e so weak a position as Yorktown, which
was only defensible whilst the army of occupation had free access to the
sea. Admiral Rodney, then at St. Eustatius, is open to censure for not
having sent such naval reinforcements as would have enabled the British
to command Chesapeake Bay, and his failure in this respect explains the
inability of Clinton, an able general, to support Cornwallis in his hour
of need. The moment the French fleet appeared in the Chesapeake,
Cornwallis's position became perfectly untenable, and he was obliged to
surrender to the allied armies, who were vastly superior in number and
equipment to his small force, which had not even the advantage of
fighting behind well-constructed and perfect defences. No doubt, from
the beginning to the end of the war--notably in the case of
Burgoyne--the British were seriously hampered by the dilatory and unsafe
counsels of Lord George Germaine, who was allowed by the favour of the
king to direct military operations, and who, we remember, had disgraced
himself on the famous battlefield of Minden.

All the conditions in the country at large were favourable to the
imperial troops had they been commanded by generals of ability. The
Loyalists formed a large available force, rendered valueless time after
time by the incapacity of the men who directed operations. At no time
did the great body of the American people warmly respond to the demands
made upon them by congress to support Washington. Had it not been for
New England and Virginia the war must have more than once collapsed for
want of men and supplies. It is impossible to exaggerate the absence of
public spirit in the States during this critical period of their
history. The English historian, Lecky, who has reviewed the annals of
those times with great fairness, has truly said: "The nobility and
beauty of the character of Washington can hardly be surpassed; several
of the other leaders of the revolution were men of ability and public
spirit, and few armies have ever shown a nobler self-devotion than that
which remained with Washington through the dreary winter at Valley
Forge. But the army that bore those sufferings was a very small one, and
the general aspect of the American people during the contest was far
from heroic or sublime." This opinion is fully borne out by those
American historians who have reviewed the records of their national
struggle in a spirit of dispassionate criticism. We know that in the
spring