to the severance of the American colonists from their

kindred. Vainly did Chatham urge : " You must go throogli the work: you muBt declare you have no right to tax — then tliej may trust you — then they wiU have some contidence in you/* B}^ a Intter irony of fate, wibliin a few miles of a phice eaUed ** Concord/" the iirst fratricidal blood was shed in America in 1775; and on the 4th July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was agreed to in a con- Lgress of representatives. Forced on by events, Washington "and his friemlH, who at ilie commencement of the struggle desired only to i*estore the ancient state of things, w^ere committed to that absolute severance of the colonies which England*s enemies and the seditious among her subjects had desked from the lirst. French aid, French intrigues, Spanish and Dutch coalitions, an armed neutrality in bEuBsia, without doubt hastened the end, but no earnest ^over of Englaiul or America could have hoped for any good result after blood had been shed in such a cause. In 17BB the people of England pai<l tlje price for having yielded to iU-advice, and the disaffected colonies were recognized aB sovereign states. With 178J3 also came a change in the internal government of England. The younger Pitt, who had sympathized with his father's patriotic protests against ill-dealing with America, was called to the liehn. Little had been added to the knowledge obtained by Cook in 1770, as to Australia. Captaiti Fnrneaux, commanding the Adrentntr, being separated from Cook's ship, the lU'So- bidou (on Cook's second voyage), visited and explore<l the east coast of Van Diemen's Land, in 1773, but failed to discover that there was a strait between that islaod and the mainland. Cook himself (on his third voyage) visited Yan Dieraen's Land m 1777< He remained several days in Adventure Bay, and described the land, the vegetation, and the natives whom he saw, and whom he did not ill- treat. These visits may have caused the statesmen in England to look with eyes of ownership on the lately-found lands. The attention of the French, however, had been invited also, and it is probable that the English government were partly actuated by a desire to forestall the French, who as e^w/y us 1 772 SBnt two ships to explore in the South Seas.