zing the independence of
the United States, and pledging the countries to make no separate
peace. In the spring of 1778 the news reached America; and the war now
entered upon a second stage.

There can be little doubt that under abler commanders the British
armies might have crushed out all armed resistance in the middle
colonies. In spite of all drawbacks, the trained British soldiers and
officers were so superior in the field to the American levies on every
occasion where the forces were not overwhelmingly unequal that it is
impossible for any but the most bigoted American partisan to deny this
possibility. Had there been a blockade, so that French and Dutch goods
would have been excluded; had General Howe possessed the faintest spark
of energy in following up his successes; had the North Cabinet not
failed to compel Howe to co-operate with Burgoyne, the condition of
things in 1778 might well have been so serious for the colonists' cause
that {96} Vergennes would have felt a French intervention to be
fruitless. In that case, it is hard to see how the rebellion could
have failed to be crushed in the next year. As it was, the Americans,
by luck and by the tenacity of Washington and a few other leaders, had
won the first victory.

CHAPTER V

FRENCH INTERVENTION AND BRITISH FAILURE, 1778-1781

During the two years of fighting, the party situation in England had
grown increasingly bitter. The Whigs, joined now by young Charles Fox,
unremittingly denounced the war as a crime, sympathized with the
rebels, and execrated the cruelty of the Ministers while deriding their
abilities. Parliament rang with vituperation; personal insults flew
back and forth. From time to time Chatham took part in the attack,
joining Burke and Fox in an opposition never surpassed for oratorical
power. But the Ministerial party, secure in its strength, pushed on
its way. The King now regarded the war as the issue {97} upon which he
had staked his personal honour, and would tolerate no faltering. Yet
in the winter of 1778 the rumours of a French alliance thickened; and,
when the probability seemed to be a certainty, North made a desperate
effort to end the war through a policy of granting everything except
independence. In a speech of incredible assurance, he observed that he
had never favoured trying to tax America, and brought in a Bill by
which every parliamentary measure complained of by the Americans was
repealed, and the ri