INTRODUCTORY NOTES
Military, religious and constitutional questions are not suitable for children, and are only touched here in Defoe’s racy, if partisan, summary. The close of the first extract gives a clear statement of the theory of a compact by virtue of which, rather than by Divine right, the Whigs considered the King to reign.
American affairs, however, played a part in the interests of great classes of the nation, and in the growth of the empire. “No taxation,” etc., was a party-cry rather than a real grievance; it was the monopolist trade rules demanded by British merchants that ultimately caused the war. To meet this monopoly the Americans adopted the successful policy of refusing to import British goods.
The “Appeal to France” shows the motives inciting our Continental enemies against us and also the weakness of America even at that date. In the writings of Franklin, Deane, and de Warville, can be seen the enthusiasm and debate which made the American example the real cradle of “Libérté, égalité, fraternité,” a relation not usually stressed in English history books.
The main effect of the century was the growth of a great capitalist class able to control the national affairs, drawing their wealth from the colonies, from new methods of agriculture, or of finance and industry, such as are seen in the references to Defoe’s Tour, Young’s Northern Tour, the Life of Coutts, and indications of the new inventions in industry, and the conditions they produced.