inst the French arms had been taken up. The
colonists were for having all done for them, and for doing nothing, They
made extortionate bargains with the champions who came to defend them;
they failed in contracts; they furnished niggardly supplies; they
multiplied delays until the hour for beneficial action was past, and
until the catastrophe came which never need have occurred but for their
ill-will. What shouts of joy were there, and what ovations for the great
British Minister who had devised and effected the conquest of Canada!
Monsieur de Vaudreuil said justly that that conquest was the signal for
the defection of the North American colonies from their allegiance to
Great Britain; and my Lord Chatham, having done his best to achieve
the first part of the scheme, contributed more than any man in England
towards the completion of it. The colonies were insurgent, and he
applauded their rebellion. What scores of thousands of waverers must he
have encouraged into resistance! It was a general who says to an army
in revolt, "God save the king! My men, you have a right to mutiny!" No
wonder they set up his statue in this town, and his picture in t'other;
whilst here and there they hanged Ministers and Governors in effigy.
To our Virginian town of Williamsburg, some wiseacres must subscribe
to bring over a portrait of my lord, in the habit of a Roman orator
speaking in the Forum, to be sure, and pointing to the palace of
Whitehall, and the special window out of which Charles I. was beheaded!
Here was a neat allegory, and a pretty compliment to a British
statesman! I hear, however, that my lord's head was painted from a bust,
and so was taken off without his knowledge.

Now my country is England, not America or Virginia; and I take, or
rather took, the English side of the dispute. My sympathies had always
been with home, where I was now a squire and a citizen: but had my lot
been to plant tobacco, and live on the banks of James River or Potomac,
no doubt my opinions had been altered. When, for instance, I visited
my brother at his new house and plantation, I found him and his wife as
staunch Americans as we were British. We had some words upon the matter
in dispute,--who had not in those troublesome times?--but our argument
was carried on without rancour; even my new sister could not bring us to
that, though she did her best when we were together, and in the curtain
lectures which I have no doubt she inflicted on her spouse,