XXVIII. CHAP. uttered complaints, they would have been shot for mutiny; but Mirabeau, then a fugitive in Holland, 1777 lifted up the voice of the civilization of his day against the trade, and spoke to the peoples of Germany and the soldiers themselves: "What new madness is this? Alas, miserable men, you burn down not the camp of an enemy, but your own hopes! Germans! what brand do you suffer to be put upon your forehead? You war against a people who have never wronged you, who fight for a righteous cause, and set you the noblest pattern. They break their chains. Imitate their example. Have you not the same claim to honor and right as your princes? Yes, without doubt. Men stand higher than princes. Of all rulers conscience is the highest. You, peoples that are cheated, humbled, and sold! fly to America, but there embrace your brothers. In the spacious places of refuge which they open to suffering humanity, learn the art to be free and happy, the art to apply social institutions to the advantage of every member of society." Against this tocsin of revolution the landgrave of Hesse defended himself on principles of feudal law and legitimacy; and Mirabeau rejoined: "When power breaks the compact which secured and limited its rights, then resistance becomes a duty. He that fights to recover freedom, exercises a lawful right. Insurrection becomes just. There is no crime like the crime against the freedom of the peoples." When on the twentieth of November the king of England opened the session of parliament, there were only three systems between which the choice XXVIII. 1777. lay. To reduce the former colonies to subordina- CHAP. tion, the king insisted on a continuation of the war without regard to the waste of life or treasure. Chatham, who had written a few weeks before: "I see no way of political salvation; 'fuit Ilium et ingens gloria;' England and its mighty glory are no more," now said: "France has insulted you, and our ministers dare not interpose with dignity or effect. My lords! you cannot conquer America. In three campaigns we have done nothing and suffered much. You may swell every expense, accumulate every assistance you can buy or borrow, traffic and barter with every little pitiful German prince that sells and sends his subjects to the shambles of a foreign prince; your efforts are forever vain and impotent, doubly so from this mercenary aid on which you rely, for it irritates to an incurable resentment. If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country I never would lay down my arms; never, never, never." And he passed on to condemn the alliance with "the horrible hell-hounds of savage war." His advice, freed from his rhetoric, was, to conciliate America by a change of ministry, and to chastise France. The third plan, which was that of the Rockingham party, was expressed by the Duke of Richmond: "Lest silence should be deemed acquiescence, I must declare I would sooner give up every claim to America, than continue an unjust and cruel civil war." A few days later, Lord Chatham dwelt on the subject of Gibraltar as "the best proof of British naval power, and the only solid check on that of the house of Bourbon." CHAP. Returning from the fatiguing debate of the secXXVIII. ond of December on the state of the nation, Lord 1777. North received the news of the total loss of BurDec. goyne's army. He was so agitated that he could neither eat nor sleep, and the next day at the levee his distress was visible to the foreign ministers. He desired to make peace by giving up all the points which had been in dispute with America, or to retire from the ministry. Concession after defeat was humiliating; but there must be prompt action or France would interfere. In a debate of the eleventh, the Duke of Richmond, from the im possibility of conquest, argued for "a peace on the terms of independence, and such an alliance or federal union as would be for the mutual interests of both countries." Burke in the commons was for an agreement with the Americans at any rate; and Fox said: "If no better terms can be had, I would treat with them as allies, nor do I fear the consequence of their independence." It was the king who persuaded his minister to forego the opportu nity which never could recur, and against his own conviction, without opening to America any hope of pacification, to adjourn the parliament to the twentieth of January. Those who were near Lord North in his old age never heard him murmur at his having become blind; "but in the solitude of sleepless nights he would sometimes fall into very low spirits, and deeply reproach himself for having at the earnest desire of the king remained in administration after he thought that peace ought to have been made with America." The account of Burgoyne's surrender, which was None XXVIII. 1777. brought to France by a swift-sailing ship from CHAP. Boston, threw Paris into transports of joy. doubted the ability of the states to maintain their Dec. independence. On the twelfth of December, their commissioners had an interview with Vergennes. "Nothing," said he, "has struck me so much as General Washington's attacking and giving battle to General Howe's army. To bring troops raised within the year to this, promises everything. The court of France, in the treaty which is to be entered into, intend to take no advantage of your present situation. Once made, it should be durable, and therefore it should contain no condition of which the Americans may afterwards repent, but such only as will last as long as human institutions shall endure, so that mutual amity may subsist forever. Entering into a treaty will be an avowal of your independence. Spain must be consulted, and Spain will not be satisfied with an undetermined boundary on the west. Some of the states are supposed to run to the South sea, which might interfere with her claim to California." It was answered that the last treaty of peace adopted the Mississippi as a boundary. "And what share do you intend to give us in the fisheries?" said Vergennes; for in the original draught of a treaty the United States had proposed to take to themselves Cape Breton and the whole of the island of Newfoundland. Explanations were made by the American commissioners that their later instructions removed all chances of disagreement on that subject. The return of the courier to Spain was not waited 1 Vergennes to Montmorin, 13 December, 1777, Espagne, 693. 1777. Dec. CHAP. for. On the seventeenth, Gerard, one of the secreXXVIII. taries of Vergennes, informed Franklin and Deane, by the king's order, that the king in council had determined not only to acknowledge but to support American independence. In case England should declare war on France on account of this recognition, he would not insist that the Americans should not make a separate peace, but only that they should maintain their independence. The American commissioners answered: "We perceive and admire the king's magnanimity and wisdom. He will find us faithful and firm allies. We wish with his majesty that the amity between the two nations may last forever;" and then both parties agreed that good relations could continue between a monarchy and a republic, between a Catholic monarchy and a Protestant republic. The French king promised in January three millions of livres; as much more, it was said, would be remitted by Spain from Havana. The vessels laden with supplies for the United States should be convoyed by a king's ship out of the channel. But when Arthur Lee, who was equally disesteemed in Versailles and Madrid, heard of the money expected of Spain, he talked and wrote so much about it that the Spanish government, which wished to avoid a rupture with England, took alarm, and receded from its intention. Jan. 1778. In January, 1778, Lord Amherst, as military adviser, gave the opinion that nothing less than an additional army of forty thousand men would be sufficient to carry on offensive war in North America; but the king would not suffer Lord North to |