George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10

[40] as then composed did not adequately represent the

Chap. I.} 1778.

nation; and statesmen of the connection of Rockingham desperately resisted both these cardinal principles of reform. This unyielding division among the opponents of Lord North prolonged his administration.

Besides, many men of honest intentions, neither wishing to see English liberties impaired, nor yet to consent to the independence of the colonies, kept their minds in a state of suspense; and this reluctance to decide led them to bear a little longer the ministry which alone professed ability to suppress the insurrection: for better men would not consent to take their places coupled with the condition of continuing their policy. Once in a moment of petulance Lord George Germain resigned; and the king, who wished to be rid of him, regarded his defection as a most favorable event.¹ But he was from necessity continued in his office, because no one else could be found willing to accept it.

In the great kingdom on the other side of the channel, antagonistic forces were likewise in action. As the representative of popular power, France had in reserve one great advantage over England in her numerous independent peasantry. Brought up in ignorance and seclusion, they knew not how to question anything that was taught by the church or commanded by the monarch; and, however they might for the present suffer from grievous and unredressed oppression, they constituted the safeguard of order as well as of nationality.

It was in the capital and among the cultivated classes of society, in coffee-houses and saloons, that