1778. PROHIBITORY DUTIES. 287 subsistence, remained in a hopeless state of depression and misery. So scanty were their resources, that the privation of a trade of a few thousand pounds a year, which they had lost by the American war, had reduced them to the brink of ruin; and the apprehension that the inhabitants, in their despair, might abandon the soil and emigrate to a foreign land, began to be seriously entertained. In these circumstances, Lord Nugent, an Irish peer, who sat in the House of Commons, pro- Prohibitory posed a measure of relief, consisting in the duties. removal of certain prohibitory duties upon some of the staple articles of Irish manufacture. The measure was readily assented to by Lord North, and, with a few exceptions, obtained the acquiescence of the House of Commons. But when the bill became known throughout the country, it encountered a very different fate. All the manufacturing and trading towns treated the bill as an invasion of their vested rights, and a clamour was raised from one end of the country to the other. The table of the House of Commons was loaded with petitions against the bill. The great towns of Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, and Glasgow took the lead in resisting this first step in the direction of free trade: they demanded to be heard by counsel. Those towns which were represented in Parliament, peremptorily instructed their members to oppose the bill. Class The opposition of a class, however senseless or selfish, is generally successful in Parliament. The experience of every man who has sat opposition. a few years in either House will furnish many examples of measures, unquestionably beneficial to the public, which have been postponed, compromised, or altogether defeated, through influence which ought not to have prevailed. Even the Parliament of 1778, though, from the comparative closeness of its constitution, far less accessible to popular or class influences 288 OBSTRUCTION OF CLASS OPPOSITION. CH. XXII. than the Parliaments which have sat since the Reform Act, was, nevertheless, capable of being acted upon by a strong pressure from without; and this bill, recommended as it was by policy, if not by humanity, in regard to the sister-kingdom, and founded as it was on principles most conducive to the interest of the shortsighted and self-seeking traders, who threatened to become disloyal subjects if it were allowed to pass into a law, shared the fate of many other good measures. All the provisions intended to afford scope to Irish industry and enterprise were omitted, and some trifling concessions only were vouchsafed. Burke, with a courage and integrity rarely found among public men, supported a measure which he knew to be wise and just, although his constituency at Bristol required him, with menaces, to desist from a course which they considered detrimental to their particular interests. It was in vain that he demonstrated to them by unanswerable argument what their interests really were; that he explained to them how the duty of a member of Parliament required him to consult the interests of the whole country; that he defined the true relations of the constituent and the representative. Ignorance and prejudice, as usual, for the time prevailed; and at the ensuing general election, Burke was rejected from the representation of Bristol. In the course of this session, General Burgoyne, who had returned to England on parole, pending the adjustment of certain difficulties which had arisen with regard to the fulfilment of the Treaty of Saratoga, made his appearance in the House of Commons. Having failed in the military enterprise which he had undertaken, and by his failure greatly retarded if not ruined the British cause, he met but a cold welcome. He was not received at Court; he was denied the court of inquiry for which he applied; but, having the advantage of a seat in Parliament, he appealed to the House of Commons Return of 1778. BURGOYNE-LORD G. GERMAINE. 289 from the decision of the military authorities. It was natural that Burgoyne, actuated by the proverbial sensitiveness of military honour, should be impatient to seize the earliest opportunity of vindicating his conduct; but it was obvious that the General's personal vindication could not be separated from the whole history of the expedition; and all the papers relating to the expedition and the northern army were not yet before the House. Burgoyne, however, who was a ready and practised speaker, defended himself with skill and address; but, as a great part of his case rested on his own statement of facts, upon which the House was imperfectly informed, the debate, as far as he was concerned, could have no practical result. A motion was made by Mr. Vyner for a committee to inquire into the proceedings of the northern army, the convention of Saratoga, and the means by which General Burgoyne obtained his release. The answer of Lord George Germaine was that such an inquiry was more properly one for a military tribunal than a parliamentary committee; and the House assented to that opinion. Lord George, in the course of his speech, treated Burgoyne with very little respect. The General, in denying the charge made against his Indian followers of having committed barbarous outrages, referred to the testimony of St. Luc, the Canadian officer who had commanded the Indians. Lord George replied, that St. Luc had waited on him, and described the General as a brave man, but dull as a German. The whole subject underwent a full discussion in the following year, when it became ripe for inquiry. Resignation of Germaine. The failure of Burgoyne's expedition had, before this debate took place, led to Lord George Germaine's resignation. The preferment Lord G. of Burgoyne to the command of the northern army had been followed by the removal of Sir Guy Carleton from the Government of Canada. That 290 Carleton. RECALL OF GENERAL CARLETON. CH. XXII. distinguished officer, indignant at the slight which he justly considered had been put upon him, had written to the minister in terms of such asperity, that his recall became a measure of necessity. The King, however, took the first opportunity of rewarded. marking his sense of Carleton's merit by conferring upon him the sinecure government of Charlestown. Probably, indeed, His Majesty's intention was more to mortify Germaine than to gratify Carleton. Certainly he was willing to avail himself of a pretext to be rid of a minister whom he disliked, and whose arrogance and ill-fortune added to the discredit of the Government. The hint was immediately taken. Lord George, grown more haughty and impetuous as he advanced in years, resented the compliment paid. to Sir Guy Carleton as an insult to himself, and tendered his resignation, which was readily accepted. The difficulty, however, of providing a successor to an office so unenviable, in existing circumstances, as that of Colonial and War Minister, proved insuperable; and, consequently, the resignation did not then take effect. 1778. CABAL AGAINST WASHINGTON. 291 CHAPTER XXIII. INTRIGUES AGAINST WASHINGTON-FAILURE OF THE CONCILIATORY COMMISSION-SIR H. CLINTON EVACUATES PHILADELPHIA-DISSENSIONS BETWEEN THE AMERICANS AND THE FRENCH-OPERATIONS OF THE CHANNEL FLEET-COURT-MARTIALS ON THE NAVAL COMMANDERS-SPANISH MANIFESTO. AFTER the battle of Germantown, Washington retreated to a strong position called White- Movements of marsh; and Howe, after one or two inef- Washington. fectual attempts to dislodge him, retired into his winter quarters at Philadelphia. The American army, which was in no condition for active operations during the winter, was likewise withdrawn into quarters; but Washington, still desirous of observing the movements of the enemy, selected a desolate spot called Valley Forge, among the hills, about twenty miles from Philadelphia. Here, amidst a wilderness covered by frost and snow, an encampment was cleared by the half-starved and half-naked army. All Washington's representations as to the total inefficiency of his commissariat were, at this time, treated by Congress with neglect, or answered with taunts for going into winter quarters at all. The truth is, that a faction, chiefly composed of representatives from the northern states, Cabal against had lately been formed against that illus- Washington. trious man to whose fortitude, perseverance, and integrity his country was mainly indebted for the ultimate achievement of their liberties. The object of this cabal was to supplant Washington, and place Gates at the head of the army. The success of |