378

THE FRENCH FLEET SAILS FOR AMERICA.

of the praying. Hardships will be borne with more resignation. The brav1 will no longer fear the power of man, nor the pious begin to doubt the favor of God.' The struggle indeed was not over. Days of darkness were still to come to a bleeding land, and thick shadows were to fall over every home in America: but through them all the light of the rising sun of liberty was to send its cheering beams.

The French Fleet sails for America. France was in earnest. The first movement of her government was to dispatch a squadron of twelve line-ofbattle ships, and four heavy frigates, under Count D'Estaing, to blockade the British fleet in the Delaware. France gave England notice-March 17thof her intention, thirty days before her admiral sailed. Hereafter the depised Colonies could defy on the ocean the mistress of the seas—the new title England had assumed.

How Lafayette received the Intelligence.—It was with a pride and satisfaction that could not be expressed, that young Lafayette, who had secretly to steal away from his attempted arrest by the king, only a short year before, now received this startling intelligence; nor could anything have excited his joy to a higher ecstasy than when he saw that his government had dated the independence of the United States from the hour it had first been made, July 4th, 1766. 'Therein,' he exclaimed to Washington, 'lies the principle of national sovereignty, which will one day be recalled to them at home.'

The Salute from Valley Forge.-In our younger days we have talked with men who stood in the two lines of our army as drawn up on the 6th day of May, 1778, and the salute of thirteen cannons rolled through the rocky gorge of the Schuylkill at Valley Forge, and who, with that entire army, sent up their long glad shouts, "Long live the King of France-long live the friendly powers of Europe.'

The British Commissioners for Peace.-The Earl of Carlisle, George Johnston, formerly Governor of Florida, and William Eden, a brother of Sir Rober: Eden, the last royal Governor of Maryland, were appointed as commissioners by virtue of the two bills which Chatham had opposed, and King George had signed on the 11th of March. Adam Ferguson, the eminent Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, was appointed secretary to the commission. His name alone gave any respectability to the sham embassy, or in the slightest measure relieved it from the contempt of mankind. Copies of these Parliamentary bills had reached Congress on the 15th of April, and finding no mention of independence as a basis of negociation, they were at first blush regarded as one more miserable subterfuge of the managers of a despotic cause. On the 4th of June, when they made known their business, they were informed that no negociations would be entered apon until Great Britain had withdrawn her fleets and armies, and uncon

cause.

BRITISH COMMISSIONERS FOR PEACE.

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ditionally recognized the independence of the United States. But pending these attempts at negociation, the commissioners did their utmost to seduce every man of any importance whom, by secret and subtle means, they could succeed in reaching. In one interview with General Joseph Reed, a delegate from Pennsylvania, Johnston offered him ten thousand pounds sterling and the best office in the king's gift in the Colonies, if he would abandon their Reed's patriotism had been suspected, and the intrigue had been carried on through a female relative. So much was alleged and believed at the time. The secret was badly kept, and it became necessary for General Reed to denounce the entire rumor as a libel; he is reported to have said, 'I am not worth purchasing, but such as I am, the King of England is not rich enough to buy me.' In fact, it is believed that Johnston succeeded in buying nobody that was worth the money. It was believed that purchases of this stamp were the chief objects of the Commissioners. They wrote letters where they could not deal in person, or find instruments. They were, however, closely watched, and their intrigues exposed, when Congress refused indignantly any longer to recognize them, and they were allowed to return from their disreputable and ridiculous mission. They might have been saved the trouble of coming at all, for they were not ignorant of Franklin's peremptory assurances that 'it would be all in vain to attempt to treat with the United States on any other basis than the recognition of their independence.' Jackson, who had been the former colleague of Franklin, and secretary of Granville, refused to serve on this so-called 'commission for peace,' because it was evident enough to him that it was a delusion accorded by the king to quiet Lord North, and to unite the nation against the Americans.'

The Failure of the Commission a foregone Conclusion in America.—Before they arrived Washington wrote to a member of Congress, April 21, 1778: 'Nothing short of independence can possibly do. A peace on any other terms would be a peace of war. The injuries we have received from the British nation were so unprovoked, and have been so many, that they can never be forgotten. Our fidelity as a people, our character as men, are opposed to a coalition with them as subjects.' The day following having been appointed for a public fast and humiliation, with prayer to Almighty God to strengthen and perpetuate the union,' in their house of worship where Congress had assembled in a body, they 'resolved to hold no conference, or treat with any commissioners on the part of Great Britain, unless they should, as a preliminary thereto, either withdraw their fleets and armies, or, in positive and express terms, acknowledge the independence of the States." "

Franklin and Voltaire.-While D'Estaing's fleet, which had sailed from

This was everywhere the public feeling. John Jay said he had not met a single American willing to accept peace under Lord North's terms. George Clinton, then Governor of New York, and afterwards-1804-1811Vice-President of the United States, said: 'Lord North is two years too late with his political man

œuvre and the lion-hearted Robert Morris wrote, No offers ought to have a hearing of one moment, un less preceded by acknowledgment of our independ ence, because we can never be a happy people under their domination. Great Britain would still enjoy the greatest share and most valued parts of our trade.'

380

MEETING OF FRANKLIN AND VOLTAIRE.

Toulon on the 10th of April, was passing out of the Straits of Gibraltar, a scene was being witnessed in Paris, the like of which never could have oc curred in any other nation or period. The illustrious philosopher Voltaire, who had done more to sanctify the principle of toleration than any other man who had ever lived, who had no rival in fame as a man of letters, and who represented in his own person the France of his time, more than her king, or all her statesmen or priests, had come up to Paris for his last visit, to receive such honors as she had never bestowed before upon any one of her children. No two men who had never met, knew each other better than Voltaire and Franklin. Soon after his arrival in the capital, the American Ambassador, with the veneration which scholars alone feel for learning and its masters, waited upon the octogenarian. Voltaire himself, in his touching description of the interview, tells us that before they parted, Franklin, who had brought his grandson along with him, led him up to Voltaire to ask for his benedic. tion. In the presence of the little assembly of twenty persons, all of whom were deeply impressed with the cheerful solemnity of the scene, the old man laid his hand upon the boy's head, and lifting his eyes upward gave his blessing in the sublime words, 'God and liberty.' Even the devoutest Christian could add but one other name, so sacred. Voltaire loved Franklin, and the

cause of America lay very near his heart. He was proud wherever he went to have it known that his admiration and love for the new Republic was the strongest passion of his last days.

A few days later, a far more imposing spectacle was presented at the French Academy, whose members had assembled for the solemn reception of the French philosopher. John Adams, who had been appointed to supersede Silas Deane in the American embassy, and who had just reached Paris, attended Franklin on this great occasion.

When these two, by universal consent the greatest chieftains of intellect living, thus publicly met in genial friendship, the enthusiasm of the immense audience transcended all bounds. But it was not enough that the two men should greet each other so heartily; the assembly was not satisfied; they demanded some more earnest token of complete affiliation. 'Embrace,' they screamed; and in the presence of all that was most distinguished in letters and philosophy, Franklin and Voltaire embraced and kissed each other. The two wept and were glad together. Such was the garland with which the Night of the Old World, with the Morning of the New, crowned the Young Republic in its cradle. Hereafter, the latest born free commonwealth became the adopted child of the oldest and most brilliant monarchy in Europe. From that hour France herself was to come forth from the shadows of the past-however radiant with the glories of the achievements of seventeen centuries—and enter upon a new and more magnificent career.

Voltaire's true Place in Philosophical History.-A few Words here.-Vol taire was well enough understood in his own time—he was only misinterpreted afterwards; and even now the mists of vulgar ignorance too much cloud his name. But he is beginning, after he has been nearly a century in his

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tomb, to reap the only reward such a man cares for-to be comprehended. When he came into life he found himself almost the only living thing in the midst of dead Europe. The old alliance of priest and king-which had carried on the business of mankind through all the historic ages-was still a firm and unbroken partnership. He who was to put an end to this alliance, and as the great apostle of absolute liberty to think, and become the father of modern thought, as well as its vindicator, found the men of his times believing everything and knowing nothing. His illuminated soul de clared war à l'outrance, against this system of mental despotism. He had some foundation for his boast, that he had done more for the political redemption of men from tyranny, and the human soul from superstition, than Calvin and Luther. In one sense he had, and in a very broad sense; and yet it is just as true to say that, but for those men, Voltaire would never have been heard of; he was himself the child of the Protestant Reformation, and by direct and unquestionable lineage; he had a great mission, and he fulfilled it well. That mission was to tear down the past-not to build up the future.

An age of supreme credulity must needs be followed by an age of supreme skepticism. A generation of idol worshippers must be followed by a generation of iconoclasts. France had committed her faith to the priests; their falseness to the trust, led to the giving up of all faith. Thinking men then made an age of reason, and this reason could be inaugurated on the old throne, only when the false and rotten superstructure had been swept away. When men find out that they have been often deceived, they must doubt before they can rationally believe. Wounded faith is the only true pupil-it alone is capable of scrutiny worthy of the name of investigation; and such investigation is the only road to truth. Credulity is the arch-enemy of truth. Reason is its only handmaid. Facts are its only instruments. When a man has believed too much, it is time for him to begin to doubt. Buckle, in the opening of his History of Civilization in Great Britain, starts out on a basis already prepared for him by Descartes, Bossuet, Edwards, Reid, Kant, Rousseau, and Voltaire-that skepticism is the first starting-point on the road to a knowledge of scientific truth, and that reason is the only guide.

It was not given to Voltaire to be a builder, he was a pioneer, levelling forests and mountains, and filling up valleys to open a clear way to the temple of truth. He was not a Bacon to lead the human race by the sublime laws of reason into the treasure-house where nature holds all truth; but in one respect he was greater than all these fathers of modern light. In his heart of hearts he abhorred all superstition-he hated all tyranny over the mind -time itself could give no sanction to oppression. Feudalism in the intellect was a far mightier wrong than feudalism in the soil, or in the muscles of men. Kings did not reign by a divine right-all the divinity of right inhered in the individual soul. He therefore accorded to the rising Republic of America a more earnest and philosophical greeting, than any European of his times. Standing on the mount of vision, which became to him a mount also of trans

382

FETE IN HONOR OF LORD HOWE.

figuration, where the fathers of the American Republic stood on the 4th of July, '76, he caught the first full-orbed view of the Promised Land for the human race. Among the utterances of his last days, no one was repeated oftener, or with deeper unction, than this: 'I have lived to see the birth of a new Republic, based upon principles which will secure the political emancipation of the world, and, therefore, I have not lived in vain. All thanks to God.' It was not the God of any hierarchy, but in the fine language of Sprague, 'the God of the universe whom he recognized in everything around him:' for he who had been so often denounced as a scoffer at truth, was in the depths of his large soul one of its most reverent worshippers.

Lord Howe superseded by Sir Henry Clinton.-It was evident that Lord Howe 'would not do' any longer, and Sir Henry Clinton was appointed in his place. On the 18th of May, 1778, the officers of the British army got up, in honor of their retiring commander-in-chief, the most brilliant fête that had ever been seen in America. It was graced by the most beautiful women among the Tory families in Philadelphia, by the wives and female relatives of the British officers, and crowned with the charms, such as they were, of the favorite mistresses of Lord Howe and his staff. The loose discipline of the army during these six months of idleness did more to weaken the power of the enemy, than all the battles they had yet fought, which fully justifies the remark of Franklin, that 'General Howe has not taken Philadelphia,—Philadelphia has taken General Howe.'

The Fête in Honor of the Retiring Commander.—The sedateness of 'our national historian' has not disdained some account of this gorgeous festival: "The numerous company embarked on the Delaware, above the town, and, to the music of one hundred and eight hautboys, rowed two miles down the stream in galleys and boats, glittering with colors and streamers. They passed two hundred transport vessels tricked out in bravery, and crowded with lookers-on; and landing to the tune, God save the King, under salutes from the decorated ships of war, they marched between lines of cavalry and infantry and all the standards of the army to a lawn, where, in presence of their chosen ladies, raised on thrones, officers, fantastically dressed as knights and squires, engaged in a tournament. After this they proceeded, under an ornamented arch, to a splendidly furnished house, where dancing began; and a gamingtable was opened with a bank of two thousand guineas. The tickets of admis sion described the guest of the night as the setting sun, bright at its going down, but destined to rise in greater glory; and fireworks, in dazzling letters, promised him immortal laurels. At midnight a supper of four hundred and thirty covers was served, under the light of twelve hundred wax candles, and was enlivened by an orchestra of more than one hundred instruments. Dancing continued until the sun was more than an hour high. Never had subordinates given a more brilliant farewell to a departing general; and it was doubly dear to the commander, for it expressed their belief that the minis