Enjoy the words of two remarkable people in England who battled on for the cause of conciliation between the home country and the colonists in America. Neither was listened to. This was a time when many in Britain wanted only to turn a deaf ear to the Americans and their concerns.

Meanwhile, back out there, General Gage was still in command of a military force occupying Boston. He decided it was time to use his military force militarily and sent troops to two Massachusetts villages that have since entered American legend. They are Lexington Green and Concord.

While they were there, a hostile confrontation led to a shot being fired, and we were off: what had been a war of words became a shooting war.

It started badly for the British. We’ll discover soon that it would end just as badly. But it would take some seven years.

Illustration: Portrait of Edmund Burke from the studio of Joshua Reynolds, circa 1769. National Portrait Gallery 655.