The British government of Lord North come…
December 1777 CE
Of Lord Germain it is said that "the secretary is incapable of conducting a war", and Horace Walpole opines (incorrectly, as it turned out) that "we are ... very near the end of the American war."
Lord North issues a proposal for peace terms in Parliament that does not include independence; when these are finally delivered to Congress by the Carlisle Peace Commission they will be rejected.