XXVIII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



dant in suits of the Crown to recover nearly half a million dollars for 

 penalties, at the time of the first fighting at Lexington. Professor 

 Flick quotes a statement that "republicans, smugglers, debtors, and 

 "men of desperate fortunes, were the principal promoters of this un- 

 " natural rebellion," and another, " that of the seventy men who issued 

 " the Declaration of Independence, all but eight or nine were deeply 

 '' in debt, or very poor, and hoped for great benefit from the change." 



Men of this class, by appealing to the mob, on behalf of the liberties 

 of America, easily obtained the support of that class of the people who 

 paid no taxes. The law-abiding, respectable, well to do classes appear 

 to have held aloof from the agitators, and to have relied upon the consti- 

 tutional authorities to uphold the law, and to check a movement which 

 destroyed the rights of property, and soon upset all law and order. 



The disloyal party was immensely assisted by the unwise, injudi- 

 cious conduct of the British Government, and by the apathy and 

 extraordinary lack of foresight or judgment, on the part of the Loyalists 

 at the beginning. When the war broke out the mismanagement, lack of 

 ability, and almost corrupt negligence of the British generals, did more 

 to secure the success of the Eevolution, than either the ability of "Wash- 

 ington, or the efforts of his followers. 



This negligence and mismanagement gave the Eevolutionary party 

 ■such confidence and enabled them so to increase their strength and 

 organization, that it encouraged France, Spain and Holland to combine 

 to aid the rebels actively. The conjunction of the fleets of 

 these powers enabled them to secure the command of the sea for the 

 time, and so destroyed all hope of the Mother Country succeeding in 

 the struggle. 



The Home Government should have sent troops at once, in great 

 strength, to uphold the courts of law and prevent the petty acts of law- 

 lessness which at first were the only evidences of rebellion. They 

 should also have done away with the grievances. But instead of this, 

 they adopted the impolitic course of passing laws intended to punish 

 the malcontents, but which punished the loyal and disloyal alike, and 

 ihey passed these laws without at the same time sending sufficient troops 

 to enforce their decrees, or to protect those respectable classes who 

 were willing to obey them. This led to the discontent spreading, and 

 placed weapons in the hands of the disloyal party, while it annoyed the 

 loyalists and rendered them still more helpless. 



The fatal mistake of the loyalist party was that they never organized 

 and that they relied absolutely on constituted authority to preserve 

 ■order, and protect their persons and property. This gave the Sons of 

 Liberty full freedom to t}Tannize over and oppress all who would not 



