Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/118

88 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS eminent would presently come to an end in general anarchy and bloodshed; and it was believed by George III. and the narrow-minded politicians, such as Lord Sheffield, upon whose cooperation he relied, that, if sufficient obstacles could be thrown in the way of American commerce to cause serious distress in this country, the United States would repent of their independence and come straggling back, one after another, to their old allegiance. Under such circumstances it was impossible for Mr. Adams to accomplish much as minister in Eng land. During his stay there he wrote his "Defence of the American Constitutions," a work which afterward subjected him at home to ridiculous charges of monarchical and anti-republican sym pathies. The object of the book was to set forth the advantages of a division of the powers of gov ernment, and especially of the legislative body, as opposed to the scheme of a single legislative cham ber, which was advocated by many writers on the continent of Europe. The argument is encum bered by needlessly long and sometimes hardly rele vant discussions on the history of the Italian republics. Finding the British government utterly stub born and impracticable, Mr. Adams asked to be recalled, and his request was granted in February, 1788. For the "patriotism, perseverance, integrity, and diligence" displayed in his ten years of service