"A waggon load of money will now scarcely purchase a waggon load of provisions," Washington wrote at this period.[1] The two years which followed the battle of Saratoga were curiously enough those in which from a military point of view the fortunes of the American army seemed at their lowest ebb. The troops were ill-armed, ill-paid, and worse clothed; in the Northern provinces no marked success attended their arms; in the Southern provinces they lost ground; the Congress was unable to minister to the wants of the soldiers, and occupied precious time in disputes and selfish recriminations, while the ablest men seemed to prefer service in the State legislatures to sitting in the central Assembly. Under these circumstances it is not impossible that if a ministry with Chatham at the head of it had been formed in England, anxious to conciliate the Colonies, and able at the same time by means of the fleet to make their alliance with France of little avail, a treaty might have been made, leaving to the United Colonies a degree of independence which would have satisfied their immediate demands, and might soon have ripened into that complete liberty which is now practically enjoyed under the Crown by the Canadian Confederation. On the other hand, the wish for liberty when once aroused is the most difficult wish of all to extirpate, and a civil war the most difficult of all wars to end by reconciliation and union. The task of Chatham would in any case have taxed the highest resources of his genius, and it is more than probable that his health and strength would have given way under the effort.
Each party after the failure of Mr. Eden's negotiation went its own way. Lord North remained at the Treasury, while one section of the Opposition attended Parliament to support American independence, and the other to oppose it. Such was the state of affairs when, on the 7th of April, Richmond moved an address to the Crown, praying His Majesty to withdraw his fleets and armies from the Thirteen revolted provinces, and "to effectuate conciliation with them on such terms as might preserve
- ↑ Washington to Laurent, April 23rd, 1779.
