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CHAPTER XI

THE AMERICAN REBELLION AND THE GREAT FRENCH WAR, 1760–1815; REIGN OF GEORGE II

 

’Twas not while England's sword unsheathed
 Put half a world to flight,
Nor while their new-built cities breathed
 Secure behind her might;
Not while she poured from Pole to Line
 Treasure and ships and men—
These worshippers at Freedom's shrine
 They did not quit her then!

Not till their foes were driven forth
 By England o'er the main—
Not till the Frenchman from the North
 Had gone, with shattered Spain;
Not till the clean-swept ocean showed
 No hostile flag unrolled,
Did they remember what they owed
 To Freedom—and were bold!

The Rebellion of the American Colonies, 1776.Soon after the peace of 1763, we began to perceive one result of the conquest of Canada which few people had expected. Our American colonies, having no French to fear any longer, wanted to be free from our control altogether. They utterly refused to pay a penny of the two hundred million pounds that the war had cost us; and they equally refused to maintain a garrison of British soldiers. They intended to shake off all our restrictions on their trade, and to buy and sell in whatever market they could find. When our