Convinced with these conclusions he went to Mr. Prince, the Governor of the Bank of England, and made his report. The principal arguments were:
“In the eight years of the war the population increased nearly one million souls.
“The British and Hessian soldiery desert to take up free homes on the new lands of America.
“The land is productive of every necessity in abundance.
“The Americans leave their plows to fight one day and then return to them, to provide subsistence the next.
“Money appeals to very few of them. None except a few merchants in the seaports care for money. Merchandise receipts issued by the government pass as legal tender.
“Their depreciated currency does not affect them. They have no banks. They all have faith in their cause and in their ability to redeem their obligations when the war ends. Therefore, each one stands ready to sacrifice his life and his substance for his principles.”
When Mr. Prince received these tidings he knew that they were reliable and he merely concluded:
“The war must stop before we lose all. But,” he prophesied, “in less than one hundred years hence, England will subdue the Americans with her system of finance and her system of aristocratic society. An Englishman’s title will not then go begging in America.”
When Lord George Germaine received the report from the Governor of the Bank of England and Lord North received it, and, at last, the King—the inner circles of government were astounded.