The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-04-18
Unrest in the Colonies.

men Of affairs, in no common fashion.
Unrest in the Colonies.
Especially now, after the quickening
Of pulses that had come with the
French war, and its sweep of CONT
mental, even Of international. forces
across the colonial stage hitherto set
only for petty and sectional affairs.
The colonies had grown self-conscious
and restless as the plot thickened and
thrust them forward TO a role Of con
sequence in the empire such as they
had never thought 10 play. and the
events which succeeded hurried them
10 quick maturity.
It was a season a young man was
sure 10 ripen in, and there was good
company. The house of burgesses was
very quiet the year Washington first
took his place in it and stood abashed
to hear himself praised; but before
Mr. Robinson, its already veteran
speaker. was dead, q notable change
had set in.
At Odds With Parliament
Within five years. before the coun-
try on the St. Lawrence and the lakes
was we'll out Of the hands Of the
French, the parliament in England had
entered upon measures of government
which seemed meant of deliberate pur
pose 10 set the colonies agog. and
every body OF counselors in America
stood between anger and amazement
10 see their people in danger to be
so put upon.
The threat and pressure Of the
French power upon the frontiers had
made the colonies thoughtful always
so long as II lasted, Of their depend
ence upon England for succor and de-
Tense should there come a time OF
need.
Once and again-often enough &c
keep them sensible how they must
stand or fall. succeed or fail, with the
power at home-their own raw levies
mad taken part with the kings troops
out of England in some clumsy stroke
or other against a French stronghold
in the north or a Spanish fortress in
the south; and now at last they had
gone with English troops into the field
in a national cause Provincials and
redcoats had Joined for a final grapple
with the French, TO settle once and for
all who should be owners and masters
on the coveted continent.
No Longer Dependent.
The issue had been decisive BY the
summer of 1850 Washington could
write his kinsman in England that the
French were so thoroughly drubbed
and humbled that there remained lit
tie TO do 70 reduce Canada from end to
end to the British power
But the very thoroughness Of the
success wrought d revolution in the
relations Of the colonies TO the mother
country. II rid them of their sense
OF dependence. English regiments
had mustered their thousands. nc
doubt, upon the battlefields Of the
war in order that the colonies might
be free to possess the continent and
it was hard to see how the thing could
have been accomplished without them.
But it had been accomplished, and
would not need to be done again.
Not Overawed by Foreigners.
Moreover it had shown the colonial
militia how strong they were even in
the presence OF regulars. They had
almost everywhere borne an equal
part in the fighting, and, rank and file,
they had left with a keen resentment
the open contempt for their rude
oo,;r,.or- o,d r,,et;o 3;ro;DI;r0 Which
TOO many arrogant officers and inso-
lent men among the regulars had
shown They knew that they had
proved themselves the equals of any
man in the kings pay in the fighting,
and they had come out Of the hot
business confident that henceforth at
any rate. they could dispense with
English troops and take care Of them
selves
They had lost both their fear Of the
French and their awe of the English
Twas hardly an opportune time for
statesmen in London to make a new
and larger place for England's author
ity in America, and yet that was what
they Immediately attempted.
Save Chatham and Burke and few
discerning men who had neither place
nor power there was no longer any
one in England who knew, though it
were never so vaguely, the real tenn
per and character of the colonists.
Twas matter of common knowledge
and comment. it is true, that men of
Massachusetts were beyond all reason
impatient of command or restraint,
affecting an independence which was
hardly to be distinguished from con-
tumacy and INSTRUMENTATION; but what
ground was there to suppose that a
like naughty and ungovernable spirit
lurked in the loyal and quiet south, or
among the prudent traders and phleg-