74 FISHER— :\IYTH-MAKING PROCESS IN [April i8, 



life and manners, his work is largely made up from the commenta- 

 tors. It is melancholy that a man of so much talent should sur- 

 render himself body and soul to this old stupidity of forever re- 

 writing the Revolution from the accumulating opinions of commen- 

 tators, which move farther and farther away from the evidence; 

 and now Mr. Trevelyan's six or a dozen volumes must be thrown 

 into the mass to be re-hashed for another progress away from the 

 original evidence. 



Within the last year or so, however, there has appeared an Eng- 

 lish history of the Revolution by the Rev. Mr. Belcher, which shows 

 a most decided familiarity with the original evidence and an equally 

 decided determination to jump out of the old whig and Annual Reg- 

 ister rut. He is the first Englishman that has discovered, or has 

 been willing to admit, that there is a great mass of loyalist evidence. 

 He gives his book an entirely correct title and calls it " The First 

 American Civil War." He is rather an interesting and clever phrase- 

 maker, after the manner that has been popular in England for some 

 time. But he runs on too much into mere political gossip, unrelated 

 details, and his book, in consequence, lacks logical sequence ; an 

 inevitable defect, some will say, in a man of religion. But no matter 

 about that, and no matter about his taking a very John Bull point 

 of view, and safeguarding John's face and colonial possessions. He 

 has jumped out of the old rut. He is in the original evidence; and 

 for that heaven be praised even if he only flounders in it. 



Since the above paragraph was written my attention has been 

 called to an article in Blackwood's Magazine (^March 1912, p. 409), 

 attacking with very considerable severity and ridicule the absurdity 

 of continuing to write the history of the American Revolution 

 from the narrowness of the old whig point of view. It is mere 

 " senseless panegyric," the writer says. As a piece of history " it 

 belongs to the dark ages ; " it represents the views of the desperate 

 whigs which will never again be expressed by a serious historian. 



Why be so scared and timorous about the original evidence, and 

 why conceal it. After the first plunge and shock of the cold water 

 is over, you will enjoy it. The real Revolution is more useful and 

 interesting than the make-believe one. The actual factions, divisions, 



