Summary

Even the news of Lexington had not aroused George III or his Ministers to the seriousness of the revolt in the American colonies. Were not three major generals and three more regiments of infantry already on the high seas to rein­ force Thomas Gage's force? And had not the Admiralty been ordered to augment Samuel Graves's squadron by such a number of frigates as would suffice to secure obedience to the Restrictive Acts recently enacted, and prevent succour from the Southern colonies reaching New England? Hhere seemed little doubt in the British mind that with "One tolerable Drubbing," rebel resistance would collapse. Warnings from Whig leaders that conquest would not be so simple, and that possible loss of the American colonies would leave the Empire an easy prey to revengeful France, were discounted as political clap-trap. France was in no position to capitalize upon the American troubles, and her partner, Spain, engrossed in the Mediterranean, could be discounted entirely. So thought the Ministry.

As far as concerned Spain, this conclusion was justified. Charles III had spared no pains to let the world know that he was preparing to annihilate the Barbary pirates. At Alicante by mid-June he had gathered an imposing armada — fifty-one fighting ships, including six ships of the line — and three hundred and forty-four transports to convey thirty thousand men to the conquest of Algiers. This great force would sail before the month of June wasended.

Not so with France! In April, 1775, with the approval of the French Court, a keen observer had spent three weeks in London studying the American situation. He was Caron de Beaumarchais, courtier, composer and adventurer, who, upon his return to Paris informed Louis XVI that ''I am in a position to give the soundest information on the action of the English Government regarding the English colonies and the effects of the upheavel in the Colonies on England; on what must be the consequences of one and the other; on the supreme importance of these events to French interests; on what we have to hope or fear for our sugar islands; on what can give us peace or bring about war." That information was imparted to M. de Vergennes, who sent Beaumarchais back to London with the injunction to continue his observations and report again in July.