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CHAP. themselves. Franklin appeared as the great agent of the continent; and it was believed that his Dec. secret instructions authorized him to modify the conditions proposed for conciliation. Lord Howe undertook to ascertain the extent of his powers.

The name was dear to Americans. The elder Lord Howe had fallen on their soil, as their companion in arms, and Massachusetts raised to him a monument in Westminster Abbey. His brother, Sir William Howe, who had served with Americans in America, was selected as the new colonial commander-in-chief; and his oldest surviving brother, now Lord Howe, also honored in America as a gallant and upright naval officer, was to be commissioned as a pacificator.

"No man," said Lord Howe to Franklin at their first interview on Christmas-day evening, "can do more towards reconciling our differences than you. That you have been very ill-treated by the ministry, I hope will not be considered by you. I have a particular regard for New England, which has shown an endearing respect for my family. If you will indulge me with your ideas, I may be a means of bringing on a good understanding." At the unexpected prospect of restoring harmony, tears of joy wet Franklin's cheeks. He had remained in London at the peril of his liberty, perhaps of his life, to promote reconciliation, and the only moment for securing it was now come. With firmness, candor, and strict fidelity to congress, he explained the measures by which alone tranquillity could be restored; and they included the repeal of the regulating act for Massachusetts.

Lord Howe reported the result of the interview

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to Dartmouth and North; but as they had no hope CHAP. of inducing their colleagues, or the king, or parlia ment to concede so much, they trusted to the plan 1774. of commissioners who should repair to America and endeavor to agree with its leading people upon some means of composing all differences. Every prospect of preferment was opened to Franklin, if he would take part in such a commission. With exact truth and frankness, he pointed out, as the basis for a cordial union, the repeal of the acts complained of; the removal of the fleet and the troops from Boston; and a voluntary recall of some oppressive measures which the colonists had passed over in silence; leav-' ing the questions, which related to aids, general commerce, and reparation to the India company, to be arranged with the next general congress.

The assembly of Jamaica at their session in December endeavored to interpose. They affirmed the rights of the colonies, enumerated their grievances, enforced their claims to redress, and entreated the king as a common parent to become the mediator between his European and American subjects, and to recognise the title of the Americans to the benefits of the English constitution as the bond of union between the colonists and Britain. At the same time they disclaimed the intention of joining the American confederacy; "for," said they, "weak and feeble as this colony is, from its very small number of white inhabitants, and its peculiar situation from the incumbrance of more than two hundred thousand slaves, it cannot be supposed that we now intend, or ever could have intended, resistance to Great Britain." The vast commercial importance of

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CHAP. the island gave them a claim to be heard; but their petition, though in due time received by the king and communicated to the house of commons, had no effect whatever.

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"It is plain enough," said Vergennes at Paris, "the king of England is puzzled between his desire of reducing the colonies, and his dread of driving them to a separation; so that nothing could be more interesting than the affairs of America." As the king of France might be called upon to render assistance to the insurgent colonies, the conduct of the English in their support of the Corsicans was cited as a precedent to the French embassy at London, and brought before the cabinet at Versailles. To Louis the Sixteenth Vergennes explained, that the proceedings of the continental congress contained the germ of a rebellion; that while the Americans really desired a reconciliation with the mother country, the ministry from their indifference would prevent its taking place; that Lord North, no longer confident of having America at his feet, was disconcerted by the unanimity and vigor of the colonies; and that France had nothing to fear but the return of Chatham to power.

The interests of Britain required Chatham's return; for he thoroughly understood the policy of the French as well as the disposition of the colonies. In his interview with Americans he said without reserve: "America under all her oppressions and provocations, holds out to us the most fair and just opening for restoring harmony and affectionate itercourse." No public body ever gained so full and unanimous a recognition of its integrity and its wis

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dom, as the general congress of 1774. The policy CHAP. which its members proposed sprung so necessarily out of the relations of free countries to their colonies, 1774. that within a few years it was adopted even by their most malignant enemies among the British statesmen, for three quarters of a century regulated the colonial administration of every successive ministry, and finally gave way to a system of navigation, yet more liberal than the American congress had proposed.

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The day after Franklin's first conversation with Lord Howe, Chatham received him at Hayes. "The congress," said he, "is the most honorable assembly of statesmen since those of the ancient Greeks and Romans in the most virtuous times." He thought the petition to the king "decent, manly, and propperly expressed." He questioned the assertion, that the keeping up an army in the colonies in time of peace, required their consent; with that exception he admired and honored the whole of the proceedings. "The army at Boston," said Franklin, who saw the imminent hazard of bloodshed, cannot possibly answer any good purpose, and may be infinitely mischievous. No accommodation can be properly entered into by the Americans, while the bayonet is at their breasts. To have an agreement binding, all force should be withdrawn." The words sank deeply into the mind of Chatham, and he promised his utmost efforts to the American cause, as the last hope of liberty for England. "I shall be well prepared," said he, "to meet the ministry on the subject, for I think of nothing else both night and day."

Like Chatham, Camden desired the settlement

CHAP. of the dispute upon the conditions proposed by conXVII. gress; and from the temper, coolness, and wisdom 1774. of most of the American assemblies, he augured the establishment of their rights on a durable agreement with the mother country.

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To unite every branch of the opposition in one line of policy, Chatham desired a cordial junction with the Rockingham whigs. That party had only two friends who spoke in the house of lords, and in the house of commons was mouldering away. And yet Rockingham was impracticable. "I look back," he said, "with very real satisfaction and content, on the line which I, indeed, emphatically I, took in the year 1766; the stamp-act was repealed, and the doubt of the right of this country was fairly faced and resisted." Burke, like his patron, pursued Chatham implacably, and refused to come to an understanding with him on general politics. Neither did he perceive the imminence of the crisis; but believed that the Americans would not preserve their unanimity, so that the controversy would draw into great length, and derive its chief importance from its aspect on parties in England. At the very moment when Burke was still fondly supporting his theory of the omnipotence of parliament over the colonies, he blindly insisted, that Chatham himself was the best bower anchor of the ministry.

With far truer instincts, Chatham divined that peril was near, and that it could be averted only by a circumscription of the absolute power of parliament. To further that end, the aged statesman paid a visit to Rockingham. At its opening, Chatham's countenance beamed with cordiality; but Rockingham had