majority in Parliament, and retain it either by paying with
guineas or with posts and dignities which the bought Parliament
left in his gift. This corruption it was which ruined the first
British Empire.

We need not doubt that George thought it his right and also his
duty to coerce America, or rather, as he said, the clamorous
minority which was trying to force rebellion. He showed no lack
of sincerity. On October 26, 1775, while Washington was besieging
Boston, he opened Parliament with a speech which at any rate made
the issue clear enough. Britain would not give up colonies which
she had founded with severe toil and nursed with great kindness.
Her army and her navy, both now increased in size, would make her
power respected. She would not, however, deal harshly with her
erring children. Royal mercy would be shown to those who admitted
their error and they need not come to England to secure it.
Persons in America would be authorized to grant pardons and
furnish the guarantees which would proceed from the royal
clemency.

Such was the magnanimity of George III. Washington's rage at the
tone of the speech is almost amusing in its vehemence. He, with a
mind conscious of rectitude and sacrifice in a great cause, to
ask pardon for his course! He to bend the knee to this tyrant
overseas! Washington himself was not highly gifted with
imagination. He never realized the strength of the forces in
England arrayed on his own side and attributed to the English, as
a whole, sinister and malignant designs always condemned by the
great mass of the English people. They, no less than the
Americans, were the victims of a turn in politics which, for a