The surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, on the 17th of October, 1781, with seven thousand English troops, was really the signal for terminating the weary struggle. Lord North, the English Premier, was compelled to resign the following March, and Rockingham, the leader of the peace party in Parliament, was appointed to fill his place. Negotiation followed for many months, ending in the complete emancipation of the colonies from British rule. On the 25th of November, 1783, at 12 M. the British flag was taken from the staff on the fort, the troops embarked, and the long expatriated citizens were allowed to return to the full possession of their city and property. Washington tarried until the 4th of December, when he took his farewell of his officers amid such expressions of profound sorrow as have rarely been exhibited in army circles. The city, seven years a prison and military depot, had greatly sunken into decay; commerce was wholly ruined, and general desolation brooded on every side. Though escaped from the boiling caldron of war, it was long disquieted with civil feuds growing out of the late struggle. Its population at the close of the war amounted to about twenty-three thousand, and though numerous improvements were contemplated, so deep and universal was the poverty of the population that little of public enterprise was undertaken for more than fifteen years.