PEACE AT LAST

=British Opposition to the War.=—­In measuring the forces that led to the final discomfiture of King George and Lord North, it is necessary to remember that from the beginning to the end the British ministry at home faced a powerful, informed, and relentless opposition.  There were vigorous protests, first against the obnoxious acts which precipitated the unhappy quarrel, then against the way in which the war was waged, and finally against the futile struggle to retain a hold upon the American dominions.  Among the members of Parliament who thundered against the government were the first statesmen and orators of the land.  William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, though he deplored the idea of American independence, denounced the government as the aggressor and rejoiced in American resistance.  Edmund Burke leveled his heavy batteries against every measure of coercion and at last strove for a peace which, while giving independence to America, would work for reconciliation rather than estrangement.  Charles James Fox gave the colonies his generous sympathy and warmly championed their rights.  Outside of the circle of statesmen there were stout friends of the American cause like David Hume, the philosopher and historian, and Catherine Macaulay, an author of wide fame and a republican bold enough to encourage Washington in seeing it through.

Against this powerful opposition, the government enlisted a whole army of scribes and journalists to pour out criticism on the Americans and their friends.  Dr. Samuel Johnson, whom it employed in this business, was so savage that even the ministers had to tone down his pamphlets before printing them.  Far more weighty was Edward Gibbon, who was in time to win fame as the historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.  He had at first opposed the government; but, on being given a lucrative post, he used his sharp pen in its support, causing his friends to ridicule him in these lines: 

    “King George, in a fright
     Lest Gibbon should write
       The story of England’s disgrace,
     Thought no way so sure
     His pen to secure
       As to give the historian a place.”

=Lord North Yields.=—­As time wore on, events bore heavily on the side of the opponents of the government’s measures.  They had predicted that conquest was impossible, and they had urged the advantages of a peace which would in some measure restore the affections of the Americans.  Every day’s news confirmed their predictions and lent support to their arguments.  Moreover, the war, which sprang out of an effort to relieve English burdens, made those burdens heavier than ever.  Military expenses were daily increasing.  Trade with the colonies, the greatest single outlet for British goods and capital, was paralyzed.  The heavy debts due British merchants in America were not only unpaid but postponed into an indefinite future.