holic liquors had
taken the place of beer in England (to avoid the excessive tax imposed
upon it) and the grossest intemperance prevailed in the early part of
this reign. John Wesley introduced a regenerative force when he went
about among the people preaching "Methodism," a pure {142} and simple
religion. Not since Augustine had the hearts of men been so touched,
and a new life and new spirit came into being, better than all the
prosperity and territorial expansion of the time.

Walpole had passed from view long before the stirring changes we have
alluded to. A new hand was guiding the affairs of State; the hand of
William Pitt.

{143}

CHAPTER XII

At the close of the Seven Years' War, England had driven the French out
of Canada,--her ships which had traversed the Pacific from one end to
the other, (Capt. Cook) had wherever they touched, claimed islands for
the Crown; she had projected into the heart of India English
institutions and civilization.

Mistress of North America, and of the Pacific Isles, and future
mistress of India, she had left in comparative insignificance those
European States whose power was bounded by a single Continent. And all
this,--in the reign of the puniest King who had ever sat upon her
throne! As if to show that England was great not through--but in spite
of, her Kings.

When in 1760, George III. came to the throne, thirteen prosperous
American Colonies were a source of handsome revenue to {144} the mother
country, by whom they were regarded as receptacles for surplus
population, and a good field for unsuccessful men and adventurers.
These children were frequently reminded that they owed England a great
debt of gratitude. They had cost her expensive Indian and French wars
for which she should expect them to reimburse her as their prosperity
grew. They were to make nothing themselves, not so much as a
horseshoe; but to send their raw material to English mills and
factories, and when it was returned to them in wares and manufactured
articles, they were to pay such taxes as were imposed, with grateful
hearts to the kind Government which was so good as to rule them.

If the Colonies had still needed the protection of England from the
French, they might never have questioned the propriety of their
treatment. They were at heart intensely loyal, and the thought of
severance from the Mother Country probably did not exist in a single
breast. But they had since the fall of Que