236 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



materially in their results : that embarked 

 in by the British provinces in North Ameri- 

 ca, though conducted for some time with 

 much bitterness of hostility, was not stained 

 (with a few exceptions) by any acts incon- 

 sistent with civilized warfare ; whilst the 

 sanguinary civil war, which so long raged 

 in Spanish America, was unhappily charac- 

 terized by atrocities disgraceful, not only to 

 civilized men, but even to human nature in 

 its lowest state of degradation. 



The results also have been in many re- 

 spects widely different. Great Britain, find- 

 ing the contest hopeless, wisely acknow- 

 ledged the independence of her late colo- 

 nies, and has derived from the United 

 States of America infinitely greater advan- 

 tages, with reference to the increase of her 

 commerce, and of her wealth, than she could 

 by any possibility have received from them, 

 had they continued her colonies. Spain, on 



