a against New York, under Burgoyne,
miscarried. Burgoyne had scarcely reached the Hudson when he was
forced to surrender at Saratoga. The Congress of the States, which
feebly directed operations, wished that the terms of surrender should
not be observed, and that the 5000 English and German prisoners,
instead of being sent home, should be detained until they could be
exchanged. Washington and his officers made known that if this was
done they would resign.

The British defeat at Saratoga is the event which determined the issue
of the conflict. It put an end to the vacillation of France. The
French government had to recover the position it had lost in the last
war, and watched the course of events for evidence that American
resistance was not about to collapse. At the end of 1777 the victory
of Saratoga supplied the requisite proof. Volunteers had been allowed
to go over, and much war material was furnished through the agency of
a comic poet. Now a treaty of alliance was concluded, a small army
was sent to sea, and in March 1778 England was informed that France
was at war with her. France was followed by Spain, afterwards by
Holland.

It was evident from the first that the combination was more than
England could hope to meet. Lord North at once gave way. He offered
to satisfy the American demands, and he asked that Chatham should take
office. From the moment that his old enemy, France, appeared on the
scene, Chatham was passionately warlike. The king agreed that he
should be asked to join the ministry, but refused to see him. America
declined the English overtures, in fulfilment of her treaty with
France. The negotiation with Chatham became impossible. That was no
misfortune, for he died a few weeks later, denouncing the government
and the opposition.

Then came that phase of war during which the navy of France, under
d'Orvilliers in the Channel, under Suffren in the east, under
d'Estaing and de Grasse in the west, proved itself equal to the navy
of England. It was by the fleet, not by the land forces, that
American independence was gained. But it was by the army officers
that American ideas, sufficient to subvert every European state, were
transplanted into France. When de Grasse drove the English fleet away
from Virginian waters, Cornwallis surrendered the army of the south at
Yorktown, as Burgoyne had surrendered with the northern army at
Saratoga.

The Whigs came in and recognised the indepen