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

‘ [114] the ascendency.’¹ ‘The primal source of the de-

Chap. III.} 1777.

cay of Britain is to be sought in the departure of its present government in a sovereign degree from the principles of British history. All the efforts of his Britannic majesty tend to despotism. It is only to the principles of the tories that the present war with the colonies is to be attributed. The reen-forcements which these same ministers design to send to America will not change the face of affairs; and independence will always be the indispensable condition of an accommodation. Everything is to be expected from a ministry as corrupt as the present British ministry. It is entirely a slave to the king, who will make of it whatever he pleases. Without patriotism, it will take no measures but false ones, diametrically contrary to the true interests of the country; and this will be the first step towards the decay which menaces the British constitution.’²

At the same time Frederic expressed more freely his sympathy with the United States. The port of Embden could not receive their cruisers, for the want of a fleet or a fort to defend them from insult; but he offered them an asylum in the Baltic at Dantzic. He attempted, though in vain, to dissuade the prince of Anspach from furnishing troops to England; and he forbade the subsidiary troops both from Anspach and Hesse to pass through his dominions. The prohibition, which was made as publicly as possible, and just as the news arrived of the surrender of Burgoyne, resounded throughout Europe; and he announced to the Americans that it was given ‘to testify his goodwill ’