he United States."

CHAPTER II.

GEORGE III. AND HIS AMERICAN COLONIES

[1760]

The year after the capture of Quebec a young king ascended the throne of
England, whose action was to affect profoundly the fortunes of the
American colonies. Of narrow mental range and plebeian tastes, but
moral, sincere, and stout-hearted, George III. assumed the crown with
one dominant purpose--to rule personally; and the first decade of his
reign was a constant struggle to free himself from the dictation of
cabinet ministers. In 1770, during the premiership of North, who was
little more than his page, the king gained the day; and for the next
dozen years he had his own way perfectly. All points of policy, foreign
and domestic, even the management of debates in Parliament, he was
crafty enough to get into his hands. To this meddling of his with state
affairs, his impracticable and fickle plans, and the stupidity of the
admirers whom his policy forced upon him, may be traced in very large
measure the breach between England and the colonies.

The Revolution, however, cannot be wholly accounted for by any series of
events which can be set down and labelled. The ultimate causes lie
deeper. Three thousand miles of ocean rolled between England and the
colonies. A considerable measure of colonial self-government was
inevitable from the first, and this, by fostering the spirit of
independence, created a demand for more and more freedom. The social
ties which had bound the early Pilgrims to their native land grew
steadily weaker with each new generation of people who knew no home but
America. The colonists had begun to feel the stirrings of an independent
national life. The boundless possibilities of the future on this new
continent, with its immense territory and untold natural wealth, were
beginning to dawn upon them. Their infancy was over. The leading-strings
which bound them to the mother-country must be either lengthened or cast
off altogether.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
King George III.

But England did not see this. Most Englishmen at the beginning of George
III.'s reign regarded the colonies as trading corporations rather than
as political bodies. It was taken for granted that a colony was inferior
to the mother-country, and was to be managed in the interests of the
commercial classes at home. Conflict was therefore inevitable sooner or
later. We have to trace briefly the chief events by which it was
precipitated.

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