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Show - THE BRITISH COMMON PEOPLE The friends and agents of the kaiser in this country who are . doing their best to stir up trouble between the United States and England by reminding Americans of the War of the Revolution would do well to study history with greater care. If they did so they would learn that British during the Revo lution. and for many years before, was ruled by a German familv that was entirely out of sympathy with the best thought in England. Eng-land. The Great Britain of those days was ruled in much the same the Germany of today. The common people had few representatives in parliament and fewer friends in the kings cabinet. George III was as much an autocrat as is the present kaiser of Germany, and as much a German. ' A careful study of history will also reveal that the war with the colonies was so unpopular in the mother country that English-.-men would not enlist. The government, to fill the ranks, was corn-spelled corn-spelled to buy up Hessian peasants at so much per head. . The number num-ber of poor creatures who were thus driven into battle against the colonists has been variously estimated at from 17,000 to 40,000. If the common people of England were in sympathy with the revolting colonists, the same may be said of Britain's leadinr statesmen of that time. "I rejoice that America has resisted," . declared Chatham in parliament. "Three millions of people so dead to all feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest." Chatham's sentiments-were shared by such prominent men as jGockingham, Burke, Fox and others. The common people of Britain have always been friendly to ' rrica. Their friendship is more evident today than in the distant dis-tant past because they are in control of the government. In Revo-" Revo-" lutionary times, and for many years afterward, they had prac-z prac-z tically no voice in the government. Isn't it about time for American Ameri-can school histories to take cognizance of this important fact? Exchange. |
