Prime Minister, Lord North, weary of his position.
He had never been in sympathy with the King's policy and since the bad
news had come in December he had pondered some radical step which should
end the war. On February 17, 1778, before the treaty of friendship
between the United States and France had been made public, North
startled the House of Commons by introducing a bill repealing the tax on
tea, renouncing forever the right to tax America, and nullifying those
changes in the constitution of Massachusetts which had so rankled in the
minds of its people. A commission with full powers to negotiate peace
would proceed at once to America and it might suspend at its discretion,
and thus really repeal, any act touching America passed since 1763.

North had taken a sharp turn. The Whig clothes had been stolen by a Tory
Prime Minister and if he wished to stay in office the Whigs had not the
votes to turn him out. His supporters would accept almost anything in
order to dish the Whigs. They swallowed now the bill, and it became
law, but at the same time came, too, the war with France. It united the
Tories; it divided the Whigs. All England was deeply stirred. Nearly
every important town offered to raise volunteer forces at its own
expense. The Government soon had fifteen thousand men recruited at
private cost. Help was offered so freely that the Whig, John Wilkes,
actually introduced into Parliament a bill to prohibit gifts of money to
the Crown since this voluntary taxation gave the Crown money without
the consent of Parliament. The British patriot, gentle as he might
be towards America, fumed against France. This was no longer only a
domestic struggle between parties, but a war with an age-long foreign
enemy. The populace resented what they called the insolence and the
treachery of France and the French ambassador was pelted at Canterbury
as he drove to the seacoast on his recall. In a large sense the French
alliance was not an unmixed blessing for America, since it confused the
counsels of her best friends in England.

In spite of this it is probably true that from this time the mass of the
English people were against further attempts to coerce America. A change
of ministry was urgently demanded. There was one leader to whom the
nation looked in this grave crisis. The genius of William Pitt, Earl
of Chatham, had won the last war against France and he had promoted the
repeal of the Stamp Act. In America his name was held