nst the surrender of the sovereignty of
America, "the dismemberment of this ancient and most glorious monarchy".
He urged that England should refuse to bow before the house of Bourbon;
"if we fall let us fall like men". Richmond answered him by dwelling on
the expediency of acknowledging American independence; otherwise, said
he, "instead of Great Britain and America against France and Spain, as
in the last war, it will now be France, Spain, and America against Great
Britain". Chatham rose to reply and fell back in a fit. He died on May
11. Parliament voted him a public funeral, the stately statue which
stands in Westminster Abbey, L20,000 for the payment of his debts, and a
perpetual pension of L4,000 a year annexed to the earldom of Chatham.
Throughout his long career he was invariably courageous and
self-reliant; his genius was bold, his conceptions magnificent, his
political purity unsullied. His rhetoric was sublime. He did not excel
in debate or in prepared speeches. His spirit burned like fire, and his
speeches were the outpourings of his heart in words which, while they
owed something to art, came spontaneously to his lips, and were not less
lofty than his thoughts. As a statesman he had serious defects; he was
haughty, vain, and overbearing, his opinions were unsettled, his
far-reaching views often nebulous; his passion was stronger than his
judgment, and he was immoderately given to bombast. In spite of his true
greatness he lacked simplicity, and he imported the arts of a charlatan
into political life. Yet Englishmen must ever reverence his memory, for
he loved England with all the ardour of his soul, and, as Richmond said
as he praised him to his face on the day that he was stricken for death,
"he raised the glory of the nation to a higher pitch than had been known
at any former period".

In 1778 the losses and expenses of the war and disappointment at its
results began to work a change in the feeling of the country. In
parliament tories sometimes voted with the opposition. North continued
to strive in vain to be released from office. He made some overtures to
the opposition. Fox, in spite of the violence of his attacks, was
anxious for a coalition, which would have given him office, though he
held first that Germain only, and in 1779 that North himself and
Sandwich, must be excluded.[140] He was restrained by Rockingham, and
North's efforts failed. The death of Chatham, though it united the
opposition, on t