sole him by raising him to the peerage as
Viscount Sackville, the House of Lords protested against the admission
of such a creature. George III. had made this man his colonial secretary
in the autumn of 1775, and he had much to do with planning the campaigns
of the next two years. But now his influence in the cabinet seems to
have increased. He was much more thoroughly in sympathy with the king
than Lord North, who at this time was really to be pitied. Lord North
would have been a fine man but for his weakness of will. He was now
keeping up the war in America unwillingly, and was obliged to sanction
many things of which he did not approve. In later years he bitterly
repented this weakness. Now the truculent policy of Lord George Germaine
began to show itself in the conduct of the war. That minister took no
pains to conceal his willingness to employ Indians, to burn towns and
villages, and to inflict upon the American people as much misery as
possible, in the hope of breaking their spirit and tiring them out.

[Sidenote: The Conway Cabal.]

In America the first effect of Burgoyne's surrender was to strengthen a
feeling of dissatisfaction with Washington, which had grown up in some
quarters. In reality, as our narrative has shown, Washington had as much
to do with the overthrow of Burgoyne as anybody; for if it had not been
for his skilful campaign in June, 1777, Howe would have taken
Philadelphia in that month, and would then have been free to assist
Burgoyne. It is easy enough to understand such things afterward, but
people never can see them at the time when they are happening. This is
an excellent illustration of what was said at the beginning of this
book, that when people are down in the midst of events they cannot see
the wood because of the trees, and it is only when they have climbed the
hill of history and look back over the landscape that they can see what
things really meant. At the end of the year 1777 people could only see
that Burgoyne had surrendered to Gates, while Washington had lost two
battles and the city of Philadelphia. Accordingly there were many who
supposed that Gates must be a better general than Washington, and in the
army there were some discontented spirits that were only too glad to
take advantage of this feeling. One of these malcontents was an Irish
adventurer, Thomas Conway, who had long served in France and came over
here in time to take part in the battles of Brandywine and Germanto