The unhappy issue of the expedition under Lieutenant General Burgoyne, previous to this era, threw a general damp, and accelerated the decision of France in entering the list against us. By apparent and occasional concessions, that insidious Power observed a temporizing system, until she had attained the means of following up her hostile views. So suspicious were her designs, however, that considerable armaments continued to be carried on in our ports.
During this period of national despondency, the towns of Liverpool and Manchester nobly stepped forth in aid of their Country. Each tendered 1000 men, which was accepted, and their patriotic example was diffused throughout the land.
Involved in a civil contest, the natural energies of Britain were paralyzed by the floating hopes of reconciliation, and an enfeebling compassion towards her American fellow-subjects.
An unhappy faction continued also to oppose our ill-guided councils, at this awful crisis, from which the rebels derived a fatal, but animating spirit. No true Englishman can throw an eye upon the transactions of that momentous era, without the most poignant reflections for his suffering country.
Long may the sad precedent, and its baneful results, be stamped on every heart! May the imperious obligations of fidelity to our King, and general union amidst public danger, be coeval with the age at which every Briton is taught his duties to his God!
[CHAP. XXXI.]
Eleven thousand Marines constituted the establishment of 1778.
Until the close of the last year France stood in awe, and continued to cherish the flames of rebellion by assurances only of support. Remarking the humbled spirit of our nation, at all times too prone to over-rate its calamities, that Power became less cautious, and in a little time avowed her inimical purposes. This was accelerated by a meditated plan of reconciliation, which had undergone the sanction of Parliament, and was about being submitted to the American revolters.