nd
war with France, and men of all parties united with Lord North himself
in demanding that Lord Chatham, who represented such a policy, should be
made prime minister. It was rightly believed that he, if any one, could
both conciliate America and humiliate France. There was only one way in
which Chatham could have broken the new alliance which Congress had so
long been seeking. The faith of Congress was pledged to France, and the
Americans would no longer hear of any terms that did not begin with the
acknowledgment of their full independence. To break the alliance, it
would have been necessary to concede the independence of the United
States. The king felt that if he were now obliged to call Chatham to the
head of affairs and allow him to form a strong ministry, it would be the
end of his cherished schemes for breaking down cabinet government.
There was no man whom George III. hated and feared so much as Lord
Chatham. Nevertheless the pressure was so great that, but for Chatham's
untimely death, the king would probably have been obliged to yield. If
Chatham had lived a year longer, the war might have ended with the
surrender of Burgoyne instead of continuing until the surrender of
Cornwallis. As it was, Lord North consented, against his own better
judgment, to remain in office and aid the king's policy as far as he
could. The commissioners sent to America accomplished nothing, because
they were not empowered to grant independence; and so the war went on.

[Sidenote: Change in the conduct of the war.]

There was a great change, however, in the manner in which the war was
conducted. In the years 1776 and 1777 the British had pursued a definite
plan for conquering New York and thus severing the connection between
New England and the southern states. During the remainder of the war
their only definite plan was for conquering the southern states. Their
operations at the north were for the most part confined to burning and
plundering expeditions along the coast in their ships, or on the
frontier in connection with Tories and Indians. The war thus assumed a
more cruel character. This was chiefly due to the influence of Lord
George Germaine, the secretary of state for the colonies. He was a
contemptible creature, weak and cruel. He had been dismissed from the
army in 1759 for cowardice at the battle of Minden, and he was so
generally despised that when in 1782 the king was obliged to turn him
out of office and tried to con