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


America at his feet Il, 103-104)
In order to gain his ends George III
packed Parliament and the bench as
Systematically as any lawyer ever picked
and selected his jury.
THE right of constituents to elect a
person of their choice had been denied
III words, and repeatedly violated in prac'
tice. The Benches of the Lords and Com
mons swarmed with an ever increasing
band of pIacemen and pensioners subdi-
sized by the King; and these gentlemen
well knew the work their paymaster eX-
pected of them Their vocation was to
harass any minister who conceived that
he owed a duty to the people as we'll
as to the Sovereign; and to betray and
ruin him if he proved lncorrigible in his
notions of patriotism. The most famous
English statesman, all, it is not too much
to say,who are now remembered with
pride by Englishmen of every party
were shut out from the opportunity, and
even from the hope, of office; and our
national qualities of manliness and indie
pendence had come to be a standing dis
qualification for employment in the ma
tons service" Q1,151-152)
Coming to the American side of the
controversy Sir Guy Cartons control
and management of Canada when at
tackled by the Americans is pointed to
as an example of what a wise governor
might have done in New England any
time before the Declaration of Indeuen-
dence But the authors description of
the anarchy" in all the colonies during
the transition from the old to the new
state of things is perhaps overdrawn, and
it is questionable indeed whether the
Congress made the states or the states
made Congress. Sir Geolg thinks the
central created the local authority while
most careful students of the history OF
the times have hiterto held that the states
succeeded without powers being granted
from any outside source, to the authority
OF the defunct royal governments. There
was nowhere any great difficulty in the
! change, or almost none, and certainly
| there was not much disorder even IT,,
| theoretically, there was "a moment OF
anarchy; and the horse-jocky whom John
Adams met and heard declare that there
was now no courts and no law need
not to have frightened that worthy law
maker, for the newborn state of Massa-
chusetts would very soon have taught
the former better sense had he attempted
to put his opinion to the test. AS
matter of fact the state governments
elected the delegates who, when assem-
bled, composed the Continental Congress;
they paid those delegates and even in
structed them how to cast their votes
on certain vital questions. When Con-
| gress desired the local government 10
pass any new laws or make new consti-
tutons it conveyed that desire in the
form of a Recommendation; when the
states desired their delegates to attend
the Congresses or to vote for certain
measures, they were ordered" TO do so
It is not, however. Sir Georges intention
to speak conclusively on this question,
and the reason, perhaps, for the ten
dency to the anarchy" point of view
and for the belief that an unauthorized
illegal body gave the first authority to
the state governments, is that most Of
the literature available is itself colored,
it is the product of authors who wished
that such had been the case.
A primary cause of Washington's re-
gaining a large portion OF New Jersey
IN the first days of January 1777 was,
according to the work in hand, the mill
tary policy of the British commanders.
The luke-Warm people OF that state who
expected protection from the invaders
| found their farms overrun, their barns
looted and their valuabes carried of by
the Hessians or other German troopers.
Such friends were worse than enemies
| led by Washington, who gave in return
for country produce and army supplies
at least the promises or Congress TO
pay at some future time. Indeed the
very composition OF the English army
tended to ALLEVIATE the loyalists and Wash
| ~. o.a IN
stand how to make use of his enemies
blunders. Howe, and CORVALLIS to
great degree, failed, even to the end CT
the war to appreciate how easy it was to
drive their American friends into the
arms of their revolted nelghbors. Wher-
| ever their forces marched devastation
| followed and the sufferings in one section
served as a warning to the others as
to what might be expected II an INVASION
were permitted Consequently the states
which were thought to be most favorable
to the royal authority finally offered the
most desperate resistance to its re-estab-
| lishment.
| Still a vast number Of Americans re-
manned faithful to the King and when
they did not take up arms on betaf
of their convictions, they led a most
miserable life OF 1T. Some went 10 Eng
| land thinking that there they would re-
ceive a hearty welcome; but England was
too busy to pay them any attention, be-
sides a visitor who comes TO spend some
wears is seldom received with open arms;
the less so if the newcomer has but a
short purse Others sought homes IN IN
hospitable Canada and IN Nova Scotia,
| but their lot was sad indeed. They never
ceased to regret their exile and in many
cases a last visit to their erstwhile homes
was the ambition OF ones life, notWith-
standing these homes were sometimes lald
| in ashes and the land on which they stood
| long since confscated. The writer's ac-
count of all this is sympathetic and I'M
commonly interesting.
After recounting in much detail the
military and political events OF the year
| 1875 on this side of the Atlantic, the
author takes the reader back to England
at the end of the year and reviews TO
him the state of things there the chagrin
of the court at Howe's failures, the DIS
appointment of the majority in Parlla
rnent that their policy had so utterly
fa;Iad and the ha expressed satisfaction