away from town. The American Revolution was not remotely affected
by this habit. With ministers long absent in the country
important questions were postponed or forgotten. The crisis which
in the end brought France into the war was partly due to the
carelessness of a minister hurrying away to the country. Lord
George Germain, who directed military operations in America,
dictated a letter which would have caused General Howe to move
northward from New York to meet General Burgoyne advancing from
Canada. Germain went off to the country without waiting to sign
the letter; it was mislaid among other papers; Howe was without
needed instructions; and the disaster followed of Burgoyne's
surrender. Fox pointed out, that, at a time when there was a
danger that a foreign army might land in England, not one of the
King's ministers was less than fifty miles from London. They were
in their parks and gardens, or hunting or fishing. Nor did they
stay away for a few days only. The absence was for weeks or even
months.

It is to the credit of Whig leaders in England, landowners and
aristocrats as they were, that they supported with passion the
American cause. In America, where the forces of the Revolution
were in control, the Loyalist who dared to be bold for his
opinions was likely to be tarred and feathered and to lose his
property. There was an embittered intolerance. In England,
however, it was an open question in society whether to be for or
against the American cause. The Duke of Richmond, a great
grandson of Charles II, said in the House of Lords that under no
code should the fighting Americans be considered traitors. What
they did was "perfectly justifiable in every possible political
and moral sense." All the world knows that Chatham and Burke and