"
"In doing which, I fear, you will concede all the merits," said Mr.
Effingham.
"I think not. Parliament then ruled the colonies absolutely and legally,
if you please, under the Stuarts; but the English rebelled against these
Stuarts, dethroned them, and gave the crown to an entirely new family--one
with only a remote alliance with the reigning branch. Not satisfied with
this, the king was curtailed in his authority; the prince, who might with
justice be supposed to feel a common interest in all his subjects, became
a mere machine in the hands of a body who represented little more than
themselves, in fact, or a mere fragment of the empire, even in theory;
transferring the control of the colonial interest from the sovereign
himself to a portion of his people, and that, too, a small portion. This
was no longer a government of a prince who felt a parental concern for all
his subjects, but a government of a _clique_ of his subjects, who felt a
selfish concern only for their own interests."
"And did the Americans urge this reason for the revolt?" asked Sir George.
"It sounds new to me."
"They quarreled with the results, rather than with the cause. When they
found that legislation was to be chiefly in the interests of England, they
took the alarm, and seized their arms, without stopping to analyse causes.
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