were resolved to pursue no further the contest with the Colonies. Only a few days afterwards, when the Army Estimates were moved, Sir James Lowther, seconded by Mr. Powys, interposed with a Resolution that the war carried on in North America had been ineffectual. To guard against dangerous defection in his ranks, it became necessary for Lord North to explain those altered views at which the Lord Advocate had hinted. He was willing, he said, to declare his honest opinion that it would not be wise or right to go on with the American war as we had done, that is on a continental plan, by sending armies to march through the provinces from south to north. Even this acknowledginent as a kind of signal or notice to our enemies-he would have withheld, had it not been declared already, in the clearest manner, by the moderation of the Estimates laid upon the Table. The Estimates showed that Government could have no intention to send out a fresh army for that of Lord Cornwallis. But did not gentlemen perceive the necessity there might be for retaining certain posts in America, for the convenience even of carrying on the war against France and Spain? Must we not have ports and harbours there to give us an opportunity of acting on the seas? And would gentlemen, by adopting Sir James Lowther's Resolution, tie up the hands of Government both by sea and land?

66

Of the debate which ensued upon this important statement of the Ministerial policy, Horace Walpole gives the following account :-"The Lord Advocate pretended to understand Lord North as declaring against a land 66 war. Charles Fox pressed Lord North, over and over "again, to say if that was his meaning, but he would not say a word more. Lord George Germaine talked of "the unanimity of Ministers, but no mortal believed "him. Burke made a wild passionate speech. He was

66

66

now grown so heated, and uttered such rhapsodies, "that he was generally very ill heard." It is remarkable, considering the extent of concession to which Lord North had gone, that Sir James Lowther's Resolution was rejected but by a majority of forty-one.

In another of these debates Sir George Savile indulged in a classical conceit, equal at least to Dr. Franklin's.

1781.

A SPARTAN SIMILE.

131

He compared Ministers to the Spartan who, in a sea engagement, swam to a galley and seized it with his right hand, which the people in the galley instantly cut off. He renewed the effort with his left hand, and that was cut off too. The sailors in the galley then asked him if he meant to persevere; the Spartan answered "Not in the same way," and laid hold of the vessel with his teeth. Thus the Government had lost two armies, or both their hands, in their strife against America, and yet they were determined to go on and fasten upon it with their teeth. But they should remember that when the Spartan did so they struck off his head!

Besides these main debates, collateral points of attack were not neglected. Burke brought forward the case of the sufferers at St. Eustatia; on which occasion, both the General and Admiral, Vaughan and Rodney, were present as members, to vindicate their share in these proceedings. Another motion referred to the imprisonment of Mr. Laurens in the Tower. There had been some time in progress a negotiation for the exchange of that gentleman with General Burgoyne, whom the Americans considered as a prisoner on parole. But, impatient of the delays that had occurred, Burke laid the whole matter before the House of Commons. designed to have carried it further after the Recess, had not Lord North, alive at last to the necessity of conciliation, ordered the release of Mr. Laurens, on bail, before the close of the month and year. *

He

Beyond the walls of Parliament, also, animated by the disaster of Cornwallis, the opponents of Lord North were stirring. In a Common Hall of the City of London, there passed an Address to the King, entreating him to put an end to "this unnatural and unfortunate war." At a meeting of the West India merchants, the same desire was expressed; since their total ruin, they declared, could not else be averted. At a meeting of the electors of Westminster, Fox delivered a fiery speech,

* See several letters upon this subject in Burke's Correspondence, vol. ii. pp. 418-454.

Other such

and carried some stringent Resolutions. meetings, and with the like result, were held in Southwark, and for the counties of Middlesex and Surrey. We do not find that the example spread any farther from London; yet, no doubt, throughout the country by this time popular favour had wholly departed from the war against the Colonies. It was still, it seemed, to be carried on at a large cost, while even, by the avowal of Ministers themselves, there was to be no more vigour in its prosecution, nor hope in its result.

There was another event which added, if to add were possible, to the heat of the Opposition at this juncture. Intelligence having been received of the equipment of a fleet at Brest to supply and reinforce the East and West India squadrons, Admiral Kempenfeldt was despatched to intercept it with twelve sail of the line. Kempenfeldt met the enemy some thirty leagues from Ushant, the convoy being, in some degree, scattered by a storm; and he succeeded in taking fifteen transports, conveying above a thousand soldiers and above five hundred seamen. Next, he prepared to engage the ships of war, which he found forming in battle order, and commanded by the Comte de Guichen; but, contrary to his expectation, they amounted to nineteen sail of the line, besides two others, armed EN FLUTE. In the face of so superior a force, Kempenfeldt reluctantly forbore from an attack, and sailed back to England. His return, which took place just before the Christmas Recess, became a signal for the loudest clamours and most violent invectives against his chief, Lord Sandwich. When the Secretary of the Treasury in the House of Commons was moving the usual adjournment, "What! adjourn! adjourn! said Byng the member for Middlesex, "we ought to sit "through the holidays to inquire into this miscarriage." Not less decided were the sentiments of Savile. "The "question of Kempenfeldt "thus he writes to Lord Rockingham, seems to lie in a mighty narrow compass. "When you sent out twelve ships, did you know they "had nineteen or not? If you did not, culpable ignorance; if you did, worse. Sir George adds, however: "I do not say that these two dilemmas ought to hang a

66

66

1782.

RETIREMENT OF LORD G. GERMAINE.

133

"man." Kind and relenting reasoner, not to push his point so far!

*

Parliament met again in the latter part of January. During the Recess, the Ministers had, in some measure, matured their scheme of policy. They determined to proceed without Lord George Germaine, whom they found as keen as ever for the subjugation of the Colonies. Indeed he had taken occasion, not long since, in the House of Commons, to declare that be the consequences what they might, he never would be the Minister to sign any treaty that gave independence to America. The King agreed to his resignation, provided it were dignified with a peerage. "No one," wrote His Majesty,

66

can then say he is disgraced." As his successor was selected a worn-out veteran, Welbore Ellis-the "Mani"kin," and the " Grildrig," of Junius, - a man who was ridiculed for his diminutive stature, not in him redeemed by any loftiness of mind.

Accordingly, soon after Parliament had reassembled, the Gazette announced the creation of Germaine as Viscount Sackville, and the appointment of Ellis as Secretary of State. Loud was the Opposition outcry against both. But though the choice of Ellis might be laughed at or lamented, there was a more tangible objection to the peerage of Lord George. Even upon the first reports of it, the Marquis of Carmarthen moved in the Peers, that to recommend to the Crown for such a dignity any person labouring under so heavy a sentence of a Court Martial was derogatory to the honour of the House of Lords. And when the new-made Viscount took his seat the same motion was renewed. Thus the old complaint of his conduct at Minden was again ripped up; thus his first speech in that House was the attempt to clear himself from an opprobrious imputation.

The tidings that came from time to time of the progress of the war were by no means such as to raise the drooping spirits of the Ministry. In the West Indies,

*Sir George Savile to George Rockingham. (Memoirs, by Lord Albemarle, vol. ii. p. 440.)

† On Sir James Lowther's motion. (Commons Debate, December 12. 1781.)

even before the close of the preceding year, the Marquis de Bouillé had surprised and retaken the island of St. Eustatia, mainly through the negligence of the English commander, Colonel Cockburn. Our other new conquests of Demerara and Essequibo were in like manner wrested back from us. Next De Bouillé turned his arms against our old and valuable possession of St. Kit's, where he landed 8,000 men, protected by De Grasse's fleet. Basseterre, the capital of the island, was built of wood, and could make no defence on the land side, but the troops and Militia, headed by General Fraser and Governor Shirley, took post on the rugged heights of Brimstone Hill. Sir Samuel Hood, also, who had followed the French Admiral in returning from the Chesapeak, interposed, by a bold manœuvre, between him and the French forces on shore, and most gallantly repulsed two separate attacks, by which De Grasse hoped to recover his lost anchorage ground. But Hood could only delay, he could not prevent, the surrender of the settlement; and the small islands of Nevis and Montserrat soon followed; so that of the entire Leeward cluster Barbadoes and Antigua only remained in British hands.

Only a few days, however, from the capitulation of St. Kit's, the British fleet was cheered by the return of Rodney. He came out from England with recovered health, and most eager to engage. "I will bring you "back a present of De Grasse,"such were his words at parting to a private friend. He came out also with the fullest confidence of the administration. "The fate of "this empire is in your hands," wrote to him Lord Sandwich, "and I have no reason to wish that it should be "in other."

any

Another disappointment to the English Ministry, though rather at an earlier period, came from the Cape of Good Hope. Against the Dutch settlement in that quarter there had been despatched from England an expedition, under General Meadows and Commodore Johnstone. The Dutch settlement was, however, secured by the timely arrival of the Bailli de Suffren with his

*Life of Lord Rodney, by Mundy, vol. ii. pp. 170-182.