f
quarrel were afforded by England's persistent assertion of the right to
stop and search American vessels on the high seas for British subjects
and England's no less persistent refusal to recognize that
naturalization as an American citizen in any way affected the
allegiance of a British subject to the British crown. Wise
statesmanship might have averted war, but wise statesmanship was
wanting. The death of Spencer Perceval caused the elevation to the
premiership of a man as incapable as his predecessor of dealing
skilfully with the American difficulty. Robert Banks Jenkinson, who
had been Lord Hawkesbury and who was now Lord Liverpool, was a
curiously narrow-minded, hidebound politician who had never recovered
from the shock of the French Revolution, and who was chiefly
conspicuous for his dogged opposition to every species of reform. He
was five years old when the fight at Concord began the struggle that
ended with American Independence, but the great event which
overshadowed his childhood had no apparent effect upon his later
judgment. This belated survival of the tradition of Hillsborough
thought and said that America ought to look to England "as the guardian
power to which she was indebted not only for her comforts, not only for
her rank in the scale of civilization, but for her very existence."
Folly such as this could only end in disaster. America, believing
herself to be deeply wronged, declared war on Great Britain in the June
of 1812. The war lasted more than two years with varying fortunes.
Once again the scarlet coats of English soldiers were familiar, if
detested, objects to many of the men who had made the Republic, and
over bloody battle-fields fluttered that English flag which most of
those who now opposed it had only seen as a trophy of their fathers'
victories. Both sides fought under heavy disadvantages. If England
was weakened by her struggle with Napoleon, America was hampered by
internal dissensions, by a disorganized army and by a navy so small
that it might almost have been regarded as not in existence. Yet it
was this very navy which did most for {346} America in the struggle,
and dealt England the most staggering blows inflicted upon her
supremacy of the sea. The most shameful episode of the whole unhappy
campaign was when the English General Ross captured Washington, and, in
obedience to infamous orders from home, burned the Capitol and other
public buildings. No more disgraceful