The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-12-13

that the war should not be undertaken;
later he risked his popularity by issuing
pamphlet which he thought might lead
to some sort of understanding. The r3-
suit was a storm of abuse and SANDER;
but man who came nearest to being
a real saint of any man of his age kenW
how to bear obloquy and vituperatlon.
| What may be taken as the most novel
part OF the work is the chapter which
discusses the religious side OF the Revo-
luton. Some fifty pages are devoted to
this part of the subject. fresh and
entertaining review of the conditions of
the Colonial churches up to 1910 Is fol
lowed by description Of the various
Attempts of the Anglicans to get control
OF the religious legislation Of the country.
Lord Cornbury vested himself with
ecclesiastical authority over the whole
OF New Jersey, and ordained the due
performance of the Angicans rituals as
established by law, at time when the
colony did not possess a single church
OF England Communion. The Episcopal
ian party was numerically very feeble
in the province of New York and the
authorities did not venture to apply for
a statute enacting, in so many words,
the supremacy of the English church;
but they ousted the Dutch church, and
replaced it by an establishment which
undertook to provide each city and county
with a good and sufficient minister
And the Royal Governor and his council
IN New York, thenceforward, spoke, and.
acted as If the Church OF England had
been duly and legally enthroned in the
colony" Q1,2S3.)
| Similar and even more fragrant usurp-
atoms are pointed out in other colonies.
AS the years passed this policy became
the more fixed on the part of the English
church at home and the cabinet became
party to it. Just prior to the outbreak
OF the Revolution the colonists generally
came to believe that their own churches
founded under so many difficulties by
those, who, in the main, left England
for the sake of religious convictions,
were to be undermined and eventually
destroyed 1t was then not a dissmilar
situation to that of the Netherlands at
the beginning of the reign of Philip II.
That this was such an important issue
in America as it had formerly been in
the country of William the Silent is not
claimed; but it was nevertheless impor-
tant when one recalls that nine tenths
of the colonists were staunch non-con-
Iormists.
This is indeed an interesting chapter
and it's claims, though not altogether
new, are completely justified. The An
glicans were making a strong fight to
have the Episcopacy established and TO
bring all the colonists under one religious
head. Baptists were often thrown into
prison. Quakers and Methodists Jared
little better and the Presbyterians
under the leadership of the College Of
Nv Jersey and its able president, Doctor
Witherspoon, were sounding the alarm;
and altogether there was all through the
war not a little of the religious element
injected, though it was hardly control
ling motives in many sections of the
country.
While the body OF the book gives every
assurance that the writer's Investigations
covered extensive fields of information.
the titles of important sources, either
fail to appear altogether, or are given
III such incomplete form that the stndent
who loves to keep tally with his author
is. rather disappointed. This is, however,
no serious impeachment of the accuracy
Of the work and, as suggested at the
outset, this is a scholarly production
which not only holds the readers inter-
est from beginning to end but which
fills an important place in our literature
on the subject. 1t may with safety be
said that Sir George Trevelyan aims to
give us when his work is done a history
of our Revolution very much like his
great uncle's Uord MaCauley) history Of
the revolution of 16SS-England. And
judging by the volumes already pub
lished ne will not fall far short of the
high work he has set himself. -
! VIM. e. DODD.
| Randolph Macon College, Va.