Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 5.djvu/146

132 One of the most extraordinary spectacles was that of lord Barrington, in his place as minister of war, declaring that an army in America was as absolutely necessary as a fleet on its coast, whilst he had long been contending to lord North quite the contrary. Like Barré, he was perfectly persuaded of the fatality of following the Americans, admirable marksmen as they were, into the interior, amid their woods, bogs, and numerous rivers. He pointed out the difficulties of conveying artillery, stores, &c., into such an interior, and the danger of losing communication with the fleet. He went further than Barré—he would have no army at all on land, but would blockade the forts, and have strong fleets out everywhere along the coasts to cut off at once all trade with the colonies, and all access to interfering foreign powers. He would withdraw the garrisons from the backwood frontiers, and leave the colonists open to the inroads of the Indians, who had cost us so much to keep back.



He considered that our fighting on land only tended to kindle the enthusiasm of the colonists, and that if left to starve, without conflict, in their blockaded country, their distresses, not relieved by any little successes, would soon sink their spirits, and then, when they were ready to concede, we ought to be ready to concede too. Just before the meeting of parliament, lord Barrington wrote to lord North, urging these views again, and declaring that the Americans might be reduced by the fleet, but never by the army. Had lord Barrington, when he saw that his plan of the campaign was not adopted, resigned his post, and openly proclaimed his views, he would have done great service, but he was weak enough to allow the king to persuade him to retain office, whilst George went on pursuing his own plans in spite not only of Barrington, but of lord North himself.

On the 7th of November the duke of Richmond proposed that Mr. Penn should be heard at the bar of the house of lords, in relation to the petition which he had brought from America. This was overruled; but the duke again moved that he should be heard the next day, and, after much opposition, carried his object. Penn, who was the grandson of the founder of Pennsylvania, and had been governor of it himself, was then examined. He denied that the colonists wished for independence, but, on the contrary, they desired peace, and therefore had called the petition intrusted to him "The Olive Branch." He stated that Pennsylvania alone had sixty thousand men capable of bearing arms, and that twenty thousand had already enrolled themselves; that four thousand five hundred minute-men also were maintained by that province. The opposition dwelt on the strong nature of the country, its swamps, its vast rivers, its almost interminable forests; the ministerial party on the discrepancy betwixt the smooth language of the petition and the pacific statements of Penn, and the language of the addresses to the people of England and Ireland, to say nothing of the Americans being already in arms. The duke of Richmond's motion was lost. Then the duke of Grafton moved a string of resolutions—namely, that ministers should lay before parliament a statement of the number of soldiers employed in America before the disturbances, and their respective stations; their number now, and their stations; the plans for their winter quarters; and also an estimate of the number of soldiers that they deemed requisite to send against America.

Ministers very properly replied that this was precisely the information that would be most serviceable to the American insurgents, and lord Gower added what was equally true, that all the measures determined upon in England were