s in their full
extent unfolded, of such a precedent of victory to popular and colonial
insurrection? May not the King, on the contrary, have deemed that on
such a question, touching as it did both his honour and his rights, he
was bound to be firm--firmer than even the firmest of his Ministers?
Not, of course, that he could be justified for persevering; but in
truth, he did not so persevere after every reasonable hope had failed.
Not, of course, that he could be excused from continuing to demand, or
to expect, unconditional submission; but, as his own letters to Lord
North assure us, such an idea was never harboured in his mind. To do his
duty conscientiously, as he should answer it to God hereafter, and
according to the lights he had received, such was his unceasing aim and
endeavour from the day when, young but superior to the frailties of
youth, he first assumed the reins of government, until that dismal
period, half a century later, when, bowed down by years and sorrows,
and blind, doubly blind, he concluded his reign, though not, as yet, his
life.

"Before the American war had commenced, and during its first period,
nearly all the statesmen and writers of England argued, or rather took
for granted as too plain to stand in need of argument, that separation
from our colonies would most grievously impair, if not wholly ruin, the
parent State. * * It is worthy of note how much our experience has run
counter to the general prognostication--how little the loss was felt, or
how quickly the void was supplied. An historian of high and just
authority--Mr. Macaulay--has observed that England was never so rich, so
great, so formidable to foreign princes, so absolutely mistress of the
sea, as since the alienation of the American colonies. (Essays, Vol.
II.) The true effect of that alienation upon ourselves, as time has
shown, has been not positive, but by comparison it has lain not in the
withdrawal of wealth and population and resources, but in raising up a
rival State from the same race, and with powers and energies not
inferior to our own.

"But how far, and in what degree, has the new form of government
promoted the happiness of the United States themselves? * * It would be
folly, or worse than folly, to deny that since their independence the
prosperity of the United States has advanced with gigantic strides; that
they have grown to be a first-rate power; that immense works of public
utility have been achieved with marve