OCR Text |
Show BY THE PRESIBEWT-" .J and they had come out of the hot business confident that henceforth, at any rate, they could dispense with English troops and take care of themselves. them-selves. They had lost both their fear of the French and their awe of the English. 'Twas hardly an opportune time for statesmen in London to make a new and larger place for England's authority author-ity in America, and yet that was what they immediately attempted. Save Chatham and Durke and a few discerning men who had neither place nor power, there was no longer any one in England who knew, though it were never so vaguely, the real temper tem-per and character of the colonists. 'Twas matter of common knowledge and comment, it Is true, that men of Massachusetts were beyond all reason impatient of command or restraint, affecting an Independence which was hardly to be distinguished from contumacy con-tumacy and insubordination; but what ground was there to suppose that a like haughty and ungovernable spirit lurked in the loyal and quiet south, or among the prudent traders and phlegmatic phleg-matic farmers who were making the middle colonies bo rich, and so regardful regard-ful of themselves In every point of gain or interest? "Hands Off," the British Policy. Statesmen of an elder generation had had a sure Instinct what muBt be the feeling of Englishmen in America, and had, with "a wise and salutary neglect," suffered them to take their own way in every matter of self-government. Though ministry after ministry had asserted a rigorous and exacting supremacy su-premacy for the mother country in every affair of commerce, and had determined de-termined as they pleased what the colonies col-onies should be suffered to manufacture, manufac-ture, and how they should be allowed to trade with what merchants, in what commodities, In what bottoms, within what limits they had nevertheless never-theless withheld their hands hitherto from all direct exercise of authority in the handling of the internal affairs of the several settlemen's, had given them lea e always to originate theif own legislation and their own measures meas-ures of finance until self-government had become with them a thing as If of immemorial privilege. A Shrewd Statesman. Sir William Keith, sometime governor gov-ernor of Pennsylvania, had suggested to Sir Rorert Walpole that he should raise revenue from the colonies. "What!' exclaimed that shrewd master mas-ter of men. "I have Old England Bet against me, and do you think I will have New England likewise?" Dut men had come Into authority In England now who lacked this stout sagacity, and every ilement of sound discretion. English arms and English n orey, they ciuld say. had swept the French power from America In order that the colonies might no longer suffer suf-fer menace or rivalry. A great debt hai been piled up in the process. Should not the colonies, who had reaped the chief benefit, bear part of the cost? They had themselves Incurred burdensome bur-densome debts, no doubt. In the struggle, strug-gle, and their assemblies ould very likely profess themselves willing to vote what they could should his majesty majes-ty call upon them and press them. F.ut an adequate and orderly system of taxation could not be wrought out by the separate measures of a doen petty legislatures; 'twere best the taxation should be direot and by parliament, par-liament, whoso authority, surely, no man outside turbulent Boston would be mad enough seriously to question or resist (TO BE CONTINUED.) Gunston Hall or Mount Vernon two or three times a week to warm their blood in the hale sport, and dine together to-gether afterwards a cordial company of neighbors, witb fany topics of good talk asf a to cover. The hunt went fastest ,,.ad most incessantly in-cessantly when Lord Fairfax came down from his lodge in the valley and joined them for days together in the field and at the table. Washington loved horses and dogs with the heartiest sportsman of them ail. He had a great gusto for stalking deer with George Mason on the broad forested tracts round Gunston Hall, and liked often to take gun or rod after lesser game when the days fell dull; but best of all he loved a horse's back, and the hard ride for hours together to-gether after the dogs and a crafty quarry a horse it put a man to his points to ride, a country where the running was only for those who dared. A Judge of Horseflesh. His own mounts could nowhere be bettered in Virginia. There was full blood of Araby in his noble Magnolia, and as good hunting blood as was to be found In the colony In his Blue-skin Blue-skin and Ajax, Valiant and Chlnkllng. His hounds he bred "bo flew'd, so sanded," bo matched In speed and habit, that they kept always tune and pace together In the field. "A cry more tuneable was never holla'd to, nor cheered with horn," than theirs when they were let "Bpend their mouths" till echo replied "as If another an-other chase was in the skies." 'Twas first to the stables for him always In the morning, and then to the kennels. It had been hard and anxious work for Washington to get his affairs into in-to prosperous shape again when the war was over, and those long, hopeless summers on the stricken frontier. Stock, buildings, fences everything had to be renewed, refitted, refit-ted, repaired. For the first two or three years there were even provisions to buy. so slow was the place to support Itself once more. Not only all his own ready money, but all he got by his marriage, too, and more besides, was swallowed up, and he found himself In debt before matters were finally set to rights and profitable crops made and marketed. But, the thing once done, affairs cleared and became easy as tf of their own accord In the business of the estLte. A Master of Men. The men he had to deal with presently pres-ently knew their master; the young planter had matured his plans and his discipline. Henceforth his affairs were Installment 7 The soldierly young" planter gave those who knew him best, as well as those who met him but to pass, the Impression of a singular restraint and self-command, which lent a peculiar dignity and charm to his speech and carriage. They deemed him deeply passionate, and yet could never remember re-member to have seen him In a passion. pas-sion. The impression was often a wholesome check upon strangers, and even upon friends and neighbors, who would have sought to Impose upon him. Terrible In His Wrath. No doubt he had given way to bursts of passion often enough in camp and upon the march, when Inefficiency, In-efficiency, disobedience, or cowardice angered him hotly and of a sudden. There were stories to be heard of men who had reason to remember how terrible he could be in his wrath. But he had learned, in the very heat and discipline of such scenes, how he must curb and' guard himself against surprise, and it was no doubt trials of command made in his youth that had given him the fine self-poise men noted in him now. He had been bred in a strict school of manners at Belvoir and Greenway court, and here at his own Mount Vernon In the old days, and the place must have seemed to him full of the traditions of whatsoever was just and honest and lovely and of good report as he looked back to the time of his gentle brother. It was still dangerous to cross or thwart him, Indeed, Poachers Poach-ers might look to be caught and soundly thrashed by the master himself him-self if he chanced their way. Negligent Negli-gent overseers might expect sharp penalties, and unfaithful contractors a strict accounting, if necessary work went wrong by their fault. Always Open to Conviction. He was exacting almost to the point of harshness in every matter of Just right or authority. But he was open and wholesome as the day, and reasonable rea-sonable to the point of pity in every affair of humanity, through It all. Now it was "my rascally overseer, Hardwlck," in his diary, when certain mares were sent home "scarce able to hlghlone, much less to assist In the business of the plantations;" but not a month later It was "my worthy overseer, Hardwlck, lying In Winchester Win-chester of a broken leg." It was not In his way to add anything to the penalties of nature. A quiet simplicity of life and a genuine love of real sport rid him of morbid humors. All up and down the English world, while the eighteenth century lasted, gentlemen were commonly com-monly to be found drunk after dinner outside New England, where the efficient ef-ficient Puritan church had fastened so Eingular a discipline In manners upon a whole society and Virginian gentlemen gen-tlemen had a reputation for deep drinking which they had been at some pains to deserve. A rural society craves excitement, and can get it very simply by such practices. There is always leisure to sleep afterwards, even though your dinner came In the middle of the day, and there is good reason you should be thirsty if you have been since daybreak day-break in the saddle. Not a Hard Drinker. To ride hard and to drink hard seemed to go together in Virginia as Inevitably as the rhymes In a song, and 'twas famous hard riding after the fox over the rough fields and through the dense thickets. If Washington Wash-ington drank only small beer or elder1 and a couple of glasses of Madeira at dinner, It was no doubt because he bad found his quick blood tonic enough, and had set himself a hard regimen as a soldier. He did not scruple to supply drink enough for the thirstiest gathering when he presented himself to the voters vot-ers of the countryside as a candidate for the house of burgesses. "A hogshead hogs-head and a barrel of punch, thirty-five thirty-five gallons of wine, forty-throo gallons gal-lons of strong cider, and dinner for his friends," was what he cheerfully paid for at his first election, and the poll footed but a few hundred voles all told. Mount Vernon saw as much company com-pany and a constant merriment nnd good cheer as any house in Virginia; and the master was no martinet to his guests, even though they enmo upon professional errands. "Doctor Laurie carno here, I may add, drunk," Buys his quiet diary, without comment, though the doctor had come upon summons to attend Mrs. Washington, nnd was next morning suffered to use his lancet for her relief. No doubt a good fellow when sober, and not to bo ll;hUy chlded when drunk, If ko many a gallant horseman and gentleman who Joined the meet of the countryside country-side at the hospitable place to follow the hounds when the hunting wns flood. Fox Hunting Winter and Summer. There was fox liuo'lng winter and uintncr. In season Hi.d out, hut the Irort was nest In the frosty days of January and February, when the year wns young and the gentlemen of tho country round gntherd at Bitlvolr or and in the fashion; and the master of Mount Vernon would have deemed it an impropriety to be less careful than his neighbors, less well dressed than his station and fortune warranted. He watched the tradesmen sharply. " 'Tis a custom, I have some reason to believe, with many shopkeepers and tradesmen in London," he wrote blunt, ly to the Messrs. Cary, "when they know goods are bespoken for exportation, exporta-tion, to palm sometimes old, and sometimes very slight and indifferent, goods upon us, taking care at the same time to advance the price," and he wished them informed that their distant dis-tant customers would not be so duped. Longed to Go Abroad. He longed once and again to be quit of the narrow life of the colony, and stretch himself for a little upon the broader English stage at home. "But 1 am tied by the leg," he told his friends there, "and must set inclination inclina-tion aside. My indulging myself in a trip to England depends upon so many contingencies, whichin all probability, prob-ability, may never occur, that I dare not even think of such a gratification." But the disappointment bred no real discontent. There could be no better air or company to come to maturity in than were to be had there in Virginia, if a young man were poised and master of himself. "We have few things here striking to European travelers (except our abundant woods)," he professed, when he wrote to his kinsman, Richard Rich-ard Washington, in England; "but little lit-tle variety, a welcome reception among a few friends, and the open and prevalent hospitality of the country;" but it was a land that bred men, and men of affairs. In no common fashion. Unrest In the Colonies. Especially now, after the quickening of pulses that had come with the French war, and its sweep of continental, conti-nental, even of International, forces acrosB the colonial stage, hitherto Bet only for petty and sectional affairs. The colonies had grown self-conscious and restless as the plot thickened and thrust them forward to a role of consequence con-sequence In the empire such as they had never thought to play, and the events which succeeded hurried them to a quick maturity. It wus a season a young man was sure to ripen In, and there was good company. The house of burgesses was very quiet the year Washington first took his place in it and stood abashed to hear himself praised; but before Mr. Robinson, Sts already veteran speaker, was dead, a notable change had set in. At Odds With Parliament. Within live years, before tho country coun-try on the ."St. Lawrence and the lakes was well out of the bands of tho French, tho parliament In England had entered upon measures of government which seemed meant of deliberate purpose pur-pose to set tho colonies agog, and every body of counselors In America stood between anger nnd amazement to see their people In danger to be so put upon. The threat and pressure of the French power upon the frontiers had made tho colonies thoughtful always, so long as It hinted, of their dependence depend-ence upon England for succor and defense de-fense should thero come n time of need. Once and Hguin often enough to keep them sensible how they must stand or fall, Bucceed or fall, with the power at home their own raw levies had taken part with tho king's troops out of England In some clumsy stroke or olher against a French stronghold In the north or a Spanish fortress in the south; and now at last they had gone with English troops Into the Held In a national cause. Provincials and redcoats bad joined for a final grapple with tho Fro.ich, to settle once and for all who should be owners and masters on the coveted continent. No Longer Dependent. The Irsuo had been decisive. Hy the summer f 1 0 Washington could write his kinsman In England that the French were so thoroughly drubbed and humbled that there remained little lit-tle to do to reduce Canada from end to end to tho lirillsh power. Hut the very thoroughness of the success wrought a revolution in the relations of the colonies to the mother country. It rid lliom of their sense of dependence. English regiments had mustered their thousands, no doubt, upon tho battlefields of the war In order that the colonies might be free to possess tho continent, and It was hard to see how tho thing could havo been accomplished without thorn. Hut It had been accomplished, and would not need to be ilono again. Not Overawed by Foreigners. Moreover, It had shown tho colonial mllll la bow strong they were even in the presence of regulars. They had almost everywhere burno nn equal part In the lighting, and, rank and (lie, they bad left with a keen resentment tho open contempt for their rudo equipment and ruatlo discipline witlcli too many arrogant officers nnd Insolent Inso-lent men among tho regulars hud shown. They know that they had proved themselves the equals of any I man in the king's pay lu tho fighting-, Mount Vernon In the Old Days. well In hand, and he could tako his wholcBomo pleasures both handsomely handsome-ly and with a free heart. There was little that was debonair about the disciplined Hnd masterful young soldier. He had taken Pallas's gift: "Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, these three alone lend life to sovereign power. And because right Is right, to follow right were wisdom in the scorn of consequence" Hut he took hend of his life very generally, and was matured hy pleasure pleas-ure no lees than by duty done. Ho loved a game of cards In almost nny company, and paid IiIh stakes upon tho rubber like every other well-conducted man of his century. Enjoyed a Good Horse Raoe. He did not find Annapolis, or even Philadelphia, too far away to be visited vis-ited for the pleasure of seeing a good horHo race or enjoying a round of balls and cvonlngn at the thontor, to shake the rustle dullness off of a too constant stay at home. Mrs. Washing ton enjoyed such outings, such little flings Into tho simple world of provincial provin-cial fashion, as much as he did; and they could not sit walling all the year for tho short season at Williamsburg. A young man at once so handsome, so famous, and so punctilious in point, of dress as Colonel Washington cod I 1 not but make a notuble figure In any society. "I want neither luce nor embroidery," em-broidery," was tho order ho sent to London. "Plain clothes, with n gold or sliver button (If worn In gentool dress), aio all I desire. My stature In six feet; otherwise rather slender than corpulent." Hut be was careful tho material, the color and tho fit should be of the best and most Insto-ful, Insto-ful, nnd that very elegant stuffs should bo provided from over the sea for Mrs. Washing!."" nnd her children, and very substantial for the servants who wcro to be in nttondiinco upon the householda house-holda livery of white nnd scarlet. 'Twas a point of Jirldo with Virginians Virgin-ians to know how to dregs, both well |