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XXVIII.

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. 1777. 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 opportunity 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

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brought to France by a swift-sailing ship from CHAP. Boston, threw Paris into transports of joy. None 1777. doubted the ability of the states to maintain their 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.

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The return of the courier to Spain was not waited 1 Vergennes to Montmorin, 13 December, 1777, Espagne, 693.

CHAP. for. On the seventeenth, Gerard, one of the secre

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XXVIII. 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.

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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

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flinch, writing sometimes chidingly that there could CHAP. not be "a man either bold or mad enough to presume to treat for the mother country on a basis 1778. of independence;" sometimes appealing to the minister's "personal affection for him and sense of honor;" and, in the event of a war with France, suggesting that "it might be wise to draw the troops from the revolted provinces, and to make war on the French and Spanish islands." To Lord Chatham might be offered anything but substantial power, for "his name, which was always his greatest merit, would greatly hurt Lord Rockingham's party." And at court the king lavished civilities on George Grenville and others who were connected with Lord Chatham.

On the sixth of February, a treaty of amity and Feb. commerce, and also an eventual defensive treaty of alliance, was concluded between the king of France and the United States. They were founded on principles of equality and reciprocity, and for the most part were in conformity to the proposals of congress. In commerce each party was to be placed on the footing of the most favored nation. The king of France promised his good offices with the princes and powers of Barbary. As to the fisheries, each party reserved to itself the exclusive possession of its own. Following the treaty of Utrecht as well as that of Paris, and accepting the French interpretation of them, the United States acknowl edged the right of French subjects to fish on the banks of Newfoundland, and their exclusive right to half the coast of that island for drying-places. On the question of ownership in the event of the

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