Chapter III.
THE TREATIES BEFORE PARLIAMENT.
The aggressive or apologetic tone of the ministers
of German despots was of little importance, when once
the course of their masters had been determined on.
The impassioned protest of a young German poet or
of a French pamphleteer could hardly be reckoned
among political forces. The King of Prussia, whose
word might have been law in the matter of letting-out
German soldiers for foreign service, preferred to sneer
rather than to command. But in the Parliament of
Great Britain the treaties between the King of
England and the mercenary princes were discussed by
responsible ministers of the crown on the one side, and
by statesmen, some of whom might one day be called
to power, on the other. It is true that the majority
which supported the administration was so overwhelming
that the opposition could not hope soon to
overthrow it. But there can be little doubt that if the
greater number of votes in Parliament was in 1776 on
the Tory side, the weight of intellect was as decidedly
with the Whigs.
On February 29, 1776, Lord North moved that the treaties entered into between His Majesty and the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, the Duke of Brunswick, and the hereditary Prince of Hesse-Cassel, be re-
