But behind this bitterness lay a deep conviction of the righteousness of the American cause.

At a great banquet at Holkham, Coke omitted the toast of the King; but every night during the American war he drank the health of Washington as the greatest man on earth.

The war, he said, was the King's war, ministers were his tools, the press was bought.

He denounced later the King's reception of the traitor Arnold.

When the King's degenerate son, who became George IV, after some special misconduct, wrote to propose his annual visit to Holkham, Coke replied, "Holkham is open to strangers on Tuesdays." It was an independent and irate England which spoke in Coke.