“But because he lives in America, your father cannot have the very rights that make him English, and therefore loyal. The system of empire doesn’t permit it. Your father is not a freeborn Englishman. He is a colonist. He may be grateful to be ruled by freeborn Englishmen in Lon-don—and that, I grant, is better than being ruled by a tyrant—but that is all he can have. If your father is loyal to the king and to the empire because he thinks he is an Englishman, then he deceives himself. And all because no one can think of how else to run an empire. Therefore, I say, there must sooner or later be conflict. If your loyal father has any sense, he will rebel.” This bleak paradox seemed to give Hughes a certain satisfaction. He looked at them both triumphantly.

James laughed.

“I don’t think I shall tell my father what you say of him. But tell me this: how else could the empire be governed? How could the American colonists be represented?”

“There are two alternatives. There could be American representatives in the London Parliament. An unwieldy arrangement perhaps, with America being an ocean away from London, but it might do the trick.”

“And have colonists voting on English concerns?” said Grey Albion. “I can’t see any government standing for that.”

“You see,” said Hughes, with a sly smile to James, “what you colonists are up against. In fact,” he turned to Albion, “if governments were wise, they would think even larger thoughts. Were the American colonies to have representation in London, then as they grew, so might the number of their representatives, and in a century or two, I dare say, we should have an imperial parliament in which the American members made up the majority. Who knows, the king might even abandon London and keep his court in New York!”

Grey Albion burst out laughing. James shook his head, amused, but thoughtful also.

“You said there were two alternatives,” he reminded Hughes.

“Indeed. The other would be to let the Americans govern themselves—at least to approve the taxes they must pay.”

“If they are willing to pay taxes at all.”

“That may be a difficulty. But they should pay for their defense. However, it is a hard thing for ministers in London to give up any power.”

Here, Grey Albion interposed.

“You omit one difficulty, Hughes. Our ministers fear that if they give in to radical American demands, then other parts of the empire, especially Ireland, will want more liberty, and the whole British Empire could collapse.”

“I think they’ll have even more trouble if they don’t,” said Hughes.

“You do not consider then,” James asked, “that the present arrangement for America can last?”

“I think that men like Ben Franklin and your father may find temporary compromises. But the system is fundamentally flawed.”