The sun., 1903-12-06

deed, a very large majority among them
regarded the contest which was being
fought out in America, not as a foreign
war, but as civil war in which Englisl
liberty was the stake. They held that q
policy had been deliberately initiated and
during half a generation, had been reso-
lutely pursued, Of which the avowed OBJ.
ject was to make the royal power dominant
in the State; and the historians In highest
repute who since have treated OF those
times, unreeervedly maintain the same
view On another page we read: THE
Cabinet had picked a quarrel with the
Colonies over the very same question which
oonvulsed England in the days of Straf-
ford and the Ship Money. In order to
vindicate the doctrine that taxation might
be imposed without representation, the
servants of the Crown, or, rather, Its bonds
men (for the Prime Minister and the most
respectable Of his colleagues were in this
matter acting under compulsion and against
their consciences), had undertaken to
coerce the communities in America with
fire and sword. and to visit individuals
with the extreme penalties of rebellion.
It followed as a natural and certain conse-
quenoe that the party which resented the
encroachments Of the Crown at home sim
cerely and universally entertained belief
that influenced their whole view Of the
colonial controversy" That belief was
recorded by Lord Albemarle, who long
afterward recalled that in l774, and for
some subsequent years, the Opposition
we're possessed by deep and well grounded
conviction that. If despotism were once
established in America, arbitrary govern
ment would at least be attempted in the
mother country" That these apprehen-
sions were shared by Chatham is evident
from his private correspondence, as, for
inst ance, when he says in one OF his letters:
would to heaven that England was not
doomed to bind. round her own hands and
wear pat tiently the chains which she was
forging for her Colonies!" The fears which
Chatham acknowledged were confessed
also by Burke. who, in the early spring Of
1777. affirmed that the American war had
done more in very few years than all
other causes could have done in cen-
tury to prepare the minds Of the English
people for the introduction OF arbitrary
government. The conclusions which he
reached are indicated in the following COM
ment on the American rebellion: "We can
have happened help respectin the spirit and
principles operating in these connections.
These principles bear 80 close a resem-
blance to those which support the most
valuable part of our Constitution that We
cannot think of e1tirpating them In any part
of his Majesty's dominions without admit
ting consequences, and establishing prece-
dents. the most dangerous to the liber-
ties of this kingdom"
Horace Walpole, with whom the chief
men Of both parties conversed freely,
was never easy about the political
future of his country. until North's
Government fell and the danger disap-
peared. During the winter when Howe
and Washington were contending in the
Jerseys, WaIpole complained that his life
at present consist cd in being wished joy over
the defeat and slaughter of fellow country
men who were fighting for his liberty as
we'll as their own. Thirty months after
ward. he spoke still more gloomily. 1t was
bad enough he said, to be at war with France
and Spain, but the subverson Of happy
constitution by the hands OF domestic
enemies was a worse fate than any which
we could suffer from the foreigners. and that
fate, unless the nation recovered it's senses.
only too surely awaited 1t. Walpole de-
clared emphatically that the freedom
Of England had become endangered, and
her glory had begun to decline from the
moment that she "ran wild after phantasm
of absolute power" over colonies whose
liberty was the source OF her own great
ness.
VII.
Some fifty pages Of the second volume
are allotted to a consideration Of the re-
ligious aspect of the American dispute.
Before marking the extent to which the
contending parties can be regarded as in
fluenced by religious. as we'll as by fiscal.
otives, We should note the extraordinary
Of John Wesley's attitude,
a change which took place in the course
of the year 1875. OF all people then living,
no one had so profound an acquaintance
with the state of opinion in Great Britain
and Ireland and also in America, as had
John Wesley. He knew Scot land we'll,
and England as man must know it who
preached eight hundred sermons annually
in all corners Of the island; who fine or rain,
I ravelled his twelve-score miles a week on
horseback or in public vehicles, which.
Tor MIN, was HlDTt I)tTilOus ulole vi cOI-
veyance; and who lodged-and easily
contended. an affable and communicative
g,lest-wth the farmer, the tradesman and
the cottager. Soon and late, he more than
fifty times crosses the Irish Channel
In the Colonies he had passed nearly two
wears, and ever since his return, in 1897.
he had been kept minutely informed by his
disciples Of what was passing in America.
As lately az the year l770, when the mill
tary occupation of Boston had actually
begun. John Wesley stated in print that he
did not defend the measures which had
been taken with regard to America, and
that he doubted whether any man could
defend them, either on the foot of law.
equity or prudence. So he told the world,
and to the advisers Of the Crown he ad-
dressed series of impressive letters. He
warned them plainly that the Americans
we're an oppressed people. asking for
nothing more than their legal rights, who
we're not frightened, and would not be
easily conquered. As fighting men, they
we're enthusiasts of liberty, contending for
hearth and altar, wife and children, against
an army of paid soldiers, none of whom
cared straw for the cause wherein they
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