1778-1779 APPROACHING FAILURE 787 Chatham. 1778.-The British disaster at Saratoga encouraged the French Government, and, on February 6, 1778, France openly allied herself with America. Lord North offered to yield anything short of independence, and begged the king to relieve him of office and to appoint Chatham. George III. refused to admit Chatham except as North's subordinate. Chatham, though he declined this insulting offer, opposed, on April 7, a motion by one of the Rockingham Whigs for acknowledging the independence of America, and thus practically gave his support to North. He was ready to give way on all the points originally in dispute, but he could not reconcile himself to the abandonment of the colonies, and he firmly protested against the dismemberment of this ancient and most noble monarchy.' As he spoke his voice failed him, and, on rising to make a second speech, he fell back in a fit of apoplexy. On May 11 he died. With many faults, he stands forth amongst the greatest figures in English history. He had not merely done great things he had inspired England with confidence in herself. 16. Valley Forge. 1777-1778.-French help was offered to America none too soon. In the winter of 1777-78 Washington's army at Valley Forge was almost destitute. Pennsylvania had little sympathy with him in the struggle, and Washington himself spoke of it as an 'enemy's country.' For three days his soldiers had no bread, and nearly 3,000 men were unfit for duty because they were 'bare-footed and otherwise naked.' Numbers deserted, and the distress increased as winter wore on. When spring arrived the result of the French alliance was clearly seen. In June the British evacuated Philadelphia, and in July a French fleet appeared off the American coast. Yet the operations of 1778 were desultory. The unwillingness of the Americans to support their army was so great that, at the end of 1778, Washington was almost as despondent as he had been at the beginning of the year. 17. George III. and Lord North. 1779.-Each side saw its own difficulties, and, in 1779, every statesman in England was to the full as despondent as Washington. Lord North himself thought it impossible to re-conquer America now that France was her ally. George III., with a determination which, when it succeeds, is called firmness, and, when it fails, is called-obstinacy, declared that he would never yield or give office to any man who would not first sign a declaration that he was 'resolved to keep the empire entire, and that no troops shall consequently be withdrawn from America nor independence ever allowed.' To the king's resolute will North reluctantly submitted, though in June 1779 Spain allied herself with France and America against Great Britain. North again and again offered his resignation, but the king forced him to retain office. 18. The French in the Channel. 1779.-The hour of French vengeance had come. Early in 1779 a French naval squadron seized the British possessions in Senegal and on the Gambia, and in the summer of the same year a combined French and Spanish fleet sailed up the Channel, which the British fleet did not even venture to meet. For the first time since the battle of La Hogue the French navy was master of the sea. The fact was that the circumstances under which the French navy now appeared at sea were different from those under which it had suffered defeat in the Seven Years' War. In the first place, Louis XVI., who had been king of France since 1774, had paid special attention to the navy, and had both increased the number of his war-ships and had done his utmost to render their crews efficient. In the second place, he abandoned the policy which had been pursued by every ruler of France since the days of Richelieu, and which consisted in throwing the whole strength of the country into territorial aggression on its land frontier, thus weakening its ability to engage successfully in naval warfare. The new king, by keeping at peace with his neighbours on the Continent, was thus enabled to struggle with better chance of success against England, the old maritime rival of France. 19. English Successes in America. 1779-1780.-In America the British had still the upper hand, as far as fighting was concerned. In Georgia, the English beat off an attack by the Americans at Savannah, though the latter were supported by a French fleet under D'Estaing, who had previously reduced some of the West India Islands. On May 12, 1780, Sir Henry Clinton took Charleston, and after his return to New York, Lord Cornwallis, whom he left behind in command, defeated the American general, Gates, at Camden in South Carolina. It seemed as if the whole of the southern states, where the opposition to Great Britain was not nearly so strong as in the north, would be brought into subjection. The enormous distances which the British had to traverse again told against them. Cornwallis had not men enough to hold the country which he had subdued and to gain new ground as well, and he was driven back as soon as he advanced into North Carolina. Yet, in spite of this failure, the gains of the British were so considerable as to increase the alarm of those Americans who had hoped for a decisive result from their combination with France and Spain. In September, 1779-1780 ECONOMICAL REFORM 789 1780, Benedict Arnold, a general in whom Washington placed. complete confidence, plotted to betray to the British commander at New York the forts on the hills round the Hudson. If the plot had succeeded, the struggle for American independence would have been at an end. It was, however, detected, and, though Arnold himself escaped, Major André, the British officer who negotiated with him, was caught within the American lines and hanged as a spy. 19. Economical Reform. 1779-1780.--In England there was, as yet, no active opposition to the continuance of the war, but there was a growing dissatisfaction with its apparently endless expense. Towards the close of 1779 the opposition turned this current of feeling against the employment of the patronage of the Crown, by which George III. secured votes in Parliament. They raised a cry, which was fully justified, in favour of Economical Reform, and they gathered large public meetings in their support. The practice of bringing the opinion of public meetings to bear upon Parliament was of recent origin, having sprung into existence in 1769, during the agitation consequent on Wilkes's election. In 1779 it spread over the country. The signal was given by a meeting at York, presided over by Sir George Savile, a highly-respected member of the Rockingham party. These meetings were everywhere attended by the orderly classes, and were an indication of the dissatisfaction widely felt with a system through which the House of Commons had become a mere instrument in the king's hands. In February, 1780, Burke brought in a Bill for the abolition of sinecures, the only use of which was the purchase of votes ; and, in a magnificent speech, pleaded the cause of Economical Reform. He put the case in a nutshell when he announced that 'the king's turnspit was a peer of Parliament.' The House was too alarmed at the outburst of popular feeling to refuse to the Bill a second reading, but it rejected its leading clauses in Committee, and the Bill was consequently dropped. In April, however, Dunning, a Whig lawyer, carried a resolution that 'the influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished.' 20. Parliamentary Reform and the Gordon Riots.-Though the opposition was united in favour of Economical Reform, which would render the House of Commons less dependent on the King, it was divided on the subject of Parliamentary Reform, which would have made it more dependent on the nation. Burke, with the greater number of the Rockingham party, opposed the latter, but it was supported by Charles James Fox, the son of the Henry Fox who had been noted as the most corrupt minister of a corrupt time (see pp. 747, 751). The younger Fox was, in private life, a lover of pleasure, especially at the gaming-table, thereby aljenating from him the more decorous portion of mankind. Yet, in spite of this, the charm of his kindly nature gained him warm personal friendships, and often disarmed the hostility of opponents. In public life he showed himself early as a ready and fluent speaker, Charles James Fox as a young man: from an engraving by always prepared with an answer on the spur of the moment. He was ever ready to throw himself enthusiastically into all generous and noble causes, praising beyond measure and abusing beyond measure, and too deficient in tact and self-restraint to secure power on the rare occasions when he attained it. 21. The Gordon Riots. 1780.-On June 2, 1780, the Duke of Richmond called, in the House of Lords, for manhood suffrage and |