part of which was, to renew the former bold efforts of Great Britain against France, and to endeavour to make an impression upon her on the continent of Europe; the other was to form a treaty of union with the Americans, that America should make peace and war in concert with Great Britain, hoist the British flag, and use the king's name in all her courts of justice.

George III, on the death of lord Rockingham, is said to have declared to lord Shelbourne, that " never but with his crown and life would he totally relinquish the sovereignty of America."

These plans and protestations however only availed to retard the negotiation, which every year and every month seemed to be likely to bring better terms for America.

We may now therefore advert to other alliances which America was successful in forming, and to the remaining events of the war. In September, 1780, the hostile feelings of the states of Holland towards Great Britain were developed by a singular circumstance. The American packet, Mercury, having been captured by a British frigate, Mr Laurens, late president of the American Congress, was found on board; and his papers, which had been thrown into the sea, but dexterously regained, disclosed the sketch of a treaty of amity and commerce between the StatesGeneral and the American provinces. The ex-president was brought to England on the 6th Oct., and committed to close confinement in the Tower under a charge of high treason. On his examination he declined answering questions; but his papers furnished sufficient information of the projected treaty which he was bringing to a conclusion with M. Van Berkel, the grand pensionary; and sir Joseph Yorke, the British ambassador at the Hague, was instructed to lay them before the States-General, with a strong memorial respecting such a correspondence being carried on with his majesty's rebellious subjects. To this no answer was immediately given; but a counter-remonstrance

was made by the Dutch minister in London, respecting some violence said to have been committed in the Dutch West India Islands. On a second memorial being slighted, sir Joseph Yorke was in December ordered to withdraw from the Hague, and war was declared against Holland. Thus was Great Britain, without any foreign alliance, with a divided ministry and a discontented people, involved in war not only with America, but with almost the whole civilized world. She was indeed "the devoted deer" of the poet,

"Beset with every ill but that of fear."

The year 1781 was the decisive one of the American contest. It opened with favourable prospects to the British arms. Lord Cornwallis, being reinforced with two thousand six hundred men from England, had completely reduced South Carolina, and entertained the hope of effectually co-operating with sir Henry Clinton in the north, so that he should be able to tra verse the interjacent provinces, and penetrate into Virginia. Much was expected by him, at this time, from what he thought the reviving spirit of loyalty in the Carolinas, and what he heard from the traitor Arnold of the weakness and disaffection of the troops under Washington. His lordship accordingly, in the month of January, moved forward to the borders, between the rivers Broad and Catawba. Colonel Morgan advanced up the river Pacolet, and general Tarleton was directed to attack the American general Morgan as early as possible. The latter, after retreating as far as the banks of the Broad river, took up his stand for an engagement on the 18th January. On the first charge he threw the forces of Tarleton into complete disorder, and defeated them, with great loss to the British. Upon this, lord Cornwallis despatched part of his army on a fruitless expedition to intercept Morgan; but disappointed in overtaking him, he concentrated his force, and pursued general Green, who had succeeded general Gates in

the American service. The latter retreating, a toilsome march ensued, which brought both armies to the neighbourhood of Guilford in North Carolina. Here, on the 15th March, the force under general Green suddenly appeared before Cornwallis, drawn up in order of battle. Its numbers much exceeded his own; but after a long and obstinate contest, the British were victorious; and upon this isolated fact of a present victory the British ministers constructed the king's speech of the year, holding out the most flattering prospects.

The victors however had to boast of no permanent triumph. The battle cost lord Cornwallis nearly onethird of his fatigued troops, and the remainder were compelled immediately to withdraw from the scene of action to Wilmington, leaving the wounded on the field to the care of the enemy. This long and disastrous march through woods and morasses, in a wild, inhospitable, and hostile country, occupied him until the 7th April, and deprived him of an equal number with the battle.

From this place his lordship, pursuing the original plan of the campaign, marched with his main force into Virginia, leaving lord Rawdon alone in Carolina to watch the motions of general Green; when so ill contrived were the British movements, that the offers of a body of American loyalists to join the army could not be received, as the British general had no means of equipping or maintaining them. In an action however at Hobkirk's Hill, lord Rawdon fully maintained the character of his country's troops for gallantry; Green was posted in an advantageous position with two thousand men, whom his lordship attacked with about half that number, and killed or dispersed five hundred of the enemy. Had he been supported, the most important results might have ensued; but his little band was reduced to eight hundred, and the Americans were daily increasing. Ill health in the autumn of this year compelled lord Rawdon to retire from the command; and Green on

the 8th September attacked colonel Stuart, his successor, and drove the British forces into Charleston.

Cornwallis in the mean time had proceeded northward with little or no opposition, destroying all the stores and military resources of the Americans in his way, as far as Petersburgh in Virginia. At Halifax he defeated a small force of the Americans, and found on the 20th May a reinforcement of eighteen hundred men, which had been despatched from headquarters by sir Henry Clinton. No considerable force now remained for him to encounter in Virginia, but that under the marquis La Fayette; and lord Cornwallis therefore expressed in his despatches the most confident hopes of quickly recovering the province.

But the military genius of Washington was meditating a plan before which the ablest British commanders were destined to bow. Aware of their designs, and that general Clinton had intercepted many of the American despatches, he contrived to send letters in various directions, stating his design of immediately attacking New York, and that in his opinion the only way to save Virginia was, to concentrate the troops of America and France in an effort upon these head-quarters of the enemy. Having contrived that these letters should fall into the hands of the British, he still farther diverted their attention from his real plan, by affecting to reconnoitre the island of New York, taking plans of their works in company with his officers, and attended by engineers, even under the occasional fire of the enemy.

That real and masterly plan was, to form a junction by forced marches with La Fayette; and while general Clinton was preparing to receive him at New York, to overwhelm lord Cornwallis in Virginia; especially as he could now rely upon the French fleet under de Grasse acting in concert with him. latter indeed arrived first at the scene of action. Washington, having led his enemy into utter misconception of his intentions, commenced his march to

The

ward the south on the 19th of August; and forming his junction with the French, as designed, he in the following month, with an army of twenty-one thousand men, surrounded lord Cornwallis in York-town, whose force did not exceed six thousand. We give the result in the words of an inteligent historian of the reign of George III :

less.

"Conceiving it impossible that sir Henry Clinton could be so completely outwitted as he evidently was, lord Cornwallis expected speedy succours, and made the most vigorous dispositions for defending himself till they should arrive; he contracted his posts, and concentrated his means of defence; while the enemy instantaneously occupied those posts which the British general had abandoned. The trenches were opened by both armies in the night between the 6th and 7th of October; the batteries were covered with little less than a hundred and sixty pieces of heavy ordnance; and their attacks were carried on with the utmost energy. In a few days most of the British guns were silenced, and the defence rendered hopeAn express however having arrived from New York, informing lord Cornwallis that he might rely on receiving immediate succours, he strenuously persevered in his resistance. Two redoubts on the left of the British greatly impeded the progress of the siege. The second parallel of the enemy now being finished, they resolved to open their batteries on those works on the 14th of October. The British forces employed every effort to defend the fortifications, but were overborne by the immense superiority of the hostile numbers. Lord Cornwallis saw that it would be impossible to withstand a general assault, for which the enemy was now prepared; and finding no succours likely to arrive, and himself surrounded on every side, he conceived a design of forcing his way through a part of the enemy, and making his escape; but on mature deliberation, he found it would be Thus hemmed in by a very impossible to effect it. superior army, through no rashness of his own, but by