s against the foreign foes.
But they had first to settle with the Americans, who had
considered themselves an independent sovereign power for
the last five years and who were determined to make the
most of England's difficulties. No darker New Year's Day
had ever dawned on any cabinet than that of 1782 on
North's. In spite of his change from repression to
conciliation, and in spite of dismissing Germain to the
House of Lords with an ill-earned peerage, Lord North
found his majority dwindling away. At last, on the 20th
of March, he resigned.

Meanwhile every real statesman in either party had felt
that the crisis required the master-hand of Carleton.
With Germain, the empire-wrecker, gone, Carleton would
doubtless have served under any cabinet, for no government
could have done without him. But his actual commission
came through the Rockingham administration on the 4th of
April. After three quiet years of retirement at his
country seat in Hampshire he was again called upon to
face a situation of extreme difficulty. For once, with
a wisdom rare enough in any age and almost unknown in
that one, the government gave him a free hand and almost
unlimited powers. The only questions over which he had
no final power were those of making treaties. He was
appointed 'General and Commander-in-chief of all His
Majesty's forces within the Colonies lying in the Atlantic
Ocean, from Nova Scotia to the Floridas, and inclusive
of Newfoundland and Canada should they be attacked.' He
was also appointed commissioner for executing the terms
of any treaty that might be made; and his instructions
contained two passages which bore eloquent witness to
the universal confidence reposed in him. 'It is impossible
to judge of the precise situation at so great a distance'
and 'His Majesty's affairs are so situated that further
deliberations give way to instant decision. We are
satisfied that whatever inconveniences may arise they
will be compensated by the presence of a commander-in-chief
of whose discretion, conduct, and ability His Majesty
has long entertained the highest opinion.' Thus the great
justifier of British rule beyond the seas arrived in New
York on the 9th of May 1782 with at least some hope of
reconciling enough Americans to turn the scale before it
was too late.

For three months the prospect, though worse than he had
anticipated, did not seem utterly hopeless. It had been
considerably brightened by Rodney's great victory over