertions were attended with success in some cities of the first order, and even in some towns of inferior rank; but none manifested greater zeal than Liverpool and Manchester, each of which raised, at their own expense, a regiment of a thousand

The Scotch, naturally a warlike people, and much devoted to the cause of government in the present war, exhibited the utmost ardor to engage in the service. Edinburgh levied a thousand men, Glasgow an equal number. The highlanders, a hardy race, descended in hordes from their craggy hills, to follow the royal standard. Equal promptitude was manifested in contributing to the public expense, and free gifts multiplied every day. The government would have wished that the city of London, on account of its population and wealth, and of its importance as the capital of the kingdom, had placed itself at the head of this contribution. It was hoped that city would raise and maintain at its own expense five thousand men for three years, or until the end of the war. This hope proved illusory. The citizens being convened, refused peremptorily. The common council returned an answer equally unfavorable. The partisans of the ministry were not discouraged. They vociferated at every corner that it was a shame for the city of London, that, after having voted, but a few days before, considerable sums for the relief of Americans taken with arms in hand levelled against England, it should now refuse to give the slightest succour to the country. The friends of the ministry assembled, and subscribed twenty thousand pounds sterling. The same manoeuvres took place at Bristol, and

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