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Where God's one proven priest--fair Nature--reigns:
'Tis there, releas'd, (else blind and deaf thou art)
The chains that bind thy soul from the will start--
Uplifted, glad, thy spirit then shall know
That life is light, and heaven's here below!
The Genesis of the Revolutionary War.
By Henry Clapham McGavack.
Editor's Note: When Arthur James Balfour, Foreign Secretary and former Prime Minister of the British Empire, placed a wreath in tribute upon the sepulchre of George Washington, he paved the way toward an Anglo-Saxon unity of aims, ideals, and sympathies which will forever redound to the credit of this age. By his act, Great Britain expresses her fundamental faith in the institutions and principles of her American kindred, and removes the subtle barriers which have darkened both branches of the English race since the revolt of the Colonies one hundred and forty-one years ago. It is fitting that an American, speaking from sound knowledge and without prejudice, should meet the Mother Country half way in this mutual recognition of ideals, and seek to remove some of the mistaken Anglophobic notions which false history and biased text-books have implanted in the American mind. We should behold our valiant ally and ancestral nation as she is, not as we have learned to view her through the green spectacles of transmitted feuds and hereditary hatreds. The author of the following article, a Virginian by birth and blood, has made a life-long study of diplomacy and Anglo-American history, and is unusually well qualified to deal with the problem of international relations. His frank historical statements, while perhaps startling to the lay reader, should be of immense value in doing away with the senseless idea that England is at heart an oppressor. Side by side, the Old England and the New must stand as of yore against alien tyranny. As joint inheritors of the blood which crushed the pride of Philip II and the Invincible Armade we, the Anglo-Saxons of the world, again face armed despotism fearless and united.
H.P.L.
The erroneous impression of the Revolutionary War prevailing in America today is due to two causes; ignorance of Colonial history, and an absolute lack of knowledge regarding the political and commercial policy of 18th century England.
The Revolution was not, as is fondly imagined in these parts, the spontaneous outburst of a collected and united people against the misgovernment and tyranny of a diabolic power across the Atlantic; it was not fought with glorious patriotism, self-denial and valour by any great number of the colonists; it was not brought to a successful conclusion by any army or group of armies on American soil. It was, on the other hand, the outgrowth of sordidness and greed and pigheadedness and general incompetence all around; the major share of which attributes must be apportioned to the colonies.
