New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-11-16

IN III
,ove always hated; his master
oo Third, being the other. This
-oov If hatred has been handed down
generation to generation. 1t is to
,ornd in histories like Bancrofts
uudreth's and even in Fishes; It is
-,odded in school books; it continu-
s.. reanpears i'm Fourth Of July Ora
a.. and in Senator Lodges biogra-
~s,es. whose animosities against most
20 British are infiamed by IT,
,..ner,beless. no good and adequate
.,ornt Of Lord North has ever been
.hushed until this biography by Mr.
poginald Lucas appeared few days
~. So completely forgotten is Lord
9TH in England except by students
Ihistory that Mr.. Lucas is able to say
in his Preface
THE object of this book will be
..A,eved If il be found to supply an
su,wer-not heinuusly inaccurate and
-, grieyously prolix-to the questions
Who was Lord North and what did he
do?'
The negative compliment which the
thor solicits may be paid him at
NC He is not heinously inaccurate
and be Is not grievously prolix, though
sornetimes disCursive. HIS point Oh
,iev is. naturally. rather English than
AMERICAN. but his desire TO find and
81, rho truth is obvious. He is no hero
vorshipper. He does not think eulogy
,ha business Of a biographer. He Is not
,,oerned 10 hide or even to extern
no,a the glaring faults in Lord North's
character and career. He means 10
hold the scales even. importantly Is
..,,h him more than patriotism: II II
a.n he supposed that, in these far days,
r.triotism could require an Englsh-
man TO whitewash such a character as
Lord North. We ourselves nave abah-
aored the once prevalent notion that
American history must necessarily De
an anti-B British pamphlet. The last Oh
the mountaineering historians was Md
.o,,lav. unless his nephew, Sir George
Treyelyan, is to be considered hls]o-
rian To that school Mr. Lucas does not
helone. He has not its arrogance nor
does he write in the comminatory spirit
NJ the Athanasian creed. lie mas an
sreellence patience of mind: d suaVity
which seldom deserts him; an amlaole
desire 10 believe the best and not the
worst; light touch; an easy style
And he moves easily amld the complex
politics Of the eighteenth century.
What We Americans most desire
about LORD North is a fairly complete
statement of his American policy. ms
biography gives US that and much
more than that. IL is a history OF the
Life and Times of Lord North. All
zoe great names of the period pass in
review before US: all those which are
Fart Of its political history. There are
CHAPTERS on Wilkes; on the Grafton
Rockingham and Shelburne Admins
trations; on Some Ministers on
Parliament and People; on Charles
lanes Fox. and two on the Coalition
and the Fall Of the Coalition. The DOCK
is upon a generous scale throughout.
There are chapters which an American
reader may choose TO leave unread De-
cause they once more recount lhe
annals of a quarrel which we think IN
every detail familiar to US. To the
Englishmen hey are less familiar, ana
tha; may have been Mr.. Lucass reason
for another narrative Of what he calls
The American War. ~ way Of fresh
sning his story he constructs an cap
crate comparison between that war ana
the South African war of 1S99-1sO2;
which on the whole is not particularly
Illuminating. All Lord North's share
In the American war is related in other
chapters; or all that is important. The
story Of the Stamp Act and the Tea
Tax is retold; certainly not with over
fitness.
II is in those earlier chronicles that
We Americans may find filter objects
, o. execration than North. For North
at best was but the Kings Minister;
bis lieutenant; while first Grenville and
hen Charles Townshend were the true
authors Of those schemes Of taxation
10 which the Revolution was the
sequence. Perhaps even Rockingham
night be named as d third, since
hough he repealed the Stamp Act he
passed the Declaratory Act by Whlch
NE right TO levy taxes on the Colonies
vas reasserted. ITO save the face OF
King and Parliament" says NJ. Lucas,
" as less colloquial writer phrased
" 10 save Imperial honour" Neither
Them spices his statement with any
comment on the indifference with
which this Act was received in Amer
"a We had got rid Of an odious tax
enc cared little or not at all for the
academic restatement Of a theoretical
'ght But IT was none the less on
Ae Declaratory Act Of 1866 that
iownshend based himself when in 1867
ne passed three bills imposing duties
vi iead, paper, glass and other arti-
S'es imported into America from Eng
and; and that new fountain of all iils
come, the threepenny tax on tea.
ar. Lucas puts compactly the argu-
1ent for taxation:
IL will be observed that n very great