The Stuart sovereigns of England steadily attempted to strengthen their power, and the resistance to that effort caused an immense growth of Parliamentary influence.

The participation of the people in their own government was the more significant, because the colonies actually had what England only seemed to have, - three departments of government.

One of the strongest and most persistent elements in national development has been that inheritance of political traditions and usages which the new settlers brought with them.

In 1763 the English were the most powerful nation in the world.

Everywhere among the English-speaking race criminal justice was rude, and punishments were barbarous; but the tendency was to do away with special privileges and legal exemptions.

The old charters of Massachusetts, Virginia, and the Carolinas had given title to strips of territory extending from the Atlantic westward to the Pacific.

England and France were rivals, not only on the continent, but in the West Indies, in India, and in Europe.