1781. CLINTON SETS SAIL FOR THE CHESAPEAK. 127 every French officer, even of the lowest rank; a compliment which they withheld from every American, even of the highest. The followers of the English army left defenceless at York-town, were exposed to much ill-treatment on the part of the native soldiers, thirsting, it was said, for vengeance. Abbé Robin saw an English lady, a Colonel's wife, come in tears to implore, for herself and for her children, the protection of French generosity against American outrage. * On the other hand, we find the English officers and soldiers the actual prisoners of war bear willing testimony to the kindness they received. Thus speaks Lord Cornwallis, in his letter to Sir Henry Clinton: "The treatment in gene"ral, that we have received from the enemy, since our sur"render, has been perfectly good and proper. But the "kindness and attention that has been shown to us by the "French officers in particular, their delicate sensibility of "our situation, their generous and pressing offer of money, "both public and private, to any amount, has really gone "beyond what I can possibly describe, and will, I hope, "make an impression on the breast of every English officer, "whenever the fortune of war should put any of them into our power." But, where was Sir Henry Clinton meanwhile? He had prepared his auxiliary force at New York, and was ready and eager to embark on the 5th of October. The ships, on the contrary, were ill provided, and the Admirals slow. "We “had the misfortune," Clinton writes, "to see almost every "succeeding day produce some naval obstruction or other "to protract our departure; and I am sorry to add, that it was the afternoon of the 19th before the fleet was fairly at "sea." This was the very day of Lord Cornwallis's capitu 66 66 "Les Anglais restés à York sans armes, eurent à souffrir de beaucoup d'Americains qui voulaient se venger des brigandages commis dans "leurs habitations. J'ai vu la femme d'un Colonel Anglais venir éplorée, "supplier nos officiers de lui donner une garde pour la defendre, elle et "ses enfans, de la violence du soldat Americain.' (Voyage en Amerique, par l'Abbé Robin, p. 141. ed. 1782.), lation; and, on coming off the Chesapeak, they received, in due course, the news of that event. Nothing, then, was left for them, but to go back whence they came. It is to be noted, that if the fleet could have sailed in time, the relief to Lord Cornwallis need not have been hindered by the enemy's superiority at sea. Thus continues Sir Henry in his unpublished Memoirs: "The Flag Officers of the fleet, “who were present when this matter was debated in Council, "were all clearly of opinion that thirty-six ships of the line "could not, in the position the French fleet had taken be"tween the Middle Ground and Horseshoe Flats, prevent "even twenty-three from passing, with a leading wind and "tide, into either York or James's river. The reasons given "were, that the enemy's ships, being unable, from the vio"lence of the tide, and great swell of the sea that runs in "that channel, to avail themselves of the springs upon their "cables, their broadsides could not be brought to bear on "ships approaching them end on; and after a passage "should be effected, they would not dare suddenly to weigh 66 or cut for the purpose of following, lest they should be "driven on shore." With the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, the American War may be said to have concluded; so far at least as its active military operations were concerned. It was a war by no means, as we sometimes hear alleged of it, founded on any plain or palpable injustice in point of law, since at the outset, when the taxes were first imposed, the English Ministers might point to nearly all the highest authorities as affirming the abstract right of taxation we possessed. But, beyond all doubt, it was a war proceeding on the grossest impolicy, from the moment it was seen how much resentment the exercise of that right provoked. For the mere barren assertion of that right for a mere peppercorn of rent we alienated, and, as it were, in wantonness, flung from us provinces which, at the peace of 1763, had been as contented and loyal as the shires along the Severn or the Thames. We grew wiser, but too late. Earnest and more 1781. ARRIVAL OF THE NEWS IN LONDON. 129 earnest overtures, larger and then larger concessions, were tendered, from time to time, to the uprisen Colonies, but always a few weeks or a few months beyond the period when they might yet have healed the wound. The same utter want of policy which provoked the war was shown in its first direction. Our most skilful commanders, our most daring enterprises, seemed to be reserved for the conclusion of the conflict, when skill could no more avail us, and when enterprise led only to disaster. While the opportunity was still ours - while France and Spain, so soon to combine against us, still kept aloof while Washington's army, for example, was in full flight, or Gates's was not yet formed, then it is that we find General Howe content to bound his conquests at the Delaware, and General Burgoyne refrain a whole month from his advance to Albany. Such was the system in the Cabinet, against which our greatest statesmen warned the Ministry in vain. Such were the errors in the field which even the occasional skill of our officers, and the constant bravery of our troops, could not retrieve. Thus did we alienate a people with whom we might perhaps, to this very day, have kept united; with them resolutely upholding peace among all other nations; with them, the leaders of the world in temperate liberty and Christian progress. They might have been both our brother freemen and our fellow subjects, free with their own Assemblies as we are free with ours, yet bound to us beneath the golden circle of the Crown. Or if even, with their growing numbers, that golden circle had seemed to them to press, it might have been gently and quietly unloosed. We might have parted as friends and kinsmen part, not have torn asunder with a bleeding gash on either side. The intelligence of the York-town capitulation reached London about noon on the 25th of November. Lord George Germaine, who first received it as Secretary of State, hastened to impart it in person to the Prime Minister, and, by letter, to the King. Mr. Wraxall, as it chanced, dined with Lord George that very day, and then asked him how Lord Mahon, History. VII. 9 North took the communication? "As he would have taken a "cannon-ball in his breast," replied Lord George. "He "opened his arms, exclaiming wildly, as he paced up and "down the room for a few minutes, 'Oh God! it is all over!' "words which he repeated many times under the deepest แ "agitation and distress."* Far greater was the fortitude shown by George the Third. His Majesty's reply to the communication from Lord George Germaine was received that same afternoon: it was neither tremulous in its hand-writing, nor yet despondent in its tone; it expressed his deep concern, but, at the same time, his steady resolution. There was only one little circumstance which to Lord George's practised eye betrayed unwonted emotion. In that letter the King had omitted to mark the hour and minute of his writing, as he was accustomed to do with scrupulous exactness. At Paris, the tidings of Cornwallis's surrender arrived upon the 26th. "Most heartily," - thus writes Franklin to John Adams, in Holland, "do I congratulate you on the "glorious news. The infant Hercules in his cradle has now "strangled his second serpent." The first serpent was, of course, no other than General Burgoyne. So pleased was Franklin with this classical conceit, that it afterwards formed the subject of a medal, struck by his direction.** It is remarkable, however, that Franklin, writing only three days before to another private friend, had used the following expression: "I wish most heartily with you that "this accursed war was at an end; but I despair of seeing it "finished in my time." *** *"Historical Memoirs of My Own Time," by Sir N. Wraxall, vol. ii. p. 101. ed. 1815. Wraxall is a writer of no authority on any disputed fact, but may be allowed some credit on slight circumstances falling directly within his own observation. **Note to Washington's Writings, vol. viii. p. 189. *** To Governor Pownall, November 23. 1781. Franklin's Writings, vol. ix. p. 93. ed. 1844. 1781. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. 131 CHAPTER LXV. THE opening of the Session had been fixed for the 27th of November, only two days after the ill tidings. It became requisite on their account to frame the Royal Speech anew. As delivered by His Majesty, from the Throne, it was found to state the disaster of his army in Virginia, and to call upon his people for their "vigorous, animated, and united exer❝tion." In the Upper House no sooner had the Address of Thanks been moved and seconded, than Lord Shelburne started up with an Amendment. He adverted to the King in terms of due respect, as "a valorous and generous prince, gather"ing firmness from misfortune." But on the whole conduct of the war, on the entire policy of Ministers, he descanted with severity. He was well supported by the Duke of Richmond and Lord Camden; Lord Rockingham also spoke shortly on his side. In reply, the weapons of the Government were but feebly wielded by Lord Stormont and Lord Hillsborough; the Lord Chancellor resisted the Amendment, mainly as a violation of the established forms of Parliament, and, on the whole, it might be said of Lord Shelburne in this debate, as was said by an Irish Member on a similar occasion, that he had a majority in every thing but numbers! His Amendment was rejected by 75 Peers against 31. - In the Commons, an Amendment was in like manner proposed by Fox, as soon as the Address had been duly moved and seconded. He applauded the Ministry in a strain of sarcastic invective, because they had selected very young Members for that task, a task which, he said, required the benefit of inexperience, the recommendation of ignorance! For himself, though a young man, he could not be called a young member. He had seen the whole system of |