e cause of liberty;" and one gentleman (this was Mr.
Burke), while lavishing his praises on Dr. Franklin and Mr. Laurens, had
declared he would prefer a prison with them to freedom in company with
those who were supporting the cause of England.' But this vindication,
though spirited, nay, though true, is faulty; because, though true, it
is not the whole truth; because it overlooks what no statesman
should--the certainty that when free principles are at stake,
dissensions will always arise in a free country."--_Ib._, pp. 209, 210.]

[Footnote 57: I have not a shadow of doubt, that had the leaders in
Congress adhered to their pretensions of contending and fighting for
British constitutional rights, as aforetime, instead of renouncing those
rights and declaring Independence in 1776, the changes which took place
in the Administration in England in 1783 would have taken place in 1777;
for the corrupt Administration showed as strong symptoms of decline, and
was as manifestly "tottering to its fall" in the parliamentary session
which commenced in 1776, as it did in the session which commenced in
1782. In both cases its predictions and assured successes had been
completely falsified; in both cases the indignation of the nation was
aroused against the Administration, and the confidence of Parliament was
on the point of being withdrawn in 1776-77, as it was withdrawn in the
session of 1782-83; but in 1776, the Congress, instead of adhering to
its heretofore professed principles, was induced by its leaders, as
related in Chapter xxvi., to renounce its former principles; to falsify
all its former professions to its advocates in England and
fellow-subjects in America; to renounce the maintenance of the
constitutional rights of British subjects; to adopt a Declaration of
Independence, of eternal separation from England; to extinguish the
national life of the British empire and the unity of the Anglo-Saxon
race, and seek an alliance with their own and Great Britain's hereditary
enemies for a war upon their mother country, which had protected them
for a hundred years against the French and Spaniards, who had also
employed and rewarded the Indians to destroy them.]

CHAPTER XXXI.

CHANGE OF ADMINISTRATION IN ENGLAND--CHANGE OF POLICY FOR BOTH ENGLAND
AND THE COLONIES--PEACE NEGOTIATIONS AT PARIS--THE CAUSE OF THE UNITED
EMPIRE LOYALISTS.

During the adjournment of Parliament from the 24th to the 28th of March,
the new Admini