have been the occasions of the heartburnings and recriminations which were the natural consequences of the surrender at Yorktown, that event had at least the desirable effect of bringing nearer to a close that fratricidal and miserable contest which Great Britain had so long and so unprofitably been waging with her revolted colonies. "The infant Hercules in his cradle," writes Franklin, "has now strangled his second serpent." From the day on which Washington and Cornwallis signed the articles of capitulation at Yorktown, the war may be said to have been at an end, and the Americans to have established themselves as a sovereign and independent people.

CHAPTER X.

Effect in England of the News of Lord Cornwallis's Surrender — Lord North's Distraction - The King's Equanimity - Debates in Parliament - Fierce Invectives of Charles FoxLord North's Defence - Speeches of Burke and Pitt in Opposition - Majority for Ministers - Decreasing Numbers of the Ministerial Majority in the House of Commons - Fox's Motion of Censure on Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty - Retirement of Lord George Germaine from the Ministry - Offence Given by His Elevation to the PeerageMajority of One for Ministers on General Conway's Motion to Stop the War - Succession of Attacks on the Government -Lord North's Speech on Intimating the Resignation of Ministers - Distress of the King, Who Contemplates Retiring to Hanover - The Rockingham and Shelburne Administration The King's Parting Letters to the Earl of Dartmouth and Lord North - Personal Affection of the King for Lord North.

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ON Sunday, the 25th of November, 1781, two days before the reassembling of Parliament, the despatch containing the news of the terrible calamity which had befallen the British arms arrived at the private residence of the secretary of state for American affairs, Lord George Germaine, in Pall Mall. Lord George, having in the first instance forwarded the despatch to the king at Kew, proceeded to Downing Street, in order personally to

break the distressing intelligence to Lord North. Apathetic as that stoical minister had shown himself on many previous occasions of national peril, the blow which now fell upon him completely staggered his philosophy. Scarcely could the painful reflection have failed to occur to him, not only how active had been the part which he had taken in prolonging, and conducting to a most humiliating close, a disastrous and ineffectual contest, but that latterly the part which he had taken had been in direct opposition to his own conscientious convictions. “I asked Lord George afterward," writes Wraxall, "how he [Lord North] took the communication when made to him. 'As he would have taken a bullet through his breast,' replied Lord George; for he opened his arms, exclaiming wildly, as he paced up and down the apartment a few minutes, "Oh, God! it is all over!" words which he repeated many times under emotions of the greatest consternation and distress."

George the Third, on the contrary, deeply as the tidings of Lord Cornwallis's surrender must have distressed him, continued to display that equanimity and humble resignation to the will of Heaven which were his never failing characteristics in the hour of affliction. Infatuated as he may have been on the subject of retaining the American colonies as appanages of the British Crown; unfortunate as may have been his persistent attempt to obtain that object at the point

of the bayonet,

he had at least the satisfaction of knowing that his intentions had been honest, and that he had been actuated by no other motives that a desire to avert a consummation which, in common with numbers of wise and thinking men, he devoutly believed to be fraught with disgrace to his crown and kingdom, with future discord and enmities among the Americans themselves, and in every way adverse to the interests and welfare of his subjects on each side of the Atlantic. Even Lord Shelburne, little love as he personally bore his sovereign, had the generosity, in his seat in the House of Lords, to speak of the king's motives as those of "a prince of a valorous and generous mind, gathering firmness from misfortune."

On the day on which the despatch announcing the surrender of the British army at Yorktown was received by the government, Sir Nathaniel Wraxall happened to be dining with Lord George Germaine in Pall Mall, when he and his fellow guests were for the first time informed of the great calamity which had befallen the country. The conversation chancing to turn upon the hourly expected news of the dissolution of the Prime Minister of France, the Count de Maurepas, who had been greatly instrumental in prevailing upon his countrymen to take an active part in the contest between Great Britain and America, it was remarked by one of the guests that as De Maurepas

had witnessed the commencement of the American Revolution, it would probably grieve him not to survive its termination. "He has survived to witness it completely," replied Lord George; "the army has surrendered. The army has surrendered, and you may peruse the particulars of the capitulation in that paper." He then, with visible emotion, drew forth a document announcing the disaster, and handed it to Wraxall to read aloud to the company.' It was in the course of the evening that the king's reply to the painful communication which had been despatched to him was received by Lord George Germaine. It was written in his Majesty's usually bold and steady characters, and yet, to the practised eye of Lord George, it afforded internal evidence that the king's mind was ill at ease. It was the king's practice in his correspondence with his ministers, as will have been remarked in these pages, to affix to his notes the exact hour and minute at which they were despatched from the palace, but, on this trying occasion, there was a significant departure from this almost invariable rule. As regards the sentiments contained in the note, they reflected, according to Lord George, the highest honour on "his Majes

'Horace Walpole writes to Sir Horace Mann, Nov. 29th: "They say that M. de Maurepas, who is dying, being told that the Duc de Lauzun had brought the news of Lord Cornwallis's surrender, said, - from Racine's Mithridate,' I think :

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'Mes derniers regards ont vu fuir les Romains.'"