beyond
any other cause to rekindle British feelings in the hearts of the
Americans. Were the glories of Wolfe and Amherst, in which they had
partaken, altogether blotted from their minds? Would the soldier-yeomen
of the colonies be willing to fight side by side with those French whom,
till within fifteen years, they had found in Canada their bitter
hereditary foes? That consequences like to these--that some such
revulsion of popular feeling in America might, perhaps, ensue from an
open French alliance, is an apprehension which, during the first years
of the contest, we find several times expressed in the secret letters of
the Revolution chiefs; it was a possibility which we see called forth
their fears; why then might it not be allowed to animate the hopes of
Chatham?"[7]

But Lord Chatham was not destined even to try the experiment of giving
America a second time to England; in a few days he fell in the House of
Lords, to rise no more, with the protest on his lips against the
separation of the American colonies from England. The Americans had no
confidence in the professions of a Parliament and Ministry which had
oppressed and sought to deceive them for twelve years. As low as the
Congress had fallen in the estimation of a large part of the colonists,
the English Ministry was regarded with universal distrust and aversion.
The Congress refused even to confer with the Royal Commissioners, and
had sufficient influence to prevent any province from entering into
negotiations with them. All the former grounds of complaint had been
removed by the three Acts of Parliament above referred to, and all the
concessions demanded had been granted. The Royal Commissioners requested
General Washington, on the 9th of June (1778), to furnish a passport for
their Secretary, Dr. Ferguson with a letter from them to Congress; but
this was refused, and the refusal was approved by Congress. They then
forwarded, in the usual channel of communication, a letter addressed "To
his Excellency Henry Laurens, the President, and other Members of
Congress," in which they enclosed a copy of their commission and the
Acts of Parliament on which it was founded; and they offered to concur
in every satisfactory and just arrangement towards the following among
other purposes:

"To consent to a cessation of hostilities both by sea and land;

"To restore free intercourse, to revive mutual affection, and renew the
common benefits of naturalization through the