There were no Attilas now to stand in the way,--only a Philip or a
Pontiac. The assaults of barbarism constituted only a petty annoyance as
compared with the conflict of ages which had gone on in Europe. There
was no occasion for society to assume a military aspect. Principles of
self-government were at once put into operation, and no one thought of
calling them in question. When the neighbouring civilization of inferior
type--I allude to the French in Canada--began to become seriously
troublesome, it was struck down at a blow. When the mother-country,
under the guidance of an ignorant king and short-sighted ministers,
undertook to act upon the antiquated theory that the new communities
were merely groups of trading-stations, the political bond of connection
was severed; yet the war which ensued was not like the war which had but
just now been so gloriously ended by the victory of Wolfe. It was not a
struggle between two different peoples, like the French of the Old
Regime and the English, each representing antagonistic theories of how
political life ought to be conducted. But, like the Barons' War of the
thirteenth century and the Parliament's War of the seventeenth, it was a
struggle sustained by a part of the English people in behalf of
principles that time has shown to be equally dear to all.
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