ons it may seem as if the years 1861-65 were of more
cardinal importance than the years 1783-89. Our civil war was indeed an
event of prodigious magnitude, as measured by any standard that history
affords; and there can be little doubt as to its decisiveness. The
measure of that decisiveness is to be found in the completeness of the
reconciliation that has already, despite the feeble wails of
unscrupulous place-hunters and unteachable bigots, cemented the Federal
Union so powerfully that all likelihood of its disruption may be said to
have disappeared forever. When we consider this wonderful harmony which
so soon has followed the deadly struggle, we may well believe it to be
the index of such a stride toward the ultimate pacification of mankind
as was never made before. But it was the work done in the years 1783-89
that created a federal nation capable of enduring the storm and stress
of the years 1861-65. It was in the earlier crisis that the pliant twig
was bent; and as it was bent, so has it grown; until it has become
indeed a goodly and a sturdy tree.

CAMBRIDGE, October 10, 1888.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN. PAGE

Fall of Lord North's ministry 1

Sympathy between British Whigs and the revolutionary
party in America 2

It weakened the Whig party in England 3

Character of Lord Shelburne 4

Political instability of the Rockingham ministry 5, 6

Obstacles in the way of a treaty of peace 7, 8

Oswald talks with Franklin 9-11

Grenville has an interview with Vergennes 12

Effects of Rodney's victory 13

Misunderstanding between Fox and Shelburne 14

Fall of the Rockingham ministry 15

Shelburne becomes prime minister 16

Defeat of the Spaniards and French at Gibraltar 17

French policy opposed to American interests 18

The valley of the Mississippi; Aranda's prophecy 19

The Newfoundland fis