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Ch. 22.

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Appointment of the commissioners.

COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED.

to retaliate by taking the adjacent provinces from England without resistance? There could be but one answer to such questions. The war might have been prevented in 1775, and honourably terminated in 1776, but in 1777 and 1778 there was no alternative to a perseverance in hostilities.

In these circumstances, the conciliatory propositions of the Government were brought forward, not so much with the hope that they would be accepted as the basis of a treaty by Congress, but with the view of detaching from the popular cause the few that were still willing to listen to terms of accommodation, and to afford an excuse to others who were favourably disposed towards the Crown.

The bill for the appointment of commissioners with plenary powers, except upon the one essential point, met with no serious opposition. Those, indeed, who had steadily supported the Government in resisting the demands of the colonists felt that the whole question was given up, and would give no more than a sullen acquiescence in a measure which lowered the dignity of the Crown and impaired the authority of Parliament, without offering any security that the price of such humiliation would be obtained by the restoration of peace and the maintenance of the colonial empire. The Whigs could find no substantial ground of criticism in a plan which themselves would have proposed had they been in power. They would only say, indeed, that these conciliatory overtures

DIFFICULTIES OF LORD NORTH.

would have proved more acceptable to the Americans had they been offered by an administration more favourable to their pretensions. Another Act was passed repealing the tea duty, and containing a clause not expressly renouncing the right of taxation, but simply undertaking, for the future, not to impose any duty on the Colonies except such as might be expedient for the regulation of commerce. This was, in effect, conceding the principal point which had been contested in the earlier stages of the quarrel, but which had long since become obsolete.

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It only remained to provide for the continuance New loan. of the war. A new loan of six millions obtained the ready sanction of Parliament, and was negotiated on favourable terms. Before these several measures were brought forward, Lord North took the opportunity of again earnestly pressing his resignation on the King. Besides his increased anxiety to be relieved from a position which was becoming one of fearful responsibility, the minister felt the force of the argument which had been so plainly urged in the debates on the Conciliatory Bill, that measures of conciliation could be proposed with a fair chance of success only by those statesmen who had throughout upheld the claims of the colonists, and consistently denounced the whole of the policy which had been pursued since 1765. It was not only expedient, but just, that the party whose councils had at length been implicitly adopted, should be allowed to carry them into execution.

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FRENCH INTRIGUES OF FRANKLIN.

The King, however, was of a different opinion. His personal feelings outweighed every other consideration; and he still positively refused his assent to any arrangement which should give the Whigs an ascendancy in his councils. It was against his will that any conciliatory measures were brought before Parliament; for he thought, not without reason, that if the Americans were unwilling to meet the pacific advances of this country in the preceding year, when their affairs were much less hopeful, they were not likely to abate their arrogance after the signal military advantages they had lately obtained, and with the immediate prospect of material aid from foreign powers.

The long expected rupture with France took place immediately after the Conciliatory Bill had been passed, and postponed for the time Lord North's intended resignation.

The conduct of the cabinet of Versailles throughout this affair was characterised by more than diplomatic duplicity. Franklin had been for more than a twelvemonth incessantly engaged in intrigues and negotiations for the purpose of persuading the French government that their best chance of humbling the pride of Great Britain was by recognising the independence of the North American provinces. But though every countenance and aid were afforded to the Americans,

e The King to Lord North, 31 January, 1778.

FRENCH TREATY WITH AMERICA.

the ministers of Louis prudently refrained from committing him to a quarrel with his formidable neighbour, until some certain indications of the turn affairs were likely to take on the other side of the Atlantic could be obtained.

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strances of

Stormont.

Lord Stormont, the English ambassador at RemonParis, had frequently remonstrated with the Lord French ministers on the encouragement they were giving to the rebellious subjects of his government; but up to the moment when the treaty with Congress was signed, he received the most positive assurances that no measures which could affect the friendly relations of the two crowns had been taken, nor were in contemplation; and within a week of the treaty being signed, the minister, in answer to a direct question of Lord Stormont, stated, that no treaty had been concluded, nor even commenced.f

recalled.

At length, on the thirteenth of March, when Ambassadors dissimulation was no longer practicable or necessary, the French ambassador at London presented a note to Lord Weymouth, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, formally announcing the conclusion by his court of a treaty of commerce and alliance with the United States of America, which were in full possession of the independence as

Ni conclu, ni entamé.'-Lord Stormont to Lord George Germaine, 22nd January, 1778. The treaty was signed on the 6th of February. The preliminary articles had been agreed upon December 24.

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Message from the Crown.

Application to Lord

Chatham.

PUBLIC DESIRE FOR THE RETURN

serted by their Act of the 4th of July. A paper so insulting could be answered only in one way. Lord Stormont was ordered to demand his passports, and the Marquis de Noailles was recalled from London.

A message from the Crown announced these grave events to Parliament. The usual addresses were voted; but the supineness and incapacity of the administration, and the necessity for a change, were insisted upon with more than ordinary vehemence. An amendment was moved for the dismissal of the ministry, and Chatham was openly alluded to as the only statesman fit for the direction of affairs in the crisis which was impending. If the numbers on the division were any criterion of strength, the administration of Lord North was as firm as ever. The amendment, which implied a direct vote of no confidence, was rejected by a majority of two hundred and sixtythree to one hundred and thirteen in the Commons; and by one hundred to thirty-six in the Lords. The real sentiments of the nation, however, and of Parliament itself, would have been better represented by a reversal of the numbers on the division lists. The King himself, perhaps, might have been reckoned the only man in the country who was was entirely satisfied with his

ministers.

In truth, every eye was now turned towards the retreat of that wayward valetudinarian, in whose age and decrepitude the nation had more

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