having been sent him by President Laurens, he replied, with the candour of conscious worth :—

"As I have no other view than to promote the public good, and am unambitious of honours not founded in the approbation of my country, I would not desire in the least degree to suppress a free spirit of inquiry into any part of my conduct that even faction itself may deem reprehensible. The anonymous paper handed to you exhibits many serious charges, and it is my wish that it should be submitted to Congress. This I am the more inclined to, as the suppression or concealment may possibly involve you in embarrassments hereafter, since it is uncertain how many or who may be privy to the contents. My enemies take an ungenerous advantage of me: they know the delicacy of my situation, and that motives of policy deprive me of the defence I might otherwise make against their insidious attacks. They know I cannot combat their insinuations, however injurious, without disclosing secrets which it is of the utmost moment to conceal. But why should I expect to be exempt from censure, the unfailing lot of an elevated station? Merit and talents, with which I can have no pretensions of rivalship, have ever been subject to it. My heart tells me that it has been my unremitting aim to do the best that circumstances would permit, yet I may have been very often mistaken in my judgment of the means, and may in many instances deserve the imputation of error."* Washington had discouraged the exercise of military authority in order to compel civilians to furnish supplies to his army, but was no less ready to defend the army when attempts were made to mark the military as objects of jealousy, suspicion, and distrust to the

*Sparks's "Life of Washington."

people. He thus writes, in a letter to a member of Congress:

"If we would pursue a right system of policy, in my opinion, there should be none of these distinctions. We should all, Congress and army, be considered as one people, embarked in one cause, in one interest, acting on the same principle and to the same end. The distinction, the jealousies set up, or perhaps only incautiously let out, can answer not a single good purpose. They are impolitic in the extreme. Among individuals, the most certain way to make a man your enemy is to tell him you esteem him such. So with public bodies, and the very jealousy which the narrow politics of some may affect to entertain of the army, in order to a due subordination to the supreme civil authority, is a likely means to produce a contrary effect, to incline it to the pursuit of those measures which they may wish it to avoid. It is unjust, because no order of men in the thirteen States has paid a more sacred regard to the proceedings of Congress than the army, for without arrogance or the smallest deviation from truth, it may be said that no history now extant can furnish an instance of an army's suffering such uncommon hardships as ours has done, and bearing them with the same patience and fortitude. To see men without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lie on, without shoes (for the want of which their marches might be traced by the blood from their feet), and almost as often without provisions as with them, marching through the frost and snow, and at Christmas taking up their winter quarters within a day's march of the enemy, without a house or hut to cover them, till they could be built, and submitting without a murmur,

is a proof of patience and obedience which in my opinion can scarce be paralleled."*

The sufferings of the army in the winter quarters of Valley Forge were indeed excessive. "For some days past," writes Washington, "there has been little less than a famine in camp. A part of the army have been a week without any kind of flesh, and the rest three or four days." Nor were the wants of clothing less grievous. Many were so ill-clad, that they could not leave the huts. The scarcity of blankets was such, that, in order to guard against the cold, the soldiers in numerous instances sat up all night by the fires.t

In this extremity of the fortunes of the revolted colonies, it may be affirmed that the character of Washington alone preserved the liberties and achieved the independence of his country. Had he been disposed to encourage the licence of his troops, the freedom of the people would have been subverted. Had he not magnanimously persevered in the command in spite of calumny and conspiracy, it is probable that a more ambitious chief would have risen on his ruin, perhaps a Cæsar or a Cromwell would have acquired despotic power in the State as a reward for services in the field, and would have crushed the liberty of his country as the price of asserting her independence.

Sparks's "Life of Washington." In regard to all these extracts quoted from Mr. Sparks, it should be noted that Lord Mahon has intimated an opinion, formed on no light grounds, "that Mr. Sparks has printed no part of the correspondence precisely as Washington wrote it." See also Mr. Sparks's reply. t Ibid.

CHAPTER IX.

LETTER OF MR. BURKE MEETING OF PARLIAMENT

DECLARATIONS OF LORD

CHATHAM AND MR. FOX ON THE INDEPENDENCE OF AMERICA.

1777-1778.

THE state of the Whig Opposition at this period will be best understood by the perusal of the following letter from Mr. Burke to Mr. Fox. It should be borne in mind that Mr. Fox was not yet accounted a regular member of the Rockingham party, and that his ardent nature bore very ill the cautious and hesitating policy of the elder and more timid Whigs.

In the summer of 1777 Mr. Fox made a journey to Ireland, in company with Mr. (afterwards Lord) John Townshend. It was a mere party of pleasure, settled between them when riding out at Chatsworth. They took their horses over, and accompanied Mr. and Lady Louisa Conolly on an excursion to the Lakes of Killarney. Mr. Fox on this occasion contracted a sincere friendship for Mr. Grattan, whom he met at Lord Charlemont's. Irish local politics were little discussed, and had not at that time much attraction. While at Dublin the two strangers were much caressed, and were constantly invited to dinners, where there was usually much lively conversation, and a prodigious quantity of wine. A wild and hazardous freak of the two friends made a great noise, and, what seems strange, raised their reputations in Ireland, where every

thing that is rash is considered as a proof of spirit. They bathed in the Devil's Punch Bowl, near Killarney, and fortunately escaped the consequences to be apprehended from its extreme coldness. It was during this journey that the letter now inserted was written.

MR. BURKE TO MR. FOX.

"Beaconsfield, Oct. 8th, 1777.

"MY DEAR CHARLES, -I am, on many accounts, exceeding pleased with your journey to Ireland; I do not think it was possible to dispose better of the interval between this and the meeting of Parliament; I told you as much, in the same general terms, by the post. My opinion of the infidelity of that conveyance hindered me from being particular. I now sit down with malice prepense to kill you with a very long letter, and must take my chance. for some safe method of conveying the dose. Before I say anything to you of the place you are in, or the business of it, on which, by the way, a great deal might be said, I will turn myself to the concluding part of your letter from Chatsworth. You are sensible that I do not differ from you in many things, and most certainly I do not dissent from the main of your doctrine concerning the heresy of depending upon contingencies. You must recollect how uniform my sentiments have been on that subject. I have ever wished a settled plan of our own, founded in the very essence of the American business, wholly unconnected with the events of the war, and framed in such a manner as to keep up our credit and to maintain our system at home, in spite of anything which may happen abroad. I am now convinced, by a long and somewhat vexatious experience, that such a plan is absolutely impracticable. I think with