To separate Lafayette from Washington, and gain for themselves the influence of his name, the "Cabal", as it has been called, proposed an impracticable winter campaign against Canada, which Lafayette was to command, with Conway to assist him. But here the faction spent its strength. The friends of Washington had been put on their guard by the disclosure of a correspondence which showed the malignity of his enemies. Wilkinson, who was on Gates's staff, repeated, while his tongue was loosened with wine, an opinion expressed in a letter that Conway had written to Gates. Gates read it to his military family. "Heaven has been determined to save your country", it said, "or a weak general and bad counsellors would have ruined it." The words reached Washington, who enclosed them to Conway, simply informing him that he understood they formed a portion of a letter of his to Gates. It was in vain that the members of the Cabal attempted at first to carry the matter through with a high hand, then to deny that such a letter had ever been written, and finally to excuse themselves. Their ends were discovered and their power was gone. Lafayette would have nothing to do with the Canadian expedition unless De Kalb was made his second in command. He repaired to Albany only to find that no measures had been taken to carry out the promises made him, and as the friends of Washington were soon in the ascendency in Congress, Lafayette was recalled to Valley Forge. Through the advice of a committee which Congress had sent to camp to inquire into the condition of the army, many defects and abuses were corrected, and its organization was improved. The new troops that had been called for came in slowly, but their effectiveness was increased through the exertion of Baron Steuben, who joined the army about the close of February. A pupil of Frederick the Great, and a distinguished officer in the Prussian service, he won the esteem of Congress by offering to serve as a volunteer. His experience and industry soon instilled a discipline into the army which it had never known, and in May he was made inspector-general, with the rank and pay of a major-general. * * * * *