1910.] Genesis of americån Tndependence. 17 



most intimately connected wiih the ascendency of a self-seeking 

 dass or faction. 



The English landed gentry which still controlled the govern- 

 ment of the country, no longer represented any vigorous pro- 

 gressive element; they were rather blocking the road of progress 

 for the country. They were a stationary or even retrogressive 

 class which still stuck to the power and which used it for the 

 advantage of themselves as a class or individually rather than 

 for the benefit of the whole nation. Military as well as civil 

 offices were reserved for them, and public service was to them 

 a source of income, not a lofty aim of their lives. 



It was this class, not the English nation as a whole, which 

 fought against the economic liberty of the colonies. That appears 

 in the fact that no national army could be levied against America; 

 the Government was reduced to the necessity of hiring soldiers 

 abroad. It was the ruling class which kept up the antiquated 

 colonial policy, and which conducted the war with America. The 

 very same class interests, then, that directed the economic policy 

 of the counlry, made the Government incapable of vanquishing 

 the rebel colonies. 



The corrupt landlordism that ruled England was confronted 

 by the young, aspiring commercial society of America, badly 

 organized for war, it is true, but following a leader who in his 

 person concentrated the whole American energy, its boldness of 

 purpose and its patient stubbornness, — George Washington, 

 a captain whose highest claim to greatness as a military leader 

 was that he suffered defeats without ever being conquered. 



It may be objected that the same England, less than twenty 

 years before the American Revolution, had been victorious in a 

 universal war, and again, less than twenty years afterwards 

 won a signal victory in the world contest with Napoleon. I think 

 this objection may be done with by referring to the historical 

 difference of the cases. In the Seven Years' War with France, 

 England had to fight an enemy, even much more corrupt and 

 ineffective than herself, and, moreover, the English War Minister, 

 William Pitt, may be justly said to be the first vigorous 



Vid.-Selsk. Forh. 1910. No. 3. 2 



