34 AMERICAN REVOLUTION. and powerful condition. Her arms were triumphant in all parts of the world except on the continent of ; and although the treaty by which England acknowledged the independence of the United States, was at that time considered the termination of Bri¬ tish grandeur, this prophecy has happily proved false. Great Britain, notwithstanding the unexampled ex¬ penses of two long wars, possessed greater resources than any power on earth ; and the ministers who lost , were supplanted in the royal councils by men of ability and spirit. England, it was true, had lost many of her American colonies, but she still retained others, probably the most important to her as a nation. An impartial and correct account of these, is the principal object of this work. I shall previously, however, in the following chapter, take a brief view of the condition of the United States.