156 Chapter VII
was to invade Ireland, under the American flag, with promises of Irish indepen-
dence. North thought the danger very considerable, since, he said, the Irish Presby-
terians were pro- American “to a man,” the Catholics apathetic or likely to side
with the French, and the British army in Ireland too small to defend the island.^31
“America was starved for reinforcements for fear of invasion at home.”^32 The need
to keep troops in the home islands, at a time when military conscription was un-
dreamed of in England, led to the employment of foreign forces. Proposals to hire
as many as 50,000 Russians for use in America came to nothing. George III, as
Elector of Hanover, personally disapproved of the use of German mercenaries. He
even said that the German constitution forbade it. Nevertheless, the Hessians were
hired; British policy and social organization required it. The use of the Hessians
did more than anything else to turn American feelings toward England into ha-
tred. It also aroused European opinion against England.
After the American victory at Saratoga, France recognized the United States,
and proceeded to join it in the war against Great Britain. Lord North’s govern-
ment now offered a belated and untimely compromise. It repealed the Massachu-
setts Government Act of 1774. It repealed that old irritant, the tea duty, and put
through Parliament a bill renouncing parliamentary taxation of the colonies. It
despatched a peace commission to America. The commissioners were authorized
to deal with the Congress “as if it were a legal body,” and to yield everything that
the Americans had officially asked before 1775. The Declaratory Act of 1766 was
to stand, but Parliament would confine itself to the regulation of trade. The Ameri-
cans would raise their own revenues and maintain their own army. They might
even retain their Continental Congress, under the sovereignty of Parliament, if
they wished to keep such an inter- colonial organization. There would be an am-
nesty for all involved in rebellion; on the other hand, loyalist estates would be re-
turned, and the loyalists themselves reintegrated into American society. As for the
Declaration of Independence, it would simply be superseded by a new agreement
between Congress and Great Britain.^33
It was a generous offer, though absurdly inopportune. Coming when it did, it
seemed to be extorted only by force. The Americans had just won a great victory,
they were securing allies in Europe, and their new states were already two years
old. Leaders of the revolution in America were committed to the maintenance of
the United States. Congress refused even to receive the peace commissioners, who
retired in dismay to England, annoyed at the British military in America for not
supporting them properly, and greatly irritated at the Americans also: William
Eden wanted to harry America by fire and sword, and General Johnstone reported
that two- thirds of the people in America looked longingly to England to deliver
them from the tyranny of General Washington.
The government was discredited by its failures in America, and by involvement
in a war with France for which it had made no adequate preparation. The reform
movement in England gathered strength. Even Whigs, who saw no need of re-
31 J. Fortescue, Correspondence of King George III (London, 1928), III, 530.
32 K. Feiling, The Second Tory Party, 1714–1832 (London, 1938), 131.
33 C. R. Ritcheson, British Politics and the American Revolution (Norman, 1954), 258–83.