Excerpt from England and America, 1763 to 1783, Vol. 1: The History of a Reaction During these years the very largeness of the issue, and its end less complications, lessen the interest Of the struggle by depriving it Of any fixed central figure. Then, too, the Combatants are always changing sides. The moment the Sovereign we are supporting - lest he should become too weak - seems about to become too strong, we throw him over and take up with the other side. Thus, having fought for the Empress Maria Theresa all through the War Of the Austrian Succession (1740 in the Seven Years' War (17 56 1763) we were fighting for her enemy, the Great Frederick, because by that time we were more afraid of France than Of Prussia. The war with our American Colonies was a very different affair, and much more interesting. For however desirable we may think it to maintain a sort of equality between the several Powers Of a continent, the ins and outs of policy, the ups and downs Of war, in such a quarrel, can never have the living, personal interest of a struggle in which the prize is' not security against a distant and perhaps hypothetical danger, but actual, immediate independence and unfettered national life. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.