Prime Minister Lord North.
The Brotherhood Policy is the name given to Lord North's efforts to regain the loyalty of the American colonists in the wake of the North American Rebellion. In a speech to the House of Lords on 12 November 1778, North said, "Mistakes have been made in these chambers, as they have been in Boston and Philadelphia, but it will do little good to dwell on them. Instead, we must seek new ways to preserve old institutions, and this will involve a serious reconsideration of the nature of our government, and of its relations with our North American brothers."
The royal governors of the American colonies were urged to support policies of moderation, and when they failed to do so, the military commanders who made up the Four Viceroys were empowered to overrule them. Meanwhile, Lord North introduced legislation in Parliament known as the Britannic Design that would re-organize the American colonies into confederations with the power to overrule Parliamentary taxation. The Design passed Parliament and was signed into law by King George III in January 1781, and eighteen months later the Confederation of North America was established.
Sobel's sources for the Brotherhood Policy are Henry Collins' Lord North and the Rise of Parliament (New York, 1956); and Sir Douglas Carlisle's The Four Viceroys: Burgoyne, Carleton, Howe, and Clinton (New York, 1967).