2

He referred to what he had himself published two years previously on the currency question; there he had alluded to the difficulties some American colonies had got into by the issue of a local currency beyond their power of redemption, and had suggested that paper money should only be used in the colonies under strict regulations framed by England and with English credit behind it. How great is the temptation to an impecunious state to flood the market with paper money, obtaining temporary relief but destroying financial confidence and stability, has often since been demonstrated. Smith's life in England had not taught him that lesson, but Pownall had learned it in America when the resources of his colony were strained by war, and he had written to Pitt of the shifts the people were put to, the depreciation of paper among them. He strongly opposed Smith's willingness to recognise paper as money unless sufficient real money stood behind it. He succeeded in quoting Smith against himself because he had admitted that, during an unsuccessful war, much greater trouble would be caused if the enemy got possession of the Capital, and the treasure which supported the paper issue, than if the coin were distributed in the pockets of the people instead of being centred in one place. Pownall ended this treatise by saying that so far as colonial questions were concerned he was afraid that he and Smith were "reasoning here about events which once were, and were most dear, but are no more." It seemed to him that, now war had broken out, there was no further room for discussion as to the conduct of England in economic questions towards her colonies, "the fate of this country is now at the hazard of events which force, and not reason, is to decide."

When these words were written in September 1776 not many weeks had passed since the old colonies of England took the decisive step of declaring their independence on July 4. During the first year of the war, from the spring of 1775 to that of 1776, it had been a drawn game in Massachusetts, neither side could gain any advantage over the other. Washington had always against him a powerful 1 Administration, 1774, i. Chap. VI. pp. 180-221.

2 In the facsimiles of this which are here reproduced it will be observed that the earlier one-before the rupture-is in sterling, the later one is in dollars.

3 Wealth of Nations, Book II. Chap. II.

minority averse to the severance from England, and by the majority he was but poorly supported. His raw levies, ill-drilled and ill-armed, at times actually short of ammunition, were no match for the well-supplied British regulars. They, on the other hand, were strong enough to hold Boston, but unable to act at any distance from their headquarters there. In their command General Gage had been succeeded by Sir William Howe, brother of the Lord Howe who had fallen before Ticonderoga nearly twenty years earlier. In March 1776 Sir William resolved to abandon Boston and transfer his base of operations to New York, of which he took possession in September. He had inflicted on Washington a defeat at Brooklyn which disorganised the American army so much that it appeared for a time to have no prospect of recovery or success. The English spent the winter in New York and its vicinity. Parliament met on October 31, but some months passed during which there is no mention of Pownall taking part in the proceedings.

1777

Pownall's absence from the House of Commons at the beginning of this year was probably due to the illness of his wife, who died on February 6, 1777. On the north side of the Lady Chapel in Lincoln Cathedral there is a monument to her memory, which bears an inscription recounting her appearance and her virtues. and her virtues. At such times of trial men's expressions are liable to be dominated by their emotions, and they very usually express their feelings in a more exaggerated style than they use when untouched by grief. In almost all obituary notices written by those nearly related to the dead this tendency may be observed; it is specially noticeable on the tombstones and monumental tablets of that period, which are usually worded in terms which appear to us high-flown and stilted. To that rule this one is no exception. While it leaves no doubt of Pownall's sincere attachment to the companion who had been taken from him it expresses that feeling in a manner very different to the style which the many extracts here given from his speeches and writings shew to have been habitual to him. In the spring of this

year a portrait of Pownall by Cotes was engraved by Earlom, whose work has been reproduced, on a much smaller scale,' to form the frontispiece of this book.

In the House of Commons Pownall did not speak till April 18, when Government applied to the House for a sum of £618,340 to discharge debts incurred by the King, and also for an addition of £100,000 to the annual sum of £800,000, which had been granted at the beginning of the reign. Pownall's speech referred to the previous payment of the King's debts in 1769; he explained that he had then voted against their being defrayed by the country because no accounts of them were rendered and had indeed been refused when asked for. Parliament had thus been left to vote in ignorance of what had caused the extra expenditure it was asked to provide for. But when the accounts were produced a year later they were found to be quite in order, and it appeared from them that the deficiency had been due to necessary and unforeseen expenses. On this occasion the accounts were produced in the first instance, and as nobody challenged them he intended to vote for the grant. During this Session, which ended on June 6, no other speech of his is reported. In previous years he had spoken frequently in the hope of preventing the war, but that had now been going on for two years and he kept silence, waiting for an opportunity to advocate peace.

During the winter Howe had been reinforced, but when the spring came he was slow to take the offensive from his headquarters at New York. The scheme of operations for the year was that he was to do this with the bulk of his forces, while a portion of them were to march northwards to meet a separate expedition under General Burgoyne which was to come southwards from Canada down Lakes Champlain and George. This was a precise revival of the French idea in previous wars of using the waterways of those Lakes in order to run a cordon behind New England. If the troops from New York could join hands with those whom Burgoyne led from Canada, and a communication be thus opened

1 The original engraving is 18" x 13". The picture is mentioned in the Dictionary of National Biography and also in Smith's Portraits, i. p. 255. Another portrait is in the Hall of the Mass. Hist. Society, and one by Henry C. Pratt of Boston was exhibited there in 1861 (Allibone's Dict. of Authors, p. 1658).

U

between the British there and those who held New York, the isolation of New England and the hemming in of her people would be effected. For this purpose Burgoyne was provided with only 8000 regulars, a number which appears small to first penetrate and then hold a line of country 200 miles long. No margin was left for the inevitable wastage of men in war, and to that insufficiency of force was due the eventual failure of the scheme. But during the first part of the year the occupation of New York in the previous autumn, and the reverses Washington had suffered then and in the winter at the hands of Howe, made the position of the Americans appear desperate. As the year advanced and the possibility of Burgoyne coming down from Canada was known all hope for them seemed lost. In the autumn of 1776 they had seen that unless some Foreign Power came to their aid it was all over with them, and they had then despatched Franklin to join their Commissioners in Paris and seek the aid of France. Whether he obtained it or not depended on the fate of Burgoyne, who began his march from Canada in June. By July 1 he arrived before Ticonderoga, which Amherst, in command of English and colonial troops acting together, had taken from the French just eighteen years before this time. The place had been refortified; it was now held by colonials against English, but the former were so weak that so weak that they had to abandon it. Burgoyne moved further south to the Hudson river, expecting to meet the auxiliary expedition from New York which was to reinforce him, but in that he was disappointed. His original number of 8000 men was reduced by every engagement. The whole militia of the country which meant all men capable of bearing arms-rose against him, and by September 19, when he fought the indecisive battle of Stillwater which cost him another 500 men, he was as inferior in numbers to the Americans as he had been superior to them at Ticonderoga in July. By the middle of October he had retreated from the Hudson as far north as Saratoga where he was surrounded; he had lost more than half his force and the remainder had to lay down their arms. Though Howe had again defeated Washington at Brandywine, and had occupied Philadelphia in September the capitulation of Burgoyne was the decisive event of the