СНАР. 1778. 66 impossible to conquer America, and he could "not without absurdity maintain that it was easier "to conquer France and America together than "America alone. But his passions overpowered "his judgment. . . . That he was in error will "scarcely, we think, be disputed by his warmest "admirers.”* Yet in spite of the respect justly due to such high authority, some grounds for doubt, at least, might be alleged. In the first place let it be remembered with what great, what singular, advantages Lord Chatham would have set his hand to the work. He had from the outset most ably and most warmly supported the claims of the colonists. Some of his eloquent sentences had become watchwords in their mouths. His statue had been erected in their streets, his portrait was hanging in their council-chambers. For his great name they felt a love and reverence higher as yet than for any one of their own chiefs and leaders— not even at that early period excepting Washington himself. Thus if even it could be said that overtures of reconcilement had failed in every other British hand, it would afford no proof that in Chatham's they might not have thriven and borne fruit. But what at the same period was the position of the Congress? Had that assembly shown of late an enlightened zeal for the public interests, and did it then stand high in the con Edinburgh Review, No. clxii. p. 592. Oct. 1844. LVII. 1778. fidence and affection of its countrymen? Far other- CHAP. wise. The factions and divisions prevailing at their town of York; the vindictive rigour to political opponents, the neglect of Washington's army, and the cabals against Washington's power, combined to create disgust, with other less avoidable causes,— as the growing depreciation of the paper-money, the ruinous loss of trade, and the augmented burdens of the war. Is the truth of this picture denied? Hear then as witnesses the Members of the Congress themselves. We find in this very month of March one of them write to another on the necessity of joint exertions to "revive the expiring reputation of the Congress." We find a third lamenting that "even good Whigs begin "to think peace, at some expense, desirable." + 66 When such was the feeling in America, both as regarded Lord Chatham and as regarded the Congress, it would not certainly follow that any overtures from the former would be rejected on account of the disapprobation of the latter. The provinces might perhaps have been inclined to control the deliberations, or even to cast off the sway, of the central body, and make terms of peace for themselves. At least all such hope was not precluded; at least some such trial might be made. Nor does * Letter from William Duer of New York to Robert Morris, dated March 6. 1778, and printed in the Life of Reed, vol. i. p. 365. † General Reed to President Wharton, February 1. 1778. LVII. 1778. CHAP. it appear to me, as to Mr. Macaulay, that there was any, even the slightest, inconsistency in Lord Chatham having first pronounced against the conquest of America, and yet refusing to allow her independence, after the declaration in her behalf of France. Lord Chatham had said no doubt that America could not be conquered. Had he ever said that she could not be reconciled? It was on conciliation, and not on conquest, that he built his later hopes. He thought the Declaration of France no obstacle to his views, but rather an instrument for their support. He conceived that the treaty of alliance concluded by the envoys of the Congress with the Court of Versailles might tend beyond any other cause to rekindle British feelings in the hearts of the Americans. Were the glories of Wolfe and Amherst, in which they had partaken, altogether blotted from their minds? Would the Puritans be inclined to make common cause with the Papists? Would the soldier-yeomen of the colonies be willing to fight side by side with those French whom, till within these fifteen years, they had found in Canada their bitter hereditary foes? That consequences like to these, that some such revulsion of popular feeling in America, might, perhaps, ensue from an open French alliance, is an apprehension which, during the first years of the contest, we find several times. expressed in the secret letters of the Revolution chiefs; it was a possibility which we see called forth their fears; why then might it not be allowed CHAP. to animate the hopes of Chatham? In this state of parties and of public feeling, the Duke of Richmond, far unlike Lord Chatham, had become eager to close the American contest by a surrender of the British sovereignty. He gave notice of an Address to His Majesty for the 7th of April, entreating the King instantly to withdraw his fleets and armies from the Thirteen Revolted Provinces, and to make peace with them on such terms as might secure their good will. Lord Chatham was at that time slowly recovering from gout, and still much indisposed, at Hayes. No sooner did he hear of the intended Address than he determined to appear in the House of Lords and oppose it. For such an exertion it was clear that he had not yet regained sufficient strength of body nor even composure of mind. His family and friends endeavoured to dissuade him, but in vain. On the 7th of April then he came, or it might almost be said was carried in, walking with feeble steps, and leaning with one arm on his son William, with the other on Lord Mahon. Of the solemn and memorable scene which ensued I have already, in my sketch of Lord Chatham's character, given, by anticipation, some account.* But since that time a letter from *Vol. iii. p. 26. sec. ed. Duke of Grafton (April 9. For Lord Camden's letter to the present volume. The Duke was at this time attending the LVII. 1778. CHAP. Lord Camden has been produced from the Grafton LVII. correspondence, containing a more full and au1778. thentic description than we previously possessed. "The Earl spoke," says Lord Camden, "but was "not like himself; his speech faltered, his sen66 tences broken, and his mind not master of itself. "His words were shreds of unconnected eloquence and flashes of the same fire which he, Prometheus-like, had stolen from Heaven, and were then returning to the place from whence they were taken. Your Grace sees even I, who 66 66 66 am a mere prose-man, am tempted to be poetical "while I am discoursing of this extraordinary "man's genius." The purport of his speech was to rouse, if yet could be, a British spirit on both sides of the Atlantic; with an unconquerable spirit he protested against surrendering the birthright of the British princes, and the union of the British race and name. "I will never consent," he cried, "to deprive the Royal offspring of the "House of Brunswick, the heirs of "-(here he faltered for some moments, while striving to recall the name)" of the Princess Sophia, of their "fairest inheritance. My Lords, His Majesty suc"ceeded to an empire as great in extent as its reputation was unsullied. Shall we tarnish the "lustre of that empire by an ignominious sur"render of its rights? . . . Shall we now fall "prostrate before the House of Bourbon? Surely, 66 66 my Lord, this nation is no longer what it was! "Shall a people that, seventeen years ago, was the |