h rivals, without the Imperial forces, which, indeed,
had done by far the greater part of the fighting. How
was the cost to be shared between the mother country and
themselves? The colonies had not been asked to pay more
than their share. The point was whether they could be
taxed at all by the Imperial government when they had no
representation in the Imperial parliament. The government
said Yes. The colonies and the opposition at home said
No. As the colonies would not pay of their own accord,
and as the government did not see why they should be
parasites on the armed strength of the mother country,
parliament proceeded to tax them. They then refused to
pay under compulsion; and a complete deadlock ensued.

The personal factors in this perhaps insoluble problem
were still more refractory than the constitutional. All
the great questions of peace and war and other foreign
relations were settled by the mother country, which was
the only sovereign power and which alone possessed the
force to make any British rights respected. The Americans
supplied subordinate means and so became subordinate men
when they and the Imperial forces worked together. This,
to use a homely phrase, made their leaders feel out of
it. Everything that breeds trouble between militiamen
and regulars, colonials and mother-countrymen, fanned
the flame of colonial resentment till the leaders were
able to set their followers on fire. It was a leaders'
rebellion: there was no maddening cruelty or even
oppression such as those which have produced so many
revolutions elsewhere. It was a leaders' victory: there
was no general feeling that death or independence were
the only alternatives from the first. But as the fight
went on, and Loyalists and revolutionists grew more and
more bitter towards one another, the revolutionary
followers found the same cause for hating the Loyalists
as their leaders had found for hating the government.
Many of the Loyalists belonged to the well-educated and
well-to-do classes. So the envy and greed of the
revolutionary followers were added to the personal and
political rage of their leaders.

The British government had done its best for the Loyalists
in the treaty of peace and had urged Carleton, who needed
no urging in such a cause, to do his best as well. But
the treaty was made with the Congress; and the Congress
had no authority over the internal affairs of the thirteen
new states, each one of which could do as it li