he whole
length and breadth of America, by the exertions of the assembly of
Massachusets Bay, stirred up and kept alive the flame of discord, and
occasion need but fan it, and it would kindle into a blaze; the lurid
glare of which would be seen burning brightly, and raging furiously
across the wide Atlantic. The proceedings in America were but as yet, in
truth, the warnings of a terrible commotion--the first intimations of
an irruption, more frightful in its nature, and more disastrous in its
consequences, than the bursting forth of the fire-streaming bowels of
Mounts AEtna and Vesuvius, or the devastations of an earthquake. For the
storms of human passion, when they burst forth in war and bloodshed, are
more desolating to the human family, than any outbreak of visible nature
recorded in the many-paged annals of history.

DOMESTIC TROUBLES AND COMMOTIONS.

While America threatened some fearful catastrophe, Great Britain was
scarcely less disturbed by internal troubles and commotions. Much as
he desired the happiness of the people, the jewels set in his majesty's
crown were intermixed with sharp, piercing thorns. This is plainly
observable in the previous pages, wherein the difficulties which had
beset his various administrations, and which chiefly arose from the
discordant passions of their members, are historically narrated. Burke
rightly observes:--"Our constitution stands on a nice equipoise, with
steep precipices and deep waters on all sides of it: in removing it from
a dangerous leaning toward one side, there may be a risk of oversetting
it on the other. Every project or a material change in a government so
complicated, combined, at the same time, with external circumstances
still more complicated, is a matter full of difficulties." This is not
the language of a casual observer of men and manners, but of a profound
politician. It is borne out by his majesty's early experience. The
scheme which he adopted soon after his accession of breaking the power
of the Whig aristocracy, and of calling men of different parties to the
service of the state, was not only surrounded with difficulties, but
fraught with clanger. Men looked with favour on the long-established
supremacy of these great families, and their influence and power were
therefore not easily broken. Bute sought to dissolve the spell; but the
hand of Bute was not that of a magician, and he signally failed in the
attempt. Broken, but not subdued, the arist