The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-07-28

MILK k-<A G--fk(
s CRITICISMS
American Revolution, and to notice
what men this institution was training
for service to State and country. Thorc
| In 1863 was Thomas Jefferson author
of the Declaration Of Independence and
of the statute OF Virginia for religious
freedom and founder OF the University
| of Virginia. BY these three deeds he
wished to be knowl, to posterity. 1T
would be glory enough.for the College
of William and Mary if she had cdu-
Gated lin alone who is the fatlior Of
American political thought and the
| first promoter Of real university edu-
cation. fi
1.-THE roll Of honor does not stop with
Thomas Jefferson. There too appear
Benjamin Harrison, Carter Braxton,
Thomas Nelson and George Wythe, all
lsigners OF the Declaration of 1ndepen-
ldcnce. There ulso arc Peyton Ran
ldolph first President of the Continental
Congress, and John Tyler. Judge Of the
General Court; Edmund Randolph,
Governor Of Virginia and Attorney
United States); Beverly Randolph, GOV
ernor Of Virginia; John Mercer, Gov
ernor Of Maryland; James Times, At
torney- General Of Virginin; James
Monroe. President of the United States;
Ohm Blair, Judge Of tho Supreme Court
|of tho United Statos; and John Mar
shall, the great Chief Justice" (Adams's
"Tho College of William and Mary"
p. 2S). This is but n partial LIST Of the
famous men trained ct William and
Mary, but, brief as II is. like Mercu-
tio's wound, otis enough, twill serve.'
Those interested in the matter will
find complete list Of the illustrious
statesmen, jurists and soldiers edu-
Gated at the college In the William
and Mary Quarterly Vol. VII. 10.
Let 1t be noted. too, apropos Of Mr..
Doyles New Englander's .'pride Of
learning. strengthening his sense of
|patriotism," that of the hundred under
graduates at that time attending VIII
liam and Mary more than half Of
them, together with three Of their pro-
fessors. exchanged gown for sword,
and at once entered the Continental
army. Even allowing that, in its ear
lier years the college was nothing
better than a boardlng-sc DOL" what
excuse is there for Mr. Doyle's saying.
1--WE may well doubt whether the COL
lege did much for the colony" quoting
Hugh Jones as evidence Of its defcien-
cies ut the time, and then deliberately
|omitting Jones's explicit> testimony
that 1t had proved of Nery great SER
vice alrendy"7 Impartial history is
not written In this way.
At times 1t is difficult to apprehenl
distinctly Mr.. Doyle's meaning, outside
his manifest intent to sheer, at condi-
lions in Colonial Virginia. He tells us
(p. AZ: ut is customary to lilxen the
plantation of the South to that (sic) Of
rural England There might
be superficial resemblance of tastes
and habits. But there is not much Of the
essence Of English life left If we cut
off the free laborer at one end and the
lpeer and the county member at the
other. There was in the Southern colo
|nies an aristocracy in q certain sense
of the word: that Is. there was class
| in Which land and social dignity given
| by the possession of land were heredi-
tary, a class with abundance Of leisure.
with a certain prescriptive claim to po-
litical influence, and with a standard
| of manners education and Intelligence
which was at least far above the rest
of the community. But they were not,
save quite remotely and Indirectly.
what the corresponding class in Eng
land are, a link between their own dis
trict and the wider political and social
i life Of the outer world" Again %. 49)
ITO the ordinary Englishman, perhaps
even moro to the New Englander with
his urban ASSOCIATIONS the
trough, illitcrate, outdoor life Of vir-
|giniat would have seemed to have in ii
a distinct element Of sbarbarism'
Diminishing this last pronouncement
Mr. Doyle's highly cultured New Eng
LANDER" educated at Harvard (where
fessors. and one of those of divinity
or at Yale (where there was then but
ia single professor, and that one OF
divinity, while at that very time there
were six professors at William and
Mary College, graduates or Oxford
Cambridge and Edinburgh -dislmiss
ing all this, 1t must be reluctantly said
that to those who know tho time the
rest Of our authors utterance sounds
uncommonly pontless, coming from .
really sensible and accomplished man
It is not a question Of what "the cor.
resp onding class In England are" II
the twentieth century. but what tina
class was in tho eighteenth, and surely
1t would be hard to find an historical
student. outside OF Mr.. Doyle, read,
to deny that the great Virginian land
owners, large numbers Of whom hat
been educated in the best Englisl
schools and universities. We're as mucl
a genuine link between their own dis
trlcts and the wider political and so
cial life of tho outer world" as was an,
ordinary English country squire of tina
time. Has Mr.. Doyle himself forgotten
what he wrote in his initial volume (r
I274): There was no lack Of menta
culture in Virginia. While the accom-
plished and highly trained countr,
gentleman Of the seventeenth century
the Elliot or Hampden. had gradual,
degenerated into tho Sir Roger .
| Squire Western of the eighteenth, iii
| Virginian planter had risen in tn
| SCALE?
When Mr.. Doyle drops the New Eng
land convention and follows Mr.. Nc
| Grady In regard to conditions In Soutl
| Carolina, he Is on surer ground, for thl
| patriotic South Carolinan was mos
| painstaking and conscientious studen
of original records, and his statement
| may be accepted as In the main cor
| rect.
IT may be added here that score o
II