ht of direct taxation over the
Colonies; but he felt that such offers were fruitless, that the time for
conciliation was past, while all hope of reducing America by force of
arms had disappeared. In utter despair he pressed his resignation on the
king. But George was as obstinate for war as ever; and the country,
stung to the quick by the attack of France, backed passionately the
obstinacy of the king. But unlike George the Third, it instinctively
felt that if a hope still remained of retaining the friendship of the
Colonies and of baffling the efforts of the Bourbons, it lay in Lord
Chatham; and in spite of the king's resistance the voice of the whole
country called him back to power. The danger indeed which had scared
Lord North into resignation, and before which a large party of the Whigs
now advocated the acknowledgement of American independence, only woke
Chatham to his old daring and fire. He had revolted from a war against
Englishmen. But all his pride in English greatness, all his confidence
in English power, woke afresh at the challenge of France. His genius saw
indeed in the new danger a means of escape from the old. He would have
withdrawn every soldier from America, and flung the whole force of
Britain into the conflict with France. He believed that in the splendour
of triumphs over her older enemy England might be brought to terms of
amity which would win back the Colonies, and that the English blood of
the colonists themselves would be quickened to a fresh union with the
mother country by her struggle against a power from which she had so
lately rescued them. Till such a trial had been made, with all the
advantages that the magic of his name could give it in England and
America alike, he would not bow to a need that must wreck the great
Empire his hand had built up. Even at this hour there was a chance of
success for such a policy; but on the eve of Chatham's return to office
this chance was shattered by the hand of death. Broken with age and
disease, the Earl was borne to the House of Lords on the seventh of
April to utter in a few broken words his protest against the proposal to
surrender America. "I rejoice," he murmured, "that I am still alive to
lift up my voice against the dismemberment of this ancient and noble
monarchy. His Majesty succeeded to an Empire as great in extent as its
reputation was unsullied. Seventeen years ago this people was the terror
of the world." He listened impatiently to the rep