and affected to be a kind of septennial nobility, without the dignity, the means, the situation, and the personal interest in the State of a real aristocracy, it became an object of public contempt and an instrument of public danger.[1] As to the question immediately before the House, he considered that a greater outrage had been committed, when the direction of the war had been placed in the hands of Lord George Germaine as Secretary of State, than now when he was created a Peer, and he would not himself have supported the motion against the creation, had it not been for the unconstitutional language about the prerogative held by the Ministers; more especially as he had no objection to make to the personal conduct of Lord George Germaine while in office.[1]
The motion which had been brought forward in the House of Commons on the war with America had not contained any words which specifically bound the movers to recognize the absolute independence of America. Shelburne desiring that his own views on the question of America should not be misunderstood in the event of the retirement of Lord North, took the opportunity of a debate on the surrender of Lord Cornwallis to state that they remained unchanged since he had last spoken, and that while fully recognizing that any attempt to restore the former relations between the Colonies and the mother country by force would be useless, he was still as strongly as ever opposed to the absolute severance of all ties between them.[2] Neither this speech nor that on the Sackville peerage made co-operation between him and Rockingham easier; for the latter was now determined to insist on the unconditional independence of America, and fully intended that if he was Prime Minister, George III. should be a King of the Mahrattas. The difference of opinion between the two Whig leaders was now of greater importance than ever, for after a number of defeats equivalent to victories the Opposition in the House of Commons carried a resolution on the 27th of February, declaring the advisers of the further prosecution of offensive
