This disposition is the true source of the passion which many men, in very humble life, have taken to the American war.

_Our_ subjects in America; _our_ colonies; _our_ dependents.

This lust of party power is the liberty they hunger and thirst for; and this Siren song of ambition has charmed ears that we would have thought were never organised to that sort of music." This was the mental attitude of a majority of the nation, and it was fortunate for them and for us that the yeomen and merchants on the other side of the Atlantic had a more just and energetic appreciation of the crisis.

The insurgents, while achieving their own freedom, were indirectly engaged in fighting the battle of the people of the mother country as well.

Burke had a vehement correspondent who wrote to him (1777) that if the utter ruin of this country were to be the consequence of her persisting in the claim to tax America, then he would be the first to say, _Let her perish!_ If England prevails, said Horace Walpole, English and American liberty is at an end; if one fell, the other would fall with it.