tendency to argue from the actual result of the war, and to suppose that because England failed in the struggle, the struggle itself could not possibly have had any other result. It has also been said that Chatham himself had never indicated that he had a plan on the subject, and it has been assumed that he therefore had none. It is not however the duty of those who are likely to be called to fill responsible offices under the Crown, to indicate beforehand the details of the means which they think necessary to accomplish the ends they have in view. Chatham had himself declared that it was impossible to conquer America, and from the conversation between Lord Shelburne and Mr. Eden, it would appear that his idea was to withdraw the English troops from all the continent of America except a few strongly fortified and easily held positions on the coast, and then to concentrate all the naval and military resources of his country on the struggle with France. He would have repealed at one stroke all the vexatious legislation which had estranged England from her Colonies, and he would then have trusted to those common ties of race, religion and language, on which Shelburne had insisted, to make it possible to come to terms. The chief difficulty would probably have arisen with reference to commercial legislation. The English Navigation Laws had been practically abolished by the Americans two years previously, when they had thrown open their ports to European commerce. The opinions of Chatham on commercial questions were not in advance of his age, nor was Shelburne at this period altogether prepared to abandon the Navigation Acts. There were however many persons in America besides the professed Loyalists who began to think peace desirable, even at the cost of making some sacrifices; nor would a certain number of commercial restrictions, even had they been insisted upon by England, have proved more burdensome to colonial industry than the depreciated paper currency which the Congress had issued, and the various oppressive measures which with as little success as wisdom they had adopted to keep up its value.
