A 
 
 LETTER, 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND POLITICAL, . 
 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 THE R'. H onble . WILLIAM PITT: 
 
 IN WHICH 
 
 THE REAL INTERESTS OF BRITAIN, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 PRESENT CRISIS, 
 
 ARE CONSIDERED, 
 
 AND 
 
 SOME OBSERVATIONS ARE OFFERED 
 
 ON THE 
 
 GENERAL STATE OF 
 
 EUROPE. 
 
 THE THIRD EDITION, CORRECTED AND ENLARGED. 
 
 By JdSPER WILSON, EJq. 
 
 WHO HATH TAKEN THIS COUNSEL AGAINST TYRE, THE CROWNING 
 CIIY, WHOSE MERCHANTS ARE PR1 N CES, WHOSE TRAFF1CK ERS 
 A8E THE HONOURABLE OF THE EARTH ? Ifa'iah. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR C. G. AND J. ROBIVSOM, PATERNOSTKR-ROW. 
 
 MDCCXCHI. 
 
 Price One Shilling and Sixpence.
 
 SfacR 
 fcnnex 
 
 F-5"
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 1 H E following Letter was originally written, as 
 well as printed, in fo hafty a manner, that fome in- 
 accuracies of compofition efcaped notice, as well as 
 (everal errors of the prefs it was perceived too, on a 
 farther review, that fome illuflrations and additions to 
 particular paffages were wanted, and a fliort, but ge- 
 neral fummary of the whole. Such corrections and 
 enlargements have accordingly been made; a Poft- 
 .fcript has been added, exemplifying, in fome of the 
 more material points, the application of events fub- 
 fequent to the original publication of the Letter, to the 
 reprefentations and reafonings it contains; and the 
 whole, it is hoped, will now be found lefs unworthy 
 of the favourable reception which the firft edition has 
 met with.
 
 LETT ER, &c. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 /\N inquiry into the caufes of the general ca- 
 lamities which affect the commercial and manufacturing 
 interefts, and the connexion which thefe may have with the 
 meafures of government, feems properly addreffed to you as 
 the Minifter of the Crown, and the Leader of the Houfe of 
 Commons. 
 
 A concurrence of fortune and talents has raifed you to a 
 degree of confequence in the public eye which no other in- 
 dividual of the age has attained, and your friends having 
 afcribed to you much of our late unexampled profperity, your 
 enemies will doubtlefs impute to you our prefent unparalleled 
 diftrefs. Party zeal may blind the one and the other ; but 
 the fubject of the prefent inquiry muft in every point of view 
 prcfs with peculiar force on your mind. 
 
 The writer of this was one of the warmefl of your ad- 
 mirers. The progrefs of time and of events has cooled his 
 enthufiafm refpecting you, but has not, as is often the cafe, 
 turned it into hoftility. Neither difpofed to offend or flatter, 
 he would deliver his fentiments with the deference due to 
 
 B your
 
 your extraordinary talents, but with the earneftnefs and fo* 
 lemnity fuited to the prefent crifis of human affairs . 
 
 That the calamities which affect our commerce and ma- 
 nufactures are great beyond example, it is unneceffary to 
 prove. The unprecedented and alarming meafures which 
 are reforted to in parliament to prevent the univerfal wreck 
 of credit, put this beyond a doubt, It does not however 
 feem to be generally obferved that thefe calamities are not 
 peculiar to Britain. Bankruptcies have fpread and are fpread- 
 ing every where over the continent of Europe, through 
 France, Holland, Germany, Poland, Rufiia, Italy, and Spain, 
 and every where private as well as public credit is ; impaired 
 or deftroyed. If the injury to commerce and manufactures 
 be more felt in Britain than elfewhere, it is becaufe we have 
 had more commerce and manufactures to be injure^ And 
 this reafon, which explains why Britain fuffers apparently 
 more than the other kingdoms of Europe, willalfo explain why 
 the different towns and counties of Britain fuffer at prefent 
 exactly in proportion to their former commercial profperity. 
 In one refpedt England differs at this juncture from moft of 
 the other European nations our public credit is yet tolerably 
 found "Whilft the governments of Ruffia, Auflria, Poland, 
 France, and Spain, are either bankrupt, or on the verge of 
 bankruptcy, and have had recourfc to practices that differ 
 little from open rapine. 
 
 I (late thefe facts on authorities to fome of which I (hall 
 allude as I go on, but I believe that you will admit them at 
 once as unqueflionable. 
 
 To feek for the origin of fuch general calamities within 
 the precincts of a fingle kingdom, is to labour to no purpofe. 
 They are to be traced, as it appears, to the prevalence and 
 cxtenfion of the war-fyilem throughout Europe, fupported 
 as it has been by the univerfal adoption of the funding-fyflem. 
 As this idea has not been laid before the public, as per- 
 haps
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
 haps it may not have prefcnted itfelf fully even to your 
 mind, and as it feems to be of the utmoft importance, I 
 muft beg leave to unfold it at fome length, and to ihew its 
 application to our own diftrefles. 
 
 Speculative men, Sir, in the retirement of their clofets, 
 have delighted to contemplate the progrefs of knowledge, 
 and to {hew its happy effects on the condition of our fpecies. 
 The truth feems to be, as was aflerted by Lord Bacon, that 
 " knowledge is power," of, to fpeak more popularly, that 
 power is increafed in proportion to knowledge. But the 
 effects of power on human iWffpinefs depend on the wifdom 
 and benevolence by which it is directed; and where thefe are 
 not found in a correfponding degree, an increafe of power 
 muft often add to the miferies of the human race. "With- 
 out however difputing the happy influences of the progrefs 
 of krrowledge on the whole, it may be doubted whether 
 thefe have extended in any-eonfiderable degree to the general 
 political fyftem ; and it may be clearly (hewn, that its effeds 
 on the intercourfe of nations with each other, have been 
 hitherto in many refpets injurious. 
 
 Among favages the means of intercourfe are reftrifted 
 to tribes who are neighbours, and hoftilities are confined in 
 the fame manner. As knowledge increafes, thefe means are 
 multiplied and extended, and nations not in immediate vici- 
 nity learn to mingle in each other's affairs. This is abun- 
 dantly proved by the hiftory of European nations, among 
 whom treaties offenfive and defenfive have, with their conv 
 munication with each other, been conilantly increafing for 
 the two larft centuries ; and wars, without becoming lefs fre- 
 quent, have become far more general, bloody, and expenfive. 
 The balance of power, a notion fpringing up among ftatef- 
 men towards the end of the ijth century, has been a prin- 
 cipal caufe both of the frequency and the extenfivenefs of 
 modern wars; the religious diftinclions which divided Europe 
 B a after
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 after the period of the reformation, have alfo been the caufe 
 or the pretext of frequent hoflilities ; and the fuppofed dig- 
 nity of crowns, an expreilion the more dangerous from the 
 obfcurity of its meaning, has been conftantly enumerated 
 among the reafons which juflified the inhabitants of differ- 
 ent countries in rufhing to the dcftrucHon of each other. 
 
 Wars thus originating in caufes peculiar to a femi-bar- 
 barous ftate of fociety, have been extended in other refpe& 
 by the progrefs of knowledge and its effects on the arts. 
 To this we are to attribute many of the improvements in the 
 fcience of deftru&ion, and in (he fcience of finance : to this 
 efpecially \ve are to attribute the funding-f\flem, which at 
 once multiplied the means of warfare twenty -fold, and which, 
 after anticipating and exhaufting the public revenue in almoft 
 every nation of Europe, feems at length to approach the 
 point fo clearly foretold, when it muft produce a fyftem of 
 general peace, or of univerfal defolation. 
 
 The Italian Republics, according to Dr. Smith, firfl 
 invented funding from them it pafled to Spain, and from 
 the Spaniards to the reft of the European nations. The 
 practice of funding commenced in England with our national 
 .debt during the war which terminated in the peace at Ryf- 
 wick in the year 1697, and it has been the means by which 
 this debt has accumulated to its prefent enormous amount. 
 The fyftem itfelf is precifely the fame as to the community, 
 that mortgaging the revenue of an eftate to raife a prefent 
 fum of money, is to the individual. The income mort- 
 gaged by the individual arifes perhaps from land, that of the 
 ftate from one or more taxes ; and both in the one cafe and 
 in the other, this mortgage is for the payment of the intereil 
 of the fum borrowed. The individual generally engages to 
 repay the principal when demanded ; the ftate never does this, 
 but while the intereft is regularly difcharged, and the coun- 
 try is tolerably profperous, the fccurity given by the ftate 
 
 being
 
 ( 5 ) 
 
 being transferable, finds a ready market, and thus the ab- 
 forption of the capital, as far as refpetls the creditor of the 
 ftate, is in a great meafure remedied. 
 
 The convenience of the funding-fyftem to thofe who ad- 
 minifter the governments of Europe is obvious. It enables 
 them on the commencement of wars to multiply their re- 
 fources for the moment, perhaps twenty-fold. Previous to 
 this invention, a tax raifmg five hundred thoufand pound* 
 annually, would have ftrengthened the hands of government 
 by this fum only ; but under the funding-fyftem, the tax 
 being mortgaged for ever for as much money as it will pay 
 the annual intereft of, brings into the treafury the capital 
 fum at once, that is, ten or perhaps twelve millions. It is 
 true this fpendthrift expenditure muft bring a day of reckon- 
 ing But what then ? Thofe who adminifter the public reve- 
 nue are not owners of the eftate, but in general, tenants at 
 will, or at moft, have a life intereft in it only. The prac- 
 tice of mortgaging the public revenue during wars prevents 
 the people from feeling the immediate prefTure of the expence, 
 by transferring it in a great meafure to pofterity. Minifters 
 look to the prefent moment, and delight in expedients that 
 may delay the evil day. When it comes, it does not in all 
 probability fall on thofe with whom the mifchief originated. 
 They are no longer in power ; they are perhaps in their 
 graves, and removed from the complaints and wrongs of their 
 injured country. 
 
 It is however but candid to acknowledge, that we have 
 feen you acting on a fuperior fyftem ; incurring the odium 
 of propofmg new taxes, to discharge the intertit of debts con- 
 tracted in fupport of meafures which you had uniformly op- 
 poled, and teaching almoft an exhaufted people to bear ftill 
 heavier burthens, rather than facrifice their future good, or 
 violate the eternal obligations of juftice ! Then was your 
 day of triumph. 
 
 Half
 
 Half informed men have fometimes contended that tJid 
 national debt is a national good. To enter at large into their 
 arguments is foreign to my purpofe, fince this pofition de- 
 pends on fophifins that have been often detected. It mar 
 indeed be admitted that fome accidental advantages have 
 arifen from the transferable and marketable nature of the 
 fecurities given to the public creditors : In times of commer- 
 cial profperity thefe have promoted circulation, and acted in 
 fome degree like a quantity of well-fecured paper money : 
 But this effect, befides that it is contingent and uncertain, ifi 
 no refpect compenfates for the evils ariiing from the preflure 
 of taxes, the increafed rate of wages, and the withdrawing 
 of an immenfe capital from productive to unproductive 
 labour *. 
 
 Without embarraffing ourfelves with complicated ideas, 
 it may be at once afierted, that a nation which goes on bor- 
 rowing and mortgaging without redeeming its funds, mud at 
 length, like an individual, become bankrupt, and that the ruin 
 this produces will correfpond to the magnitude of the bank- 
 ruptcy. This has been all along clearly forefeen by thofe 
 who have examined the fubject ; but the predictions of fome 
 enlightened men, as to the fum of debt under which the na- 
 tion muft become bankrupt, having turned out fallacious, igno- 
 rant perfons have fuppofed that the principle, on which thefe 
 predictions were founded, was in itfelf falfe. But admitting 
 that Mr. Hume f predicted that a debt of a hundred millions 
 would bring on a national bankruptcy, he erred in his calcula- 
 tion only from not forefeeing the influence of the progrefs of 
 knowledge on the ufeful arts, and the increafed fources of re- 
 
 * See the Wealth of Nations. 
 
 f It docs not appear that Mr. Hume was the author of this prediction, 
 which has been generally afcribed to him It is however evident from his 
 Efi;iy on Public Credit, tlxat lie did not forefee the great amount to which th 
 debt might be carried a circumftance eafiiy explained. 
 
 2 venue
 
 f 7 ) 
 
 venue which would thus be opened. The furprifing advances 
 of chemiftry, and the effects of its application to manufac- 
 tures ; the wonderful combinations of chemiftry and mecha- 
 nics, for the reduction of labour thefe are the happy means 
 by which bankruptcy has been hitherto averted. The fccurity 
 of property and the fpirit of liberty difFufed through the na- 
 tion, have called forth the talents of our people. Britain has 
 grown profperous in fpite of the wretched politics of her ru- 
 lers. The genius of Watt, Wedgewood, and Arkwright, has 
 counteracted the expenfe and folly of the American war. 
 
 Are we to go on for ever in this extraordinary career * ? 
 It is impoflible ! the fources through which we have been 
 enabled to fuftain our enormous burthens are in a great mea- 
 fure dried up, our burthens themfelves are increafing, and the 
 whole fabric of our profperity totters to its bafe ! 
 
 Our profperity depends on commerce ; commerce re- 
 quires peace, and all the world is at war this is the fhort 
 and the melancholy hiftory of our fituation. The (hock is 
 felt in England more than elfewhere, becaufe, as was faid be- 
 fore, England is more commercial than any other nation, but 
 it pervades more or Ids the continent of Europe, from St. 
 Pcterfburgh to Leghorn : the hiftory of commerce records 
 no calamity fo fevcrc and fo extenfive. Of the houfes that 
 remain folvent, it is known, that the greater part are ftrug- 
 gling with difficulties ; that thefe are hourly increafing ; and 
 that diftruft and difmay prevail univerfally. In Britain, as I 
 fhall have occafion to {hew, our mercantile diftrefles are ag- 
 gravated by the imprudent confidence, arifing out of extra- 
 
 * I might have anfwered this queftion In the words of Mr. Chalmers, in 
 his " Comparative Eftimate," where he very juftly decides, that we can go 
 on incurring debt, and frefh taxes, only while commerce and manufactures 
 increafe in a correfponding degree. This mafterly work will throw much 
 light on our prefent fituaiion ; Lord Hawkclbury will do well to pcrufe it 
 once more. 
 
 ordinary
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 ordinary profperity, which produced a very general over- 
 trading of capital, and in fome places a fpirit of very unjuftifi- 
 able fpeculation; but on the continent, where bankruptcy and 
 diftrefs began firft, the imprudence of the mercantile fyftem 
 feems to have had little fhare in the failures, which may be 
 traced almoft entirely to the war politics of the ruling powers, 
 and the dreadful practices by which thefe have been fupported. 
 Whoever examines the hiftory of the military efta- 
 blifhments of the different European nations, will find that 
 they have been for more than two hundred years almoft every 
 where regularly increafing. The means of fupporting this 
 increafe may have been found, in part, in the gradual aug- 
 mentation of opulence and population, which perhaps has 
 taken place pretty generally, in fpite of the burthen of thefe 
 eftablifhments. But the very great and fudden increafe of 
 the armies brought into the field in the latter end of the laft, 
 and the beginning of the prefent century, is clearly to be at- 
 tributed to the funding-fyftem, which about this time became 
 almoft univerfal. From this period the ftanding forces of 
 Europe during peace have been gradually and regularly aug- 
 menting as before, and each fucceflive war has produced 
 more numerous and better appointed armies than that which 
 preceded. The forces employed, the expenfe incurred, and 
 the deftruftion produced in the war which terminated in 
 the peace of 1763, far exceeded whatever was before known 
 in the annals of hiftory. Satiated and exhaufted with flaugh- 
 ter, the nations of Chriftendom funk down into a fhort-lived 
 repofe. This was foon difturbed by the emprefs of Ruflia, 
 whofe reign has involved her fubje&s in perpetual diftreffes, 
 her neighbours in conftant alarms, and has filled the eaftern 
 parts of Europe with repeated carnage *. In the weft, the 
 
 torch 
 
 * This fmgular woman affc&s to be a patronefs of learning, and is not 
 dcftitute of what are called the princely virtues. She has had a kind of hu- 
 mour
 
 ( 9 ) 
 
 the torch of war was rekindled by England, an a conflict 
 with her own colonies aided by France, more fruitlefs, fierce, 
 tmd bloody, than the war of 1756, difl'evered her empire, add- 
 ed a hundred millions to her debt, and fix millions annually 
 to her (landing taxes *. 
 
 During thefe operations in the eaft and weft, the centre of 
 Europe was agitated by thereftlefs and pragmatic temper of the 
 Emperor Jofeph. This uuwife and unfortunate, but not ill-in- 
 tentioned prince, was happily controlled by the talents of the 
 great Frederick, who for the lail twenty years of his life cul- 
 tivated the arts of peace, and on feveral occafions ftifled the 
 flames of a general war. The example of the King of Pruflia, 
 however, and the mutual jealoufy of the continental powers, 
 wonderfully increafed the armies of the continent, and during 
 his reign the peace eftablimment of Germany, a country con- 
 taining lefs thin eighteen millions of people, rofe to five or 
 fix hundred thoufand foldiers ! By his fuperior policy the 
 King of Pruflia indeed contrived to render his army compar- 
 atively little burthenfome to his fubjels, and died with his 
 treafury full f . But Auftria and all the inferior powers of 
 Germany have been long very poor. The wants of Jofeph 
 
 mour of fending her picture in gold fnuff- boxes to literary men in different 
 parts of Europe. Praife has beei\ openly bellowed on her by Zimmermann, 
 and indeed innnuated by Robertfon. Impartial hi (lory will record the fteps 
 by which tiie wife of Peter III. afcendtJ bit throne ; it will tell of 30,000 Turks 
 malfacred in cold blood at Ifmucl ; it will defcribe the iirft and the fecond 
 divifisn of Poland ; and the annalift of better times may record this " auguft 
 patronefs of letters" as the fcourge of the human race. 
 
 * By the firft of thefe wars we conquered America, by the fecond we 
 loft it, and thus abalancewas ftruck ; but two hundred millions of debt was 
 incurred, and five hundred thouland lives faciificed ! " What .hath pride 
 " profited us ? Or wh'it good have riches with our it us ? All 
 
 thefe things are paired away like a fhadow, and us a ; by." 
 
 "J of Salomon. 
 
 t His fucceffor, it is generally underftocd, has nearly, if not entirely, dif- 
 fipatedhis treafures. 
 
 C were
 
 ( 10 ) 
 
 vrcre great, thofe of Leopold greater, and thofe of the prefeflt 
 Emperor are extreme Ruffia is abfolutely bankrupt, and the 
 whole body of the peafantry reduced to the moft wretched 
 poverty. Spain languimes under an immenfe load of debt ; 
 and the fame may be faid of Holland, Portugal, and, as I am 
 informed, of the northern powers 'The fituation of France 
 needs not to be defcribed. 
 
 Aphilofophical mind will difcover in every page of hiftory, 
 and will lament, while it excufes, the fatal ignorance of thofe 
 by whom nations have been governed. General invectives 
 againft fuch characters are however unjuft j the Rulers of the 
 world ought to be approached with mingled refpect and pity. 
 Supreme power to its proper exercife requires perfect wif- 
 dom, and monarchs as well as minifters are weak, fallible and 
 ignorant, like ourfelves. Hence it is that we find them in all 
 nges wafting the little hoards of property acquired by private;, 
 induftry, in projects of foolifli vanity, or of ftill more foolifli 
 -ambition. And hence it is that,during the laft century, we have 
 feen them convert even the acquifitions of fcience and of the 
 rts, rifing unprotected in fociety, to the fame fatal purpofesj 
 carrying the fury of war by this means into the mod remote 
 feas and regions, and exhaufling not only the patrimony of 
 3. fingle generation in their ram and ruinous projects, but that 
 of new generations of men for a long fucceflion of years. 
 
 In the order of Providence, great evils bring their own. 
 remedies, and the funding-fyftem, by exhaufting the means 
 of fupporting war, has a tendency to produce univerfal peace. 
 But it is melancholy to reflect on the national bankrupt- 
 cies, which it muft probably render general in the firft 
 inftance. Their effects will vary as the people are more 
 or lefs commercial, more or lefs enlightened. They 
 may for a time rivet the chains of defpotifm, as in Rufiia ; or 
 raife a bloody anarchy on the ruins of monarchy, as in France. 
 A fyftem of general peace, adopted fpeedily, may avert a 
 great part of the calamities which lung over Europe ; but, 
 
 while
 
 ( II ) 
 
 ivhile paflion and prejudice fo generally predominate, this, 
 alas ! is rather an object of our wiihes than our hopes. 
 
 It ought however to make a deep impreflion on thofe 
 who are entrufted with the happinefs of nations, that the di- 
 rect caufe of all the troubles in France was the lavifh ex- 
 penditure of its old government fupported by the funding- 
 fyftem. The war of 1756, and that undertaken for the 
 Americans, brought this fyftem to its crifis ; the revenue was 
 more than anticipated by the intereft of debts and the expenfe 
 of the government ; frefli taxes could not be collected ; the 
 people called loudly for a redrefs of grievances : the court 
 gave way ; popular aflemblies were fummoned, and fol- 
 lowed each other in rapid fucceflion ; the current of opinion 
 fet ftronger every day againfl every thing eftabliflied : the 
 populace found their ftrength ; numbers, inflead of wifdom, 
 began to govern ; the practice of change begot a habit of 
 Changing, and property and principles were fwept away *. 
 
 Happily 
 
 * It is the fate of defpotic governments to he placed in general in the 
 Tiands of fools ; and where folly commands, it is ignorance alone that can ho 
 obedient. Nothing ever was fo palpably abfurd as the principles on which 
 France mingled in the American war. She wilhed to weaken England, and 
 threw her force into the American fcale. We had got into a conteft which 
 rr.uft have been long, expenfive, and finally unfuccefsful, even had the ahfo- 
 lute conqueft of the colonies crowned the firft years of the war. We were 
 likely, from our pride and prejudices, to perfevere to the uttermoft, and na- 
 tional bankruptcy could only have arrefted our career. France might hav 
 looked on in fecurity, taken the opportunity of the calm to have arranged 
 her finances, reformed her abufes, and ftrengthened herfelf by the arts of 
 peace. She might have rifen on our ruins, the emprefs of the fea, and tha 
 arbitrefs of Europe. She openly interfered the difeafe which feemed lin- 
 gering and mortal, fuddenly became violent ; a crifis took place ; we threw 
 off the colonies, acknowledged their independence, and, realTuming the art? of 
 peace, became in a few years more profperous than before. In the mean 
 time France had received a mortal wound ; to frnttnt tie <u>ar f,u* becoming 
 undtr tie ueijiing burtbent, flje lial carried it ou without new taxes, 
 
 Ca by
 
 ( 12 ) 
 
 Happily for England, by great and virtuous exertions, fhe 
 efcaped in the year 1783 the bankruptcy which France in- 
 curred. The effects of continued peace on a nation fuch as 
 ours are beyond calculation. National confidence and cre- 
 dit being reftored, our manufactures fpread over the conti- 
 nents of the old and the new world, and our revenue rofe on 
 the bafis of circulation to its late unexampled height. A paper 
 currency of promifibry notes and of bills of exchange was 
 a neceflary confequence, and this, which ought to have re- 
 prefented fpecie or merchandife only, became in a feafon of 
 fingular profpcrity the reprefentation of almoft every kind of 
 property fixed and unfixed. 
 
 In the mean time affairs on the continent aflumed a 
 hoftile afpecl:. The allied powers began to arm ; France 
 
 by borrowing only. When peace came, this new debt was to be provided 
 for the people were poor, difcontcnted, and, what was worft of all, they 
 \vere in fome degree enlightened the reft is known. 
 
 The policy of the powers which are combined againft France is of the 
 fame weak and fooli(h kind. The folly and the crimes of France rendered a 
 civil war inevitable, and Europe might have looked on in fafety and peace. 
 This mighty people, weakened by inteftine divifions, would have been no 
 longer formidable ; and the procefs of their experiments on government, if 
 left to itfelf, would have been fruitful oflelfons of the moft important kind. 
 The neighbouring monarcbs met atPillnitz, and agreed to invade France the 
 firft cwvenhnt opportunity. The treaty was difcovered ; it gave victory to 
 the republicans without a conteft ; a civil war was prevented; and the ban- 
 ner of Jacobinifm reigned triumphant. The allied powers have carried 
 their treaty into effect ; but being burthened w ith debt already, and the ftate 
 of the public mind requiring to be particularly conftthed at frefent, they are, hks 
 France of old, carrying it on by borrowing without laying on taxes, leaving 
 this for the feafon of peace. The Emperor I am told gives nine per cent, 
 for money, to prevent the impofition of taxes ; and yet it is faid that the un- 
 reafor.ahle people of Viertna are not fatisfied, 
 
 So far the policy of the powers now allied againft France, and that of 
 France herfelf in the American war, are precifely fimilar How fir the ef- 
 fects may correfpond is in the womb of time. 
 
 armed
 
 armed alfo. Armaments, in countries comparatively fpeaking 
 little commercial, required fpecie. It probably flowed freely 
 from England, for a paper circulation fupplicd its place. Thefe 
 armaments rendered the people, as well as the governments, 
 poor, by diminifhing and opprefling productive labour, ab^ 
 forbing the wealth that mould have been employed in pri- 
 vate induftry, and obftructing commercial intercourfe. Hence 
 our cuftomers did not purchafe, or did not pay for our ma- 
 nufactures, and they began to remain on our hands. 
 
 Certain circumftances however prevented for a time our 
 feeling the full effect of the war politics on the continent. 
 In the firft place we were at peace, and had declared for a 
 peace-fyftem, while the reft of Europe was agitated, and un- 
 der arms. Hence our funds became a favourite object of 
 purchafe for thofe monied men on the continent who wifhed 
 to fecure their property ; immenfe fums, it is faid, flowed in 
 from France and the Low Countries, and the prices of flock 
 rofe for a time, with the decline of our export of manufac- 
 tures, and the efflux, as it mould feem, of the precious 
 jnetals. 
 
 Another circumftance operated in our favour. The 
 war on the continent increafed the demand for parti- 
 cular manufactures, from Germany, and more efpecially 
 from France Birmingham felt this, fo did Yorkfhire. Burn-* 
 ing for combat, the Sans Culottes rufhed into the field and 
 Arms ! Arms and clothing ! was echoed from Picardy to 
 Provence. Thefe demands could only be fupplied by Eng- 
 land. France had ruined her credit by her fecond revolu- 
 tion : me muft come to market with fpecie -, and her gold 
 and filver might have refted with us. Our true policy was 
 clear. 
 
 By this time however the fympathies of the different 
 parties in England were excited to fuch a degree by the ftate 
 of things on the continent, that the dictates of found reafon 
 
 could
 
 ( 14 ) 
 
 could no longer be heard ; and the wickednefs of the ruling 
 party in France having perpetrated one deliberate and dread- 
 ful murder, calculated to awake the horror of men in an ex- 
 traordinary degree, the original friends of the revolution be- 
 came mute -, the once facred name of Liberty itfelf became 
 offenfive ; the alarmifts rofe fuddenly in numbers and force j 
 clamours and indignation fprung up in every quarter ; and, 
 amidft a wild uproar of falfe terrors and of virtuous fym- 
 pathy, the nation was plunged headlong into this dreadful 
 war ! 
 
 One powerful voice indeed was heard above the ftorm, 
 but the accents of reafon and truth founded like treafon to an 
 irritated people, and our rulers joined in the general outcry ; 
 the friends of peace incurred the fouleft calumnies of the day, 
 but fecured to themfelves the pureil admiration, when paffion 
 and prejudice fhall be no more. 
 
 War came , and faft on its heels a dreadful train of 
 evils bankruptcy followed bankruptcy in rapid fucceflion, 
 our refources feemed to vanifh, diftruft and terror feifed the 
 mercantile world, and the Bank of England itfelf partook, as 
 it is reported, of the general alarm. In the mean time you 
 are faid to have declared in your place, that thefe evils had no 
 connexion with the war, and Mr. Dundas allured us that they 
 arofe from our extraordinary profperity. Similar language is 
 made ufe of by the partizans of adminiftration every where, 
 and it is fit that this dreadful error mould be publicly unveiled. 
 In "a feafon of general peace and great profperity, pri- 
 vate as well as public credit had arifen to an extraordinary 
 height, and, from caufes very obvious, but which it would be 
 tedious to enumerate, paper-money became in a. great mca- 
 ftivc the medium of circulation. This paper confided of two 
 kinds ; of bills of exchange payable at different dates, and 
 generally difcountable ; and of promifTory notes, iflued by 
 the Bank of England and private Banking-houfes, payable in 
 
 fpccic
 
 fpceie on demand. The credit of each of thefe depended OTJ 
 their reprefenting a property real and fecure. The promi& 
 fory notes were indeed fuppofed to reprefent fpecie at all 
 times ready on demand, but in reality refted for their credit 
 on thebafis of fome fixed property within the kingdom, and 
 frequently on landed eftates. The bills of exchange depended 
 for their circulation on the joint credit of the drawer and the 
 acceptor, and reprefented in a great meafure property out o 
 the kingdom ; perhaps on the feas, in the Weft. Indies, on the? 
 coaft of Africa, in America, or on the continent of Eu- 
 rope *. By means of this medium a vaft quantity of fixed 
 property was brought, as it were, into a ftate of activity \ 
 the paper money iu circulation, every kind included, amount- 
 ing, as I have been told, to a fum that fcems almoft in- 
 credible f ! The effects of a war on a paper medium, 
 fuch as I have defcribed, may be eafily imagined. It muft 
 diminifh the fecurity of all property on the feas, in our iflands, 
 on the coaft of Africa, &c. and of courfe deftroy or impair 
 the credit of all bills of exchange running on the validity of 
 fuch property. If the property itfelf during a war would not 
 eafily find a purchafer, neither would a bill refting on that 
 property. The property itfelf however might ftill be fale 
 able, though at a diminifhcd value i but this would not be 
 the cafe with a bill of exchange, which, if it does not 
 pafs for the fum it is drawn for, will pafs for nothing, 
 and is thrown out of circulation. The manner in which 
 this diftrefled our Weft-India houfes is well known. The 
 degree of hazard of our iflands was perhaps over-rated, 
 a circumftance arifmg from the peculiar nature of the war, 
 
 * This fubjeft is very elegantly and fvilly explained in A pamphlet 
 imitled " Thoughts on the Caufes of the piefent Failures," publi/hed by 
 Johnfon. 
 
 t. Two hundred mil!. . 
 
 and
 
 ( 16 ) 
 
 snd the fears under which we laboured, and dill labour, of tntf 
 defperate methods to which the French may have recourfe. 
 Previous to the war in England, bankruptcies had begun on 
 the continent, and the fecurity of bills of foreign exchange 
 was every day impaired. The invafion of Holland by Dumou- 
 rier, one of the firft confequences of the war, was a blow 
 aimed at the credit of all Europe ; our houfes concerned in 
 Dutch and other foreign exchanges found their fecurity par- 
 ticularly fhaken j many of them are fuppofed to have tottered, 
 and feveral fell. A fimilar effect took place in various parts 
 of the continent, and the action and reaction of ruin fpread 
 far and wide. The invafion and partition of Poland con- 
 tributed much to this general calamity. The Bank of War- 
 faw, the depofit of all the furplus wealth of the landed inte- 
 reft of Poland, was opprefled and deftroyed by the royal 
 plunderers ; it failed, as it is faid, for ten millions fterling, 
 and brought down with it various houfes throughout Europe, 
 particularly in Peterfburg, Hamburg, and Amfterdam *. 
 
 The war deprived our manufactures of the French mar- 
 ket, of all others the mod extenfive, and, as it had been 
 conducted for a twelvemonth pad, by far the mod fafe and 
 lucrative. The general wreck of credit among our allies on 
 the continent deprived us in a great meafure of the markets 
 there. Orders did not arrive, or, if they did arrive, could not 
 be executed ; the fecurity of the correfpondent was doubted, 
 or the channel of payment fhut up. It was foon therefore 
 found, that our manufactures for the foreign markets had 
 not fuftained a temporary check, fuch as arifes from over- 
 trading every fixth or feventh year of peace, but an abfolute 
 ftagnation , the bills and paper running on the fecurity of 
 the capital veded in machinery (an enormous and lately moft 
 
 * Fifteen houfes in Petsrfburg, concerned in the trade to China, failed 
 together. 
 
 productive
 
 ( 17 ) 
 
 productive proper^) were of courfe flraken in their credit, 
 and in the courfe^bf a few weeks, if a profpeft of peace does 
 not open, will be of all others the moft infecure. If it were 
 proper on fuch an occafion to bring forward names, each of 
 thefe afTcrtions might be fupported and illuftrated by abund- 
 ant proofs. 
 
 The general refult of thefe particulars is That whereas, 
 before the war, bills were difcountable, and of courfe entered 
 into circulation from every part of the world, at perhaps 
 eighteen months date, and fometimes at even longer, diftruft 
 and bankruptcy have, for the prefent, rendered three-fourths 
 of the whole wafte paper ; and thofe of the very firft credit 
 are in general negotiable at two months date only. The im- 
 menfe chafm that this muft make in circulation may be eafily 
 imagined. 
 
 This general diftrefs in the commercial and manufac- 
 turing interefts muft, of courfe, occafion a great preflure on 
 the monied men. What' is their fituation ? Their property 
 is generally vefted in public fecuvities ; thefe muft be fold out 
 to meet the exigence, at a Icfs of from 20 to 25 per cent. 
 Public fecurities have already funk in value in confequence 
 of the war, to the amount of nearly fifty millions iterling, a 
 fum almoft equal to the whole of our national debt at the 
 commencement of the war of 1755 ! 
 
 Land has not efcaped deterioration-, but, for obvious rea- 
 fons, except in the immediate vicinity of towns, it has fuf- 
 fered lefs than any other property ; and of courfe the fecurity 
 of promiffory notes iffued by country barikmg-houfes, as far 
 as they depended on landed eftates, is, or ought to be, lefs 
 affected than any other. In the general panic, indeed, runs 
 have been made on almoft every houfe of this kind ; a few 
 have failed from insufficient liability, and many have flopped 
 payment for want of fpecie. But in general thofe who have 
 
 D (hewn
 
 fhewn a famcient foundation of real property, have been 
 fupported by public confidence, and, in the abfolute fcarcity 
 of gold and filver, their notes have returned into circulation, 
 In fituations where this has happened, the diftrefs i& far lefs 
 than where no circulation of fuch promifibry notes had taken 
 place. It feems the more neceflary to ftate thefe fats, be 
 caufe, in both houfes of parliament, fome refpe&able indivi- 
 duals feem difpofed to impute our prefent diftrefles in a great 
 meafure to the increafe of banking-houfes iffuing promiflbry 
 notes*. 
 
 It may be obferved, that circulating notes of this kind, 
 each reprefenting a guinea, have long been the univerfal me- 
 dium throughout Scotland, where the commercial diftrefs, 
 though great, is much lefs than in E..$land ; not more than 
 one banking-houfe there having as yet failed. Five pound notes 
 of the fame kind are in common circulation through feveral 
 of the northern counties, and, in the moment of general pa- 
 nic, were much exclaimed againft. But the alarm is fub- 
 fiding, and confidence returns f. The truth will foon appear 
 to be, that a well-fecured and well-regulated medium of this 
 kind is at this inftant of eflential fervice where it circulates; 
 and it is very probable that it will be reforted to in fituations 
 where it has not yet been adopted. In Lancafhire, where 
 the diftrefs both in the commercial and manufacturing inte- 
 refts is perhaps greater than in any part of the kingdom, pro- 
 miflbry notes were never iilued by any of the banking-houfes; 
 and to this, I. will venture to fay, the univerfal ftagnation 
 there is in fome degree to be attributed. The neceflity 
 of reforting to a paper-money generally, M'hich cannot be 
 Immediately commuted into fpecie ? would indeed be a 
 
 * The Duke of Norfolk is one who lias fallen into this miftiike. 
 
 f Ste the proceedings at Ncutuftk, \Y!uteh;v\ en, &c. 
 
 , proof
 
 ( 19 ) 
 
 proof of extraordinary diftrefs, but it may one day come. 
 There is a fituation that a good citizen muft brood over in 
 filence, but which the rapid career of our adyerfity does not 
 admit to be long abfent from his thoughts, in which it may 
 be the only-national remedy againfl general ruin and con- 
 fufion. 
 
 Though the bankiflg-houfes which circulate promiffbr.y 
 notes have not contributed in any confiderable degree to 
 our prefent diflrefs, it muft be admitted that it has been 
 aggravated by the imprudence of individuals in over-trading 
 their capitals, and reporting in feveral inftances to the fyftem 
 of drawing and redrawing for fupporting their credit*. This 
 however is a difeafe which has a conftant tendency to 
 arife in feafons of great profperuy, and which, though it 
 operate feverely on particular places, cannot be considered as 
 entering largely into out 1 national diftrefs t^-not having been 
 without its effect, it gives I prefume a colour to the aflertion 
 of Mr. Dundas; but will even Mr. Dundas fay, that the 
 imprudence of a few individuals has deftroyed the whole 
 market of our manufactures, or lowered the funds fifty mil- 
 lions ? 
 
 To this general reprefentatioii an objection will perhaps 
 occur, that it explains things too clearly ; that events can 
 feldom be traced in this regular way ; and that politics do 
 not afford any thing fo nearly approaching to demonftration. 
 The reply to this is eafy Politics have generally for their 
 object the conduct of cabinets ; and the uncertainty to 
 which they are liable is chiefly to be imputed to the igno- 
 rance and caprice by which cabinets are governed. Henc 
 the difficulty of predicting how they may aft arifes from 
 
 * Thofe who wifh to fee this clearly and fully explained, may con- 
 frilt the Wealth of Nations, laft edition. 
 
 D 2 the
 
 ( 20 ) 
 
 the impoflibility of forefeeing, with any certainty, their mo- 
 tives of action. But that part of the political ceconomy 
 which unfolds the theory of trade and manufactures, ap- 
 proaches to the nature of Tcience, bdcaufe it has the inter- 
 courfe of commercial men for its object, who are conflantly 
 governed by a fenfe of intereft, the moil uniform motive of 
 human conduct. We diftinguifti-ill, if we fuppofe that what 
 refpects commerce is equally uncertain with what refpects' 
 politics ; the freaks of the mifchievous monkey are indeed 
 wild and capricious, but the actions of the induftrious beaver 
 are uniform and exact. It may alfo be objected to. this 
 explanation of the csufes of our diflrefs, that it is founded 
 on principles which apply to former wars as well as to that 
 we are engaged in, while our prefent calamities are altogether 
 fingular and unprecedented. It muft be admitted -that our 
 diftreffes are fingular in degree, but they are 'not fingular in 
 their nature ; in the commencement of all our wars, induftry 
 and credit have fuftained a fimilar blow, and it only remains 
 to be fhewn why the prefent {hock is fo peculiarly fcvere and 
 tremendous. 
 
 That the entrance of war has always injured our com- 
 mercial profperity, may be proved from the authentic docu- 
 ments in Mr. Chalmers's " Comparative Eflimate;" and 
 thofe who remember the commencement of the laft war, 
 muft alfo recoiled the diflrefs which it occafioned. The 
 extraordinary ruin of the prefent moment, compared with 
 that of 1755 or *775> * & to be traced to the change which 
 this nation, as well as the other nations of Europe, has been 
 gradually undergoing, and to the peculiar nature and feat of 
 the exifting warfare. At the breaking out of the war in 
 1755, the debt of Great Britain amounted to feventy-two 
 millions ; and now the debt funded and unfunded is nearly 
 two hundred and fifty millions. \Ve fet out on the prefent 
 
 occafion
 
 ( 21 ) 
 
 occafion under an additional weight of almoft two hundred 
 .millions ! 
 
 But let us take the commencement of the laft war, a 
 period ilill freih in our recollections, and when the difparity 1 
 of fituation was not fo great. In the beginning of February, 
 you held out a prolpecl that the exiftiitg revenue was not 
 likely to fall off in confequence of the prefent hoftilities, be* 
 caufe in the firft year of the laft war it was not much affect- 
 ed. You feemed to admit that theprcgrefs of our commerce 
 and manufactures rni^Iit indeed be flopped, but you did not 
 apprehend there would be much, if any, diminution of what 
 we already poffeffed. The melancholy records of the laft 
 three months have detected this fatal error, to which per- 
 haps the war itfelf is in fome degree owing, and, painful as is 
 the office, there may yet be fome advantage in tracing it to 
 its fource. The American war commenced in a gradual 
 manner Our difputes with the colonifts had been of feveral 
 years continuance, and before hoftilities broke out our 
 merchants had forefeen them and provided againft them. 
 The provifiqn, it is true, was far from complete ; for though 
 in the year immediately preceding the war very unufual re- 
 mittances were made from America, yet, on the opening of 
 hostilities, a large capital was locked up in that country, by 
 which the trade of London, Briftol, and Liverpool, was con- 
 fulerably injured, and at Glafgow and Whitehaven a very 
 extenfive bankruptcy took place. A circumftance however 
 diilinguimed thofe times from the prefent, which is of mate- 
 rial importance. Previous to the war of 1775, our manu- 
 facturers were not much in the habit of exporting on their 
 own accounts. They received their orders chiefly from the 
 merchants here, at whofe rifque the manufactures were 
 ihipped ; fo that though the mercantile houfes received a 
 ievere blow in the rupture with America, the manufacturing
 
 ( 22 ) 
 
 "capital was, comparatively fpeaking, little injured. What 
 contributed a good deal to this, was the prohibition of im- 
 portation laid by the American Congrefs the year before thtf 
 war, at a time when remittances to this country were allow"*- 
 ed, and were fo confiderable^ In confequence of this, our 
 manufacturers, with their Ikill and their capitals unimpaired, 
 began early to explore new markets, and to improve thofe 
 already known; and from this date commenced that rapid 
 increafe of export to the continent of Europe, v/hich faved 
 us from national bankruptcy, and raifedus again to our rank 
 among nations. It was foon found that the American mar* 
 ket was, comparatively fpeaking, of little value , and it was 
 found alfo, that the fuperiority of our manufactures forced 
 their way into it, notwithftanding the obftruclions of the war. 
 They took a circuitous courfe indeed through Holland ; but 
 Yorkfhire furniihed the greater part of the clothing of the 
 Sans Culottes of America; and though they had fet up a re* 
 publican government, and were rebels, not againft Louis 
 XVI. but our own gracious King no Traitorous Corre* 
 fpondence Bill was moved for by the Attorney General ef 
 the day*. 
 
 Since the laft peace however our manufacturers have 
 almoft univerfally ated as merchants, and fhipped their 
 goods on their own account. They have gained pofleflion of 
 
 * It was during this period, if my memory does not fail me, that the 
 puke of Richmond, who has been fo loyally employed of late in fortify inj 
 the Tower, was accufed in the minillerial papers of having furveyed forrie 
 parts of the coaft, for the purpofe of dire&ing the French where they might 
 with fafety attack us ; it was at this time that Mr. Burke openly boafted in 
 the Uoufe of Commons, of correfponding with the repuhlican-rebel Frank- 
 lin, intriguing at Paris to bring all Europe on our heads ; it was during the 
 fame calamitous period that a young Statefman, fince fo well known 
 throughout Europe, began his career, by justifying the republicans of Ame- 
 rica in their refiftance, and reprobating, as the height of wickednefs and in- 
 fanity, our defign ef fubjugating them by force. 
 
 the
 
 the foreign markets, In part from the fuperiorlty of their 
 (kill, but far more from the fuperiority of their capital, 
 which has enabled them to give a credit almoft every where 
 from twelve to eighteen months. Hence at the prefent mo- 
 ment our manufacturing capital (contrary to what happened 
 in the beginning of the laft war) is in a great meafure in- 
 verted in foreign debts. The merchants in the ports of the 
 kingdom felt the calamities of war fooneft ; but it is on ths 
 manufacturing body that it will fall with the moft unrelent- 
 ing ruin. What adds to the diftrefs of the moment is, that 
 the war was not, like the American conteft, long forefeen. 
 We had declared for a peace-fyftem ; it was clearly our in- 
 tereft to maintain it ; it feemed almoft fuicide in France to 
 provoke a quarrel: mercantile men in both kingdoms depre- 
 cated a rupture, and, reafoning on the grounds of mutual 
 intereft (the familiar and fundamental principle of plain 
 and fenfible men), they could not believe, long after the 
 horizon began to darken, that a ftorm would enfue 
 When the clouds burft, they were therefore naked and un- 
 prepared. 
 
 The difference in the fituation of our public burthens is 
 alfo to be confidered in comparing the two periods ; we com- 
 menced the war with America under a debt of 130 millions ; 
 and we ftart now with a debt of 250 : our peace eftablifh- 
 ment, the intereft of the debt included, was then ten mil- 
 lions annually ; it has now mounted to feventeen millions. 
 
 It may however be fuppofed that our ability to pay thefe 
 incrcafed burthens has incrcafed in a proportional degree 
 I would not undervalue the rcfources of my country, and I 
 believe this to be true ; but it is only true while we continue 
 at peace, and preferve as much as pofiible the peace of the 
 world. If indeed our ability to pay taxes were meafured by 
 the ftate of our exports, it might be juftly doubted whether 
 
 7 *
 
 it has augumented in the degree that is fuppofed % . But this 
 ability depends in reality on the excefs of our productive 
 labour over our wants j and the facility of collecting taxes, a 
 point very important, depends in a great meafure on the de- 
 gree of confumption and circulation. The excefs of our pro- 
 ductive labour does not appear in our exports, as feme are 
 apt to fuppofe, for much of it has been employed in the 
 creation of new capital in the increafe of buildings and ma- 
 chinery in the improvement of the foil and in the opening 
 of new roads and canals, of all modes of employing the na- 
 tional capital by far the mod ufeful f . Thefe improvements 
 were going on with a moft happy and accelerated progrefs ; 
 our public burthens were beginning to decreafe with the in- 
 creafe of our power of bearing them ; and England advanced 
 rapidly towards that ultimate point of profperity, the poffi- 
 bility of which was demonstrated by Dr. A. Smith with a 
 mathematical precifion ; and its approach predicted by your- 
 felf in a drain of eloquence that gave to truth all the charms 
 
 * The average of our exports for the laft ten years does not, it is faiii, 
 exceed feventeen millions ; which is not more than three millions greater 
 than the amount they averaged in an equal number of years before the Ame- 
 rican war. The documents on this fubject however are not fufficient for 
 accurate ftatement. 
 
 See Mr. Chalmers's Comparative Eftintatt. 
 
 + In Lancamire alone, one million of the profits of manufactures and 
 commerce is about to be inverted in canals now forming there, if the dif- 
 treffes of the times permit the fubfcriptions to be paid; and fuchof the la- 
 bouring manufacturers as are employed at. all, are now chiefly employed in 
 forming thefe canals. The happy effects of fuch an application of capital m 
 a fingle county, and fuch a county as Lancashire, no one can eftimate, but 
 they depend almoft entirely on peace. The war has already funk the value 
 of (hares in this property greatly, and it has diminithed the carriage on the 
 canals already made, more than one half. Ou this fubjedt authentic in for 7 
 mation may be obtained from the Duke of Bridrewater. I 1'puak on the 
 authority of a well-informed correfyondcnt. 
 
 of
 
 ( 25 ) 
 
 of fiction, and unfolded to an admiring nation, a profpet of 
 real happinefs, fuppofed only to exift in the poet's dream * ! 
 You knew, however, and you acknowledged, that the con- 
 tinuation of peace was necelTary to enfure the bleflings you 
 foretold happy had it been for the nation, if you had feen 
 that it was indifpenfable to the duration of thofe we already 
 enjoyed ! 
 
 It has been imagined by many, that the prefent war 
 ought to be light in comparifon of the laft, becaufe then we 
 fought alone, and now all the world is in alliance with us. 
 Mr. Dundas in the Houfe of Commons boafted of thisj and 
 declared the intention of miniftry was to bring, if poffible, 
 every nation of Europe upon France. It is, I prefume, in. 
 confequence of the operations of this policy, before it was 
 avowed, that Spain and Pruffia are now in arms, and 
 that Portugal, Turkey, and the Northern Powers, are 
 openly folicited to join the general confederacy Weak 
 and miferable policy ! Better far had it been for Britain 
 to have fought France fingly, if her power had been 
 twice as great, while the reft of Europe looked on, than 
 to flir up and mingle in this general crufade of folly 
 and ruin. I fpeak not in the language of a moralift, but 
 of a politician ; and of this affertion I challenge the 
 moft rigid examination. What fupported us during the 
 American war ? the export of our manufactures to countries 
 that could purchafe them, becaufe they enjoyed the bleflings 
 of peace. But who is there now to buy our manufactures ? 
 where is peace now to be found ? The nations of Europe are 
 in arms from the White Sea to the Pillars of Hercules, and in 
 the courfe of the fummer there will be upwards of two mil- 
 lions of men in the field. Ancient or modern hiftory ftatcs 
 
 * See Mr. Pitt's fpcech, i7th Feb. 1794, on his motion for taking off a 
 part of our taxes. 
 
 E nothing
 
 ( 46 ) 
 
 nothing equal to the expenfe or the extent of this armament, 
 undertaken 'when the funds of all the belligerent powers arc 
 anticipated and exhaufted, and national credit is everywhere 
 (EngJand I hope excepted) about to explode. If the whole 
 population of Europe be a hundred and twenty millions, it 
 will contain twenty-five or thirty millions of men fit for la- 
 bour, or what are called fighting men. Of this number there 
 is a 1 2th or i5th part taken from a productive labour to that 
 which produces nothing; or, what illuftrates the point more 
 clearly, brought into the fame fituation with refpect to the pub- 
 lic as if the whole became paralytic in a day, and yet required 
 not only the fame fubfiilence as when capable of labour, but 
 one much more expenfive. But as the men called into the 
 field are in the flower of life, the productiye labour dimi- 
 nifhed will be more than in proportion to their numbers ; and 
 as they are to combat far from home, the expenfe of their 
 maintenance while foldiers will double and treble what mere 
 ceflation from labour would have produced. The flock of 
 productive labour muft however not only be fubjedt to 
 all former burthens, but opprefled with the maintenance of 
 the labourers taken from it and turned into foldiers, and thus 
 the lofs will be more than doubled. It is poffible that in fome 
 parts of Europe famine may arife, but this is not likely to be a 
 general or an immediate effect. Subfiftence is fuch an evi- 
 dent want, and fuch an irreilible call, that the ground will 
 always be cultivated in the firft inftance. The labourers 
 taken from agriculture for the field, will have their placeg 
 fupplied by others deprived of their ufual labour in manu- 
 factures, which the war has injured or ruined ; and poverty, 
 by teaching men lefs expenfive habits both of diet and cloth- 
 ing, will protract the hour of abfolute want. It is in the feat 
 of war only that famine may be confidered as inevitable i it 
 is there alfo that difeafe may foon be expected ; contagion will 
 icatter her poifon, and deftroy more than the fword. The 
 
 elafticity
 
 elafticity of human exertions cannot be exactly calculated ; 
 and it would be rafh to predict, how, or to what extent thefe 
 may operate under burthens fo heavy and fo general. It 
 feems however unavoidable that, during the continuance of 
 the war, thefe burthens muft every where increafe. If the 
 fupport of life becomes even difficult, the collection of reve- 
 nue will become impoffible : from the fhrivelled mufcles and 
 dried bones of their ftarving peafantry, the conquerors of 
 Poland and the invaders of France will not be able to extract 
 the fupport of their fenfelefs ambition and foolifh wafte. 
 
 It is evident that this general poverty muft operate pe- 
 culiar^ and every day more heavily, on Britain, Since the 
 laft war this country has become the ftore-houfe of the na- 
 tions of Europe, and has furnifhed almoft the whole flock of 
 the fuperfluities they have been enabled to buy. We fee 
 clearly that it is the confumption of thefe fuperfluities which 
 the war muft firft deftroyj experience has rendered this 
 truth inconteftible. Thofe who live by the manufacture of 
 thefe fuperfluities, muft therefore be the firft and greateft 
 fufFerers in every part of Europe, and unfortunately the greater ^ 
 part of this defcription of men live here. Here then the 
 ruin muft be moft feverely felt, and our fufferings will be the 
 greater and the harder to bear, becaufe they will be in the 
 exact proportion of our former projperity. It is very clear 
 then, that had we even ourfclves continued at peace, while 
 the other belligerent powers were at war, we fhould have 
 fuffered much from the progrefs of univerfal poverty. 
 There are however advantages attending fuch a fituation, 
 which, with prudent management, might have born us 
 through the difficulties. We fhould have fupplied the 
 clothing of the various armies in the field ; \ve fhould have 
 enjoyed a monopoly of the fale of arms, artillery, and the 
 other means of deftrudtion 5 we fhould have become the uni- 
 verf^l carriers of provifiqns and warlike ftores , we fhould 
 E 2 have
 
 ( 28 ) 
 
 have been enabled to convey our own manufactures in fafety 
 wherever any fale for them remained ; and we fhould have 
 been faved the enormous and deftruHve expenfe of arming 
 and protecting our extended commerce in the different quar- 
 ters of the globe. Our poffeflions in the eaft and in the weft 
 would have remained fecure, and the credit of our paper 
 circulation continued unimpaired. While the ftorm raged 
 on the land, England might have declared the ocean inviola- 
 ble j and if the warring powers had difturbed it, {he might 
 have reared her head above the waves, extended her immor- 
 tal trident, and bid the temped be ftill *. Holding in her 
 poffeffion a great part of the clothing, the arms, and the (lores 
 of the powers at war, and being at the fame time the unclif- 
 puted miftrefs of the fea, and the great channel of inter- 
 courfe between nations when the ftrength and fury of con- 
 flicting paffions were fated with blood, or fubdued with 
 (laughter, fhe might have denounced her vengeance on the 
 aggreffors, have offered her fuccours to the oppreffed, and 
 dictated the term of univerfal peace. Such our fituation 
 might have been nay, muft have been, had we not become 
 parties in the general ftrife. What is our fituation now ? 
 We are involved ourfelves in the quarrel ; there is no nation 
 of Europe left to mediate between the conflicting powers ; 
 and if England does not again affume the office of umpire, 
 nothing but the extermination of the French , or the down- 
 fall of the governments of Germany, feems capable of fatisfy- 
 ing the enraged parties, or reftoring the peace of the world. 
 But it may be faid, it is better for us to fight France now 
 with all the world with us, than to fight her hereafter alone. 
 Why fhould we fight her at all ? -it is not our intereft. But it 
 
 * Maturate fugam, regique hacc dicite veftro : 
 NOQ illi imperium pelagi, faevumqu tridentcm $ 
 Sed mihi forte datum. VIRGIL. JEN. I. 
 
 may
 
 may be fuppofed that the ambition of France, when her go- 
 vernment is fettled, will compel us to go to war in felf-de- 
 fence. I do not think this likely, becaufe it cannot be her 
 intereft ; but we will allow the fuppofition. If France attack 
 us, it muft be on the fea, our favourite element, and there 
 fhe will, I doubt not, find our fuperiority once more. There 
 (lie found our fuperiority in the American conteft, though me 
 employed her whole refources on her marine, though Ihe 
 was aided by Spain, Holland and America, and though fhe 
 attacked us when we were in fome degree exhaufted by three 
 expenfive and bloody campaigns. 
 
 If France and England combat alone, it muft be on the' 
 fea, and definitive though the conteft muft be, it is not 
 likely of itfelf either to endanger our conftitution or deftroy 
 our credit, as fome have weakly fuppofed. Our conftitution 
 is enthroned in the hearts of Englifhmen, and will never be 
 deftroyed by foreign force ; our credit depends on our com- 
 merce, but more efpecially on our manufactures, which we 
 know by experience can furvive a rupture with France, and 
 even increafe during its continuance, provided the rejl of 
 Europe is at peace*. Unfortunately at prefent all Europe is 
 not only engaged in war, but in a war of unexampled defpe- 
 ration and expenfe, at a time when public debts and taxes 
 have accumulated to an enormous degree in almoft every 
 one of the belligerent powers ; where the governments (that 
 of our own country always excepted) are univerfally oppref- 
 Cve, and the -people poor and wretched. 
 
 * 1 would not however be underftood to confider a war with France, or 
 with any other country, in any other light under our circumftances, than in 
 that of a moft ferious calamity. I wiih to point out the peculiarity in the pre- 
 fent war, that makes it to us particularly deftructive. It is the general ftate of 
 warfare, and the confequent poverty, that is our bane. In regard to fome of 
 the powers now under arms, if they are to be at war, it is of little canfequence 
 to us, as to the actual force they can bring forward, whether they fight with 
 or agniiift us. 
 
 Fifty
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
 Fifty years ago, Mr. Hume, treating on the effects o$ 
 public credit, obferved, that it mud either deftroy the na- 
 tion, or the nation muft deftroy it. " I muft confefs," fays 
 this profound obferver, " when I fee princes and ftates 
 " quarrelling, amidft their debts, funds, and public mort- 
 ** gages, it always brings to my mind a match of cudgel- 
 *' playing fought in a china mop *," Since the time this was 
 written, the public debts of the European nations have been 
 more than doubled, taking the whole together, and thofe of 
 France, Britain, and Ruflia, have increafed almoft fourfold. 
 The figure of Mr. Hume may now perhaps be a little al- 
 tered. The prefent match of. cudgel-playing is indeed in a 
 china-fhop, but the walls of the houfe are now become china 
 alfo. If the performers get very warm in the bufinefs, they 
 may therefore not only deftroy the moveables, but bring the 
 houfe itfelf about their ears. 
 
 I heard a member in the Houfe of Commons pleading 
 with great eloquence for our plunging into the war with 
 France, and call out Perim our commerce, if it muft perifh, 
 but let our conftitution lire ! The words were foolifh : 
 the feparation is no longer poflible. The vital principle of 
 our conftitntion the divifion and diftribution of its powers, 
 may indeed furvive the ruin of commerce j and provided 
 the whole people be enlightened, it may be perpetuated after 
 the wreck of our power. The fpirit of our religion may be 
 preferved after the decay of our riches, and poverty and for- 
 row may even render it more pure. The equal principle of 
 our laws, now contained and exemplified in five hundred vo- 
 lumes in folio, may appear perhaps as beautiful, when the 
 deftruftion of property mall have rendered 499 volumes of 
 ftatutes obfolete, and a fmgle volume comprifes all that our 
 poverty demands. But the bleflings of our conftitution, in 
 the eye of thofe who adminifter, or hope to adminifter its 
 
 Effay on Public Credit. 
 
 powers,
 
 powers, depend, I conceive, on our opulence, aud muft 
 perifh with the commerce from which that opulence flows. 
 Let thofe therefore who with for ihings as they are, beware 
 of war : true patriots, who abhor civil convulfions, will cherifh 
 the arts of peace. 
 
 " Perifh our commerce" foolim words ! What affords 
 three millions annually to the poor ? A million and a half 
 annually to the church ? What fupplies a million to the civil 
 lift ? Our commerce. What fupports the expenfe of our 
 immenfe naval and military eftablifliments ? All our places 
 and penfions ? What but our commerce ? Thirteen millions 
 of our taxes depend on circulation and confumption, and tin* 
 thoughtlefs fenator cries out " Perilh our commerce, let our 
 conftitution live !" But how then muil the necefiary fplen- 
 dour, the patronage, and the far more extenfive influence of 
 the crown be fupported ? And if th ; fplendour, patronage, 
 and influence are fwept away where is our conftitution ? 
 "What fhall maintain the crown againft a band of factious 
 nobles cajoling the people with the found of liberty to cover 
 their felfim ambition ; or what fhall defend hereditary ho- 
 nours and property of every kind againft the great mafs of the 
 nation, now become poor, and therefore defperate ; ravenous, 
 perhaps, from their wants, and terrible from the remainder of 
 fpirit and pride which has defcended from better times * ? 
 
 Our conftitution and our commerce have grown up to- 
 gether ; their connection was not at firft a neceflary one per- 
 haps, but events have rendered it fuch j the peace and th 
 fafety of England depend on its being preferved. Our very 
 habits and manners, and the ftruc"lure of fociety among us, 
 are founded on this union. I know the evils of our fitua- 
 tion, but the heavy load of our debts and taxes muft teach 
 us to fubmit. Patience, peace, ccconomy, and gradual re- 
 
 * The author can throw out hints only at prefent; but in favour of the 
 prerogative of the crown, as things ars fituatedj be has much to offer. 
 
 formation,
 
 ( 32 ) 
 
 formation, are the remedies that wife men would point out ; 
 the chance of more dangerous means being reforted to arifes 
 from the folly of one clafs, who deny thefe evils, and by de- 
 nying aggravate them , and from the folly of another, who 
 pronounce them intolerable, and would liften to the counfels 
 of enthufiafts or knaves. At prefent, never was a nation more 
 fubmiffive, or more loyal ; but a wife minifter will not wan- 
 tonly try our patience or goad us too much. 
 
 . " Perilh our commerce !" Let the member for Norwich 
 correcl: his expreffion. We will excufe the inaccuracy of an 
 ardent and eloquent mind ; we will even make allowance 
 for the prejudices of education In the fchool of Mr. Burke, 
 trade and manufactures are words that found meanly : 
 among the Jefuits of St. Omer's, the words themfelves were 
 perhaps unknown. Early education, natural tafle, and 
 peculiar fublimity of imagination, have made, I prefume, the 
 detail and the exac~lnefs of commerce difgufting to Mr. 
 Burke ; and have furnifhed his mind with thofe grand and 
 obfcure ideas, that aflbciate with the lofty manners of 
 chivalry, and the Gothic gloom of a darker age. Hence, 
 probably (fmce time, by extinguifliing ambition, has re- 
 ftored the original habits of his mind), we are to explain his 
 ftrong preference of the feudal relicks of our conflitution, 
 and his dread of the progrefs of commerce, as leading to 
 innovation and change. I do not wifti to break a lance with 
 the champion of ariftocracy, or with any of his followers ; 
 and I would concede in their favour as much as truth will 
 admit. If our fociety were to be cafl anew, if the interefts 
 of our country were alone to be confulted, and the means 
 were entirely at our command much as commerce is to be 
 valued, it would be wifer and better to give it lefs fhare in 
 our profperity, and at all events to render our revenue in- 
 dependent of foreign trade. How far it might be defirable 
 to control its effects on our manners, and on our habits of 
 
 thinking,
 
 ( 33 ) 
 
 thinking, is a queftion that I cannot enter on at prefent. 
 Confulting our tafte, and fetting moral confiderations afide, 
 we fhould perhaps be willing to preferve a greater degree of 
 correftnefs and purity of manners, and more of the nice and 
 high-fpirited fenfe of honour, than commerce generally ad- 
 mits. But if we try different characters by the teft of 
 utility, and found this teft on the aftual flate of the nation, 
 the knight of chivalry and his various offspring, compared 
 to the modern manufacturer or the merchant, feem weak 
 and ufelefs things. Even the country gentleman of England, 
 the moft refpedlable character of all thofe lilies of the valley 
 who neither toil nor f pin ^ finks in this comparifon. The pro- 
 prietor of landed property, who lives on the income of his 
 eftates, can in general be confidered only as the conduit that 
 conveys the wealth of one generation to another. He is a 
 necefTary link in fociety indeed, but his place can at all times 
 be eafily fupplied : in this point of view the poor peafant 
 who cultivates his eftate is of more importance than he. 
 How then {hall we eflimate him when compared with 
 a refpe&able manufacturer with the original genius, for 
 inftance, who has found means to convert our clay into 
 porcelain, and lays all Europe under contribution to En-gland 
 by his genius, tafte, arid fkill? Or what rank will he take, 
 when his exertions are put in competition with the power 
 and enterprife of the merchant, whofe fhips vifit the moft 
 remote fhores and nations ; to whom the coafts of Afia 
 and America are familiar; who draws his wealth from the 
 wilds of Nootka or Labrador, and who makes the diftant 
 Pacific yield up its ftores ? Even in his more elevated fitu- 
 ation in the houfe of commons, the country gentleman, 
 however eloquent and virtuous (Mr. Wyndham himfelf), muft 
 not be compared, as an objel of national confluence, with 
 a character like this. 
 
 To the confiderations which I have offered on the im- 
 F portanca
 
 ( 34 ) 
 
 portance of commerce and manufactures, and on the effect* 
 already produced on them by the war, you, Sir, if you were 
 more in the habit of explaining minifterial conduct, might 
 perhaps reply That the war is a war of neceffity that it is 
 likely to be fnort and fuccefsful and that, at all events, the 
 dignity of the nation (the phrafe ufed in the American war), 
 or perhaps of the crown (for this is now the more correct 
 expreflion of Lord Grenville), is concerned in carrying it on. 
 On each of thefe points I mean to offer a few obfervations. 
 I will then endeavour to mew the ftate the nation is likely to 
 be in, on the recefs of parliament ; I will make fome ob- 
 fervations on the terrible refponfibility that minifters affume, 
 and conclude with one or two remarks addrefled more par- 
 ticularly to yourfelf. 
 
 The war was necefiary, as its fupporters fay ; and this 
 neceffity is explained in different ways. By a few it is 
 aflerted, that the French were determined to quarrel with us, 
 and that they declared war againft us at a time when it 
 was unexpected and unprovoked. This language however 
 is held by very few, and is indeed fo utterly inconfiftent both 
 with fact and probability, that nothing but ignorance or dif- 
 ingenuoufnefs can employ it. The French were fighting, or 
 thought they were fighting, for their national exiftence, 
 againft a combination of the mofl alarming kind To what 
 purpofe ftiould they add England to the number of their 
 enemies ? England, whofe power they knew by fatal expe- 
 rience whofe irrefiftible force on the ocean they had repeat- 
 edly funk under and whofe neutrality feemed almoft eflen- 
 tial to their procuring the means of carrying on the war. If 
 it be aflerted that they hoped to excite commotions among us, 
 peace feemed neceflary to this fcheme ; for during peace only 
 could they carry on the intercourfe which fuch a plan would 
 require. Idle threats of internal commotions were indeed 
 thrown out by fome individuals among them ; but that^thefe 
 
 commotions
 
 ( 35 ) 
 
 iommotions would be directly promoted by an open war, 
 this, could only be fincerely expected by men who were before 
 infane. It may however be faid, that infanity did in reality 
 pervade their councils, or thofe at leaft by whom their coun- 
 cils were influenced ; and indeed this fuppofition feems in a 
 great meafure founded on truth. But the reply to this is 
 clear : how far foever their infanity might go, it did not ex- 
 tend to a war with England, a calamity not only deprecated 
 by their rulers, but by the whole body of the people. There 
 is not an individual who has been in France fmce the revolu- 
 tion, who will not confirm this truth*. The manner in 
 which this fierce nation humbled itfelf to England in nego- 
 tiation, was indeed very remarkable ; and though in a mo- 
 ment of wounded pride, the actual declaration of war came 
 from them, yet they foon repented of their conduct, and are 
 now openly renewing their endeavours, one might almoft fay, 
 their folicitations, for peace f. Peace and war, Mr. Pitt, 
 were in your choice they are in your choice now ; you 
 made your election of the latter you adhere to it to the 
 late application of Le Brun, it is faid, you have not even. 
 vouchfafed an anfwer. 
 
 It might feem, indeed, from the whole of your conduct 
 towards France for a twelvemonth pad, that England had 
 a particular intereft in the continuance of war j or, if {he is 
 fuppofed to be too proud to be governed by her fenfe of in- 
 tereft, that her honour was concerned in the keeping up of 
 
 * The National Aflcmbly had probably been deceived refpecling the 
 fentiments of the people of this country, but previous to the war they had 
 difcovered their error. The decree of the igth November might perhaps 
 be fomewhat influenced by their notion of the exiftence of a republican 
 fpirit here, and in this refpecl the addrefles from different bodies of Englifh- 
 raen did great mifchief. But the effects of the proclamation had (hewn the 
 real temper of the nation in a clear and ftriking light, and this was well 
 loderitood in France wheqi they were negociating for peace. 
 
 t Sse the Ltttert of M. Le Brun to Lord Grenville, Star, izd May. 
 F 2 hoftilitiei,
 
 hoftillties, or her paflions gratified by the continuance of 
 deftru&ion. 
 
 It is well known that the treaty of Pillnitz was the fource 
 of all the prefent hoftilities ; and it might have beenforefeen 
 that an attempt to carry it into effet would produce a great 
 part of the calamities which have enfued. At the time that this 
 took place, the conftitution of France was fettled ; the king 
 and the people had fworn to obey it. There was in it a good 
 deal to praife, and much to blame ; but, for reafons which it 
 would be ufelefs to detail, it was on the whole impracticable. 
 The men of talents and influence in France had however 
 feen their error in weakening the executive power too 
 much ; they were rallying round the throne ; and the 
 army, headed by the pureft and moft popular character 
 in the nation, were acquiring every day more and more 
 military habits and virtues. The conftitution, with all 
 its faults, had produced the moft fenfible advantages to 
 the labouring part of the people *; it contained within 
 itfelf the means of correcting both its principles and 
 practice ; and there was perhaps a chance that thefe might 
 have been remedied without a civil war. It is however far 
 more probable that a civil war muft have enfued ; but if the 
 parties had been left to themfelves, there is no one will deny 
 that Fayette and his friends, in pofieflion of all the conftitu- 
 tional authorities, would in all human probability have 
 been victorious, and the ill-fated monarch have preferved his 
 life and his crown. In the mean time the reft of Europe might 
 have refted in peace the conftitution, modelled perhaps on 
 our own, would have aflumed a more practicable and con- 
 fiftent form, and liberty been eftabliflied on law. 
 
 The danger to which the final triumph of the new con- 
 ftitution was expofed, arofe from a foreign war If the neigh- 
 
 Set the Tour of Mr. Arthur Young. 
 
 6 bouring
 
 ( 37 > 
 
 bouring nations fliould attempt an invafion of France for tntf 
 avowed purpofe of reftoring its ancient government, from 
 that inftant it was evident that the conflitution and the king 
 himfelf were in extremehazard. Bythe conflitution, the whole 
 means of the nation's defence againft this invafion muft be 
 trufted in the hands of the king himfelf, to replace whom in 
 unlimited power the invafion was made. Among a people 
 intoxicated with liberty, and jealous in the extreme, it was 
 impoflible that any wifdom could in fuch circumftances fe- 
 cure an already fufpe&ed monarch from the imputation of 
 treachery. As the danger from this treachery became 
 greater, the paflions of the people arofe ; when the Duke of 
 Brunfwick entered France, they burft into open infurrelion, 
 and through a fcene of dreadful flaughter the conflitution 
 was overturned, and the monarch dethroned. This crifis 
 was forefeen by the Jacobins, and by every means provoked ; 
 it was forefeen by the Feuillans (the true friends of liberty 
 and of limited monarchy), and earneflly deprecated. The 
 virtuous monarch himfelf was fenfible of his danger, and in 
 his extreme diflrefs applied to England to avert it. It was 
 evident that the Emperor would not venture on this invafion 
 without the aid of our ally the king of Pruflia, who had no 
 more pretence for attacking France, than for his invafion of 
 Poland, in which fuch flagrant wickednefs and fuch deteflable 
 hypocrify have been openly difplayed. The unhappy Louis 
 intrcated our interference to detach the king of Pruflia from 
 his defign, in language the mofl prefling and mofl pathetic. 
 Such an opportunity of exerting great power on a mofl fub- 
 lime occafion, and to the noblefl of purpofes, is not likely 
 to recur in a fmgle age, and is referved by providence for its 
 choicefl favourites. Such an opportunity was prefented to 
 you, and you weakly and blindly cafl it away. 
 
 The language which you put into your fovereign's 
 mouth on that occafion is on record. Profelfing every good 
 
 wifh
 
 for the king of France, mankind were theft told, that 
 the king of England could not interfere, unlefs he was re- 
 quefted by all the parties concerned; that is, not only by 
 him in diftrefs, but by thofe alfo whofe conduct occafioned 
 the danger ! The confpirators at Pillnitz, and the Jacobins 
 of Paris, equally triumphed on this occafion. The conftitu- 
 tion and liberties of France were the objects of their common, 
 attack. At the fame inftant foreign war and internal infur- 
 re&ion fell with all their furies on die friends of die king, of 
 law, and of order ; the ftreets and the prifons of Paris over- 
 flowed with their blood -, and thofe who efoaped the daggers 
 of the Jacobins were feized on the frontier by our ally of 
 Prufila, loaded with chains, and fent to the dungeon of Mag- 
 deburg, to perrfh in filence, or fuffer in hopelefs captivity 
 worfe than death can inflict. Gratified in the deftrudtion of 
 their common enemy, the votaries of fuperititlon and of en- 
 thufiafm have met in dreadful conflict ; a war of unexampled 
 fury has enfued ; and after the facrifice of a hundred thou- 
 fand lives, the flower of the youth of France and Germany, 
 the hoftile armies are precifely in the fame fituation as when 
 the carnage began ! 
 
 Another opportunity had in the mean time offered for 
 England to interfere, and to reftore the peace of Europe. 
 Winter produced a temporary fufpenfion of hoflilities. It 
 is well known that Pruffia, baffled and worn out, wifhed, dur- 
 ing this armiflice, to make its peace with France, and that 
 Spain was about to fettle its difference with her alfo. Auf- 
 tria, left alone, was unequal to the conteft, and by our media- 
 tion peace might have been reftored. Difficulties had indeed 
 occurred : France had not only repelled her invaders, but 
 Ijad in her turn become the aggrefTor, and Flanders had been 
 over-run by the arms of the victorious republic. The pof- 
 feflion of Flanders-by France might not only weaken Auftru 
 too much (I ufe the language of politicians), but expofe Hol- 
 land
 
 ( 39 ) 
 
 land to be invaded and over-run France muft therefore be 
 induced to renounce Brabant. In the mean time there were 
 new difficulties in the way of negociating with France, from 
 the change which had taken place in its government. Thofe 
 who had hardly been able to fee with patience the reprefen- 
 tative of the conftitutional king, could not be expeded to re- 
 ceive with kindnefs the delegate of the new republic. If 
 however we treated at all, it muft be with thofe who held the 
 reins of government, men, it muft be acknowledged, againft 
 whom the feelings of almoft every heart in England revolted. 
 A minifter is, however, to confult his reafon, not his feelings, 
 and to liften only to the interefts of his country. If thefe 
 require peace, his duty is to procure it by every fair and rea- 
 fonable means ; and, if he treats at all, to treat with temper, 
 even though his opponents are robbers in their cave. If war, 
 on the other hand, be inevitable, his bufinefs is evident to 
 refufe all negociation, and to let loofe the whole force of the 
 ftate. You took a middle courfe : the dangers of war could 
 not be altogether overlooked. You would treat therefore, 
 but under a delicate diftinftion, which was to appear to our 
 allies as if we did not treat at all ; and, as it mould feem, to 
 fecure your honour, you fet out in the bufinefs with refufmg 
 the right of your antagtnijh to hold a treaty. Le Brun and his 
 aflbciates however fubmitted ; it is known that they were 
 ready to have renounced Brabant, rather than go to war with 
 England ; and univerfal peace was perhaps once more in 
 your power. By this time however the nation was inflamed 
 to a great degree by the apprehenfion of internal confpi- 
 racies ; and the dreadful anathemas of Mr. Burke in the 
 houfe of commons had deftroyed all temper and moderation. 
 From Mr. Fox the mention of peace with France had been 
 received almoft with execration, and England was pervaded 
 with the fpirit of the ancient crufades. In this fituation every 
 moment became more critical you heCtated negociation 
 
 was
 
 ( 4* ) 
 
 was one day begun and the next abandoned Standing on thtf 
 brink of a precipice, you dallied with the temper of two in- 
 flamed nations, and were pufhed forwards into this bloody 
 war. If you did not ac~fc as a great ftatefman on this occa- 
 Con, fome apology may be found for you your temper was 
 perhaps irritated ; your fenfe of honour and your feelings of 
 fympathy outraged , and though the minifler cannot be par- 
 doned, the man may (land excufed. Deeply as I lament the 
 war and its confequences, I muft fairly admit, that the mad- 
 nefs of the moment renders it doubtful, whether it could 
 have been avoided during the laft days of negociation, by 
 any meafures in your power. Indecifion is certainly not a 
 part of your character in feafons of difficulty or danger ; 
 but on this occafion it feems fairly to be imputed to you ; 
 and to this it was owing that the alarmifts had taken the na- 
 tion out of your hands. 
 
 Without imputing bad motives to thofe who flood for- 
 ward to propagate the rumours of internal fedition and con- 
 fpiracy on that occafion, it may now, I think, be faid pretty 
 confidently, that their fears greatly magnified the real danger. 
 Why they were terrified, and why their terrors were in a 
 great meafure vain, maybe eafily underftood by any one ac- 
 quainted with human nature, who looks at all the events of 
 that period with an impartial eye. The retreat of the Duke 
 of Brunfwick, the battle of Jemappe, and the conquefl of 
 Flanders came fo rapidly and fo unexpectedly upon us, that 
 men who had blindly wilhed, and weakly predi&ed, the im- 
 mediate fubjugation of France to the Pruflian arms, were 
 feized with a fudden terror proportioned to their foolifh hopes. 
 France, marching with giant ftrides over her frontier, feemed 
 to threaten the world. Thofe who in the firft inftance had 
 not taken into their calculation the force of enthufiafm aHng 
 on a great and powerful nation in a moment of external in- 
 vafion, could not, it may reasonably be fuppofed, form any 
 
 juft
 
 juft opinion of ks nature or extent ; and faw in their fright- 
 ened imaginations, not only the downfall of the defpotic 
 governments of Europe, but the overthrow of our own hap- 
 py conftitution, the fource of fo many bleflmgs, and the well- 
 earned purchafe of more than one revolution, and of many 
 years of civil war. On the other hand, the furprifmg fuc- 
 cefs of the French raifed to a high elevation of fpirits all 
 thofe who, from whatever motives, had interefted themfelves 
 in their favour ; and the claflic grace with which the fpear 
 of Liberty was wielded at Jemappe, threw a momentary veil 
 over former proceedings, too foul to bear the light. In this 
 fituation of things, it was impoffible that parties feeling fo 
 differently mould not be mutually oifenfive to each other, 
 and that thofe who triumphed for the moment fbould not 
 become fubjecls of apprehcnfion to thofe already fo dread- 
 fully alarmed. 
 
 During this flate of jealous fear, ftrong confirmations 
 could not be wanting, for " trifles light as air" would have 
 ferved the purpofe ; and it is well known, that even the very 
 looks of the fuppofed republicans were ftatecl in the houfe 
 of commons as proofs of their feditious views. It muft how- 
 ever be acknowledged, that there were great folly and iiidif- 
 cretion, to fay no worfe, in the conduct of many of the new 
 Whigs * ; and that the addrefies to the National Aflembly 
 from focicties in England, however they might be intended, 
 were incapable of producing any good,ar.d were pregnant with 
 the moll ferious evils. Whether any thing refembling a plot 
 really exifted, cannot perhaps be as yet afcertuincd. Floating 
 notions of change probably pervaded the imaginations, and 
 occafionally efcaped the lips of enthufiafts j but it dees not 
 appear at all likely that any plan for this purpofe: was con- 
 
 * This defcription of men has not yet got a name th :t :-u:h they and their 
 pponents admit Patriots and Jacobins are the n.,:ty dc'.ijnations I choofe 
 a middle term, and quote for this appellation the authority of Mr. Burke. 
 
 G certqd
 
 ( 4* ) 
 
 ccrted or even meditated in any quarter. And the notion fo 
 induftrioufly circulated, that there was among us a large body 
 of men, fome of them of the firfb talents, leagued in a con- 
 fpiracy againfl their country with the Jacobin party of France, 
 is one of thofe wild and " foolim things," of which in a few 
 months thofe who credited it " will in their cooler moments 
 be afhamed," and which will foon be remembered only for 
 mifchief it has done. 
 
 It is to this general fufpicion that the war itfelf is in. 
 great meafure to be attributed. One part of the cabinet, as 
 report fays, was warmly and decidedly for it from the firft ; 
 and the eagernefs of the Alarmijls in the houfe of commons 
 in favour of this bloody meafure is well known. A Hep fo 
 fatal to the general intereils of the country would not, how- 
 ever, have been taken in the face of even a feeble opposition 
 out of doors. Three public meetings at Manchefter, Wake- 
 field, and Norwich, prevented the Ruffian war. But where 
 was oppofition now to come from ? Every man that objected 
 to a meafure of minifters was by this time fuppofed to be an 
 enemy to the conflitution j and he who oppofed a war with 
 France, was openly cried down as a fecret ally of the Jacobins, 
 and as only anxious to fave them from the force of our irre- 
 liflible arm. Pi'ofefhons of attachment to our own happy 
 conftitution were regarded as of no value, unlefs they were 
 accompanied with a blind and unlimited confidence in admi- 
 niilration ; and lie only was confidered as a true friend to his 
 country, who was ready to put all our bleflings at hazard, by 
 ruihing madly forward into this foolim crufade. 
 
 The whole body that aflbciated with Mr. Reeves feemed 
 to think the fupport of the war necefTary to the fupport of 
 the conftitution ; and in the houfe of commons Mr. Burke, 
 with the peculiar phrcnfy that diftinguimes all his conduct, 
 reiterated the war-hoop of cithfifm, and pronounced Mr. Fox's 
 propofal of attempting to avert hoftilities by ncgocbtion, as 
 
 a ftep
 
 ( 43 ) 
 
 a ftep that would by neceflary confequence expofe our vir- 
 tuous monarch, with little profpect of efcape, to the fate of 
 the unfortunate Louis *. 
 
 It was owing I prefume to the fyftem you have adopted, 
 that though, as it has fince appeared, you were at this time 
 aftually negociating, you preferred a cautious filence, and 
 fuffered the nation to believe you thought with Mr. Burke. 
 For the firft time in his life Englifhmen were in fympathy 
 with this extraordinary character, and madnefs became more 
 contagious than the plague. 
 
 If it were at all proper to argue with men who can be- 
 lieve that the only means of fecuring the reverence of the na- 
 tion for the conlljtution, is to plunge us into all the horrors 
 and mjferies of a foreign war, I would point out the confe- 
 ^uences that may poflibly refult from the rebound of general 
 fentiment, from the union of ftarving ignorance with def- 
 perate ambition, and from the progrefs of poverty, mifery, 
 and difcontent. But I do not think it neceflary at prefent to 
 jnfift on fuch topics ; becaufe, blindly and foolifhly as fuch 
 men have a&ed on their own principles, I believe the feafon 
 
 * The manner in which this ftrange man has introduced his fovercirjn 
 iitto debate, at different times, is truly curious. His conduct in this refpect 
 during the regency, when he reprefented the Almighty a having burled him 
 from his tbnne and at the time now alluded to,xvhen, in the excefs of his loy- 
 al:)', he expreffed his fears tf bit being bebeaded are apparently much coa- 
 trafted, but evidently flow from the fame ftructure of mind. A man that 
 could talk openly in the houfe of commons of the " king's head being cut 
 oS," ia-not, however, I apprehend, likely to be appointed a lord of the 
 bed-chimb--! , or even a gentleman-ufher. Mr. Burke, it is faid, is a poet; 
 and this is true. But there feemt about him a phrenfy that is more than 
 poetical an habitual difpofition to exaggeration, that trefpafles the bounds, 
 not of truth only, but of nature and an irafcibility that has no refcmblar.ee 
 to any thing to be fcen in rational life, and that imprelfes upon us the no- 
 tiqn of a minddifeafed ! In this view of the fubjelt Mr. Burke is perhaps 
 an object of pity. When liis fits are not upon him, he is known to be gen~ 
 tie /aud humane. 
 
 G 2 of
 
 ( 44 ) 
 
 f delufion is pafllng, and that Englifhmen will be able to 
 diftinguifh, under every event, the fubflantial excellence of 
 our conftitution ; and attribute their fufferings, whatever they 
 may be, to their own delufioiij and the madnefs of thofe who 
 have mifled the public mind. 
 
 But it may be faid that the war is likely to be fhort and 
 fuccefsful, and is therefore now to be perfifted in, however 
 indifcreetly it may have been begun. 
 
 The anfwer to this is not difficult The war has had 
 already all the fuccefs that we could hope for : it brought on, 
 the invafion of Holland, and that invafion is repelled : it has 
 obliged the French to abandon Flanders to do that by force, 
 which they were before inclined to do by negociation : it has 
 covered the fea with our {hips of war, and made the mer- 
 chantmen both of France and England disappear and finally, 
 after feveral hard fought battles, it has enabled the king of 
 Pruffia to lay fiege to Mentz, and the Prince of Coburg to fit 
 down before Valenciennes But what is really of importance, 
 it has brought from the French new offers of peace. 
 
 What then may be the caufe why we fo proudly and 
 fullenly (as. it is faid) rejeft them ? 
 
 Jt may be faid, that we wifli to carry on the war till we 
 obtain 3 barrier againlt the future irruptions of the French 
 into Holland or Brabant ; and that, this being efFe&ed, we 
 mean with our allies to reft on our arms, and leave the nation; 
 to fettle its own government. Jf this b.e our policy, it were far 
 better to reft now. 
 
 The probability of obtaining and of preferving peace 
 depends, in a great meafure, on the terms which are offered 
 according with natural principles of equity. That every na- 
 tion fhould keep within its own confines, and choofe its own. 
 government, without molefting its neighbours, is a propofi- 
 tion which is agreeable to pur common apprehenfions of 
 juftice } and, applied fairly and equally to the powers at war,
 
 ( 45 ) 
 
 it may produce a ipeedy and lading peace. But to Infift, as a, 
 ground-work of fuch a treaty, that the Auftrians fhall obtain 
 and keep poflcTion of thofe flrong fortrefies on the northern 
 frontier by which France is defended, is to propojfe that, 
 which is equally oflenfive to the pride and alarming to the 
 fears of Frenchmen, and which is likely to occauon a vaft. 
 and a fruitkfs efFuflon of human blood. " Shall we co.nfent 
 (they will cry) that France fhall be "difmerubered ? Shall we 
 abandon our countrymen of Lille and Valenciennes to the 
 defpots of Germany? If we give up 3 part of our territory, 
 what fecurity fhall we have that the dividers of Poland will 
 reft contented with a part, efpecially when, by pofiefling our 
 flrong holds, they may invade us at pleafure, and march at 
 once into the heart of our defencelefs country ?" Such are 
 the queflions that will be aiked, and at muftbe acknowledged 
 that they are founded on natural feelings and reafonable 
 fears : before thefe are fubdued, many a brave man will 
 perilh in the field. But if indeed the fecurity of the Low 
 Countries be our only objel, why not fortify Namur, Mons, 
 Tournay, &c. which the Emperor Jofeph difmantled, under 
 an idea (which illuflrates very flrongly the folly of attempt- 
 ing to. look far into futurity) that the marriage of his fifter 
 with the unfortunate Louis would render a barrier needlefs 
 on the fide of France ? If thofe fortifications which were 
 thought fufiicient againft Louis XIV. are not fufficient againft 
 the proud republicans, why not eredt others ? and if bank- 
 rupt Auftria cannot do this, let us (if we muft mingle in 
 their affairs) be taxed to fupport them, but let it be for an 
 expenditure that will terminate in peace. 
 
 The real intercfl of foreign nations is not, whether 
 France fr.all have a conflitutipivof this or that form; it is, 
 that me fhall have a regular government of fome form or other, 
 which may fecure the faith of treaties, and due fubordination 
 to law i and this is the interefl of the people of France 
 
 themfelves
 
 ( 46 ) 
 
 themfelves more than any other. Why then, it may be faid, 
 do they not follow their intereft ? Becaufe they do not per- 
 ceive it j and they are prevented from perceiving it by the 
 preffure of extern?.*, war. 
 
 Revolutions of government call forth great talents and 
 virtues, but they alfo too frequently call forth great crimes. 
 Where all the ufual ordinances of law and fociety are broken 
 down, men will rife indeed in fome degree according to their 
 activity and powers, but in a degree too according as thefe 
 are exerted without fcruple or reftraint. In the enthufiaftic 
 ftate of mind by which revolutions are accompanied, great 
 crimes make little imprcflion on the million, provided they are 
 committed in the fpirit of party, and under the appearance 
 of patriotifm. Compaffion, charity, candour, and even % 
 fenfe of juftice, are too generally fwept away in the whirlwind 
 of paflion and prejudice, and lie buried under the wreck of 
 virtuous habits and principles, to revive in quieter times. 
 Jn fuch a ftate of things the natural influence of integrity 
 and property, as well as the artificial diftinclions of rank and 
 birth, give way to the governing power of enthufiafm ; and 
 men often rife to direction and command from the lowcft 
 ftations, by the force of flrong, talents and bold tempers, 
 and by the buoyancy of heated imaginations. 
 
 Enthufiafm is in feafons of danger felt by virtuous as 
 \vell as by unprincipled minds by the former indeed per- 
 haps more than the latter : but in virtuous minds, while 
 it expands all the generous feelings, it does not deftroy the 
 reflraints of principle or honour, even towards antagonifts or 
 enemies, and much lefs towards thofe embarked in the farrxo 
 caufe. 
 
 Revolutions however, in their progrefs, ftir up fociety 
 more and more, even to the very dregs, and bring forward 
 more and more of ignorance and profligacy (terms which in 
 political life are nearly convertible) into the general mafs of 
 
 feeling
 
 ( 47 ) 
 
 feeling and of action, in which the national will and the mr 
 tional force refide. Men who wifh to guide this will, and di- 
 rect this force, in times of popular commotion, muft partake 
 of its character, and vary their conduct with the rapid changes 
 which the general fentiment undergoes. But in every great 
 revolution this fentiment has a tendency to become gradually 
 worfe, and the character of thofe at the, helm muft become 
 worfe alfo. In the courfe of this melancholy progrefs, there- 
 fore, men of real principle and pure honour, who cannot bend 
 to the opinions of the day, are probably thrown off, or per- 
 haps deftroyed, and are fucceeded by other defcriptions, eacli 
 in fuccefllon more unlike the firft, till at laft perhaps the un- 
 principled and defperate obtain undifputed fway. 
 
 Hence, in our own country, the refinance to Charles I. 
 which was led by Hampden and Faulkland, terminated in 
 Cromwell and Lambert : and hence the revolution of France, 
 originating with Fayette, Neckar, and Mirabeau, has de- 
 fcended into the hands of Danton and Roberfpierre *. 
 
 The 
 
 * The American revolution maybe inft.inced as an exception, to this ge- 
 ner:l reprefentation, but improperly . We muft firft obferve (as was noticed by 
 Mr. Fox in his fpeech on Mr. Gray's motion) that in America, thaugh there 
 was a change of the governing power, there was no revolution of habits or 
 opinions no fuddeu change of piinciples. It muft be obferved alfo, that 
 the Americans had much lefs of poverty and ignorance among them (though 
 lefs knowledge no doubt) than what is to be found in England and France. 
 And thirdly, it muft he obferved, that fomething of the fame kind did 
 actually uke place in America as in England and France, though certainly 
 in a lefs degree. Round the American Revolution, as well as the Ame- 
 rican character, a falfe glare has been thrown by the fplendour of their fuc- 
 cefs. The congrefs did not, like the national aiTembly, expofe their debate* 
 and diflentions to their own people, much lefs to ail Europe ; but it is well 
 known that a party prevailed in it to a confiderable degree, and Warning- 
 ton himfclf, if report (peaks truth, was at one time prefervcdin his command 
 by a Angle vote only. In the courfe of the revolution many bloody deeds 
 were aded, the memory of which need not now bs revived. But the 
 
 following
 
 ( 48 ) 
 
 The influence however of men who openly violate the firfl 
 obligations, as well as the moft palpable interefts of fociety, 
 is expofed to continual danger from tlie very fcafFoldiftg on 
 which it is raifed, and cannot furvive that heated and enthu- 
 fiaftic ftate of mind which extinguishes fora t'^^j a^d for a 
 time only, the feelings of companion and the fenfe of juflice. 
 Enthufiafm is, from its very violence, of fhort continu- 
 ance : it produces the moft cruel defolations in fociety : but, 
 as Mr Hume has obferved, " its fury is like that of thun- 
 " der and tempeft, which exhauft themfelves in a little time, 
 c< and leave the air more calm and ferene than before." The 
 accounts that we receive of the French mew clearly, that 
 they are at prefent a nation of enthufiafts i of this their very 
 crimes give the moft decided evidence. Their contempt of 
 danger and hardfhips ; their utter difregard of felf-intereft, 
 and of all the motives which influence men in tranquil life ; 
 
 following quotation from the hiftory of the American revolution by Dr. Ram- 
 fay, himfelf a member of the congrefs, will fhew how the morals of the people 
 were affected, and hear tellimony to ths author's candour and love of truth. 
 " Time and induftry have already, in a great degree, repaired the lofTes of 
 n property which the citizens fuftairfed during the war, hut both have 
 ' hitherto failed in effacing the taint which was then communicated to 
 " their principles ; nor can its total ablution be expected till a new gene- 
 *' ration arifes, Unprnctifed in the iniquities of their fathers." If indeed 
 t)r. Ramfay had not acknowledged this, the conduct of the affemhlies which 
 were elected immediately after the revolution would fufficiently prove it. 
 By thefe affemblies ftanding on a popular bafis (cfpecially by that of South 
 Carolina) acts were paffed diffolving the obligations of jufhce in a way as 
 arbitrary, and nearly as open, as thofe of the moft defpotic monarch what- 
 ver. An experience of the evils rei'ulting from fuch outrages has reformed 
 both the principles and the practice of the American politicians ; and men of 
 honour and integrity, many of them beaten down by the revolution, have 
 recovered their proper influence in quieter times* Over and above. all the 
 tircum fiances I have mentioned, the natural phlegm of the American 
 character, compared with the vehemence and impetuoftty of the French, 
 was an advantage not to be calculated. 
 
 their
 
 ( 4P ) 
 
 tneif frantic fcnemes ; their wild fufpicions; their implaca- 
 bility towards their enemies ; their pronenefs to murder ; 
 thefe are the true and exact features of enthufiafm, operat* 
 Sng on minds previdufly degraded by a fuperftition the molt 
 vile, and by a flavery the moft abject *-. 
 
 The more fiercely this national difeafe rages, the more 
 certainly will it terminate fpeedily, provided it be left to it- 
 felf. Society cannot poflibly fubfift under the prefent fyftem 
 in France, and the excefies of the Jacobins muft fooner or 
 later produce their deftrutlion. The nation, waking from 
 its delirium, will fee the horrof of its Ctuation, and fly for a 
 refuge from anarchy to the conftitution it has rejected, or fome 
 better regulated form of government j or perhaps to the very 
 defpotifm it has overthrown. But, if continued attacks are 
 made from without, this ifTue will certainly be prolonged, 
 and may perhaps be prevented, till the defpotic governments 
 now in arms, every day becoming more poor, and therefore 
 more oppreflive, fhall be themfelves brought to the ground ! 
 
 The great inftrument of the fuccefs of the Jacobins has 
 been the fufpicion they have constantly excited, that every 
 friend of peace and fubordination was connected with the 
 foreign enemies that are invading France f . A high-fpirited 
 nation will not receive the pureft of bleflings on compulfion, 
 
 In Dr. Moore's Journal, various proofs of the truth of this may be 
 found. A Sans Culotte prefenting to the National Afiembly, on the joth of 
 Auguft, the head of a murdered Swifs, and at the fame time emptying out o 
 his hat the jewels and gold which he had found in the Thuilleries, is a ftrik- 
 ing piclure of the fpecies of difeafe of mind under which the nation labours. 
 
 f The ftrength of fuch an inftrument as this may be judged of by the 
 fuccefs with which it was employed by the alarmlftt here. The friends of 
 peace in this country were in the fame manner denounced as leagued witu 
 foreign invaders ; and this was the real fecret of Meffrs. Reeves, Burke, ani 
 Co. for levelling the level/en, at the fuccefs of which, confide ing the men, 
 inany people have been fo much furprifed. The nation was panic-ftruck, 
 and apprehenfien apd credulity g llan d in hand. 
 
 and
 
 and would reject the Britifli conftitutlon itfelf, though ft 
 were abfolutely perfect, if prefented on the bayonet's point, 
 But what boon do the conquerors of Poland hold out to them ? 
 What bleffings do the people of Germany offer to their view ? 
 Abfolute fubjugation to a foreign force is the favour and the 
 mercy of the rulers; ignorance and fubmiflion to unlimited 
 oppreffion is the example of the armed flaves whom they 
 command. It is no wonder that a nation of enthufiafls Ihould 
 be inflamed to madnefs on the approach of fuch invaders, and, 
 fpurning the dictates of reafon, mould confider thofe who 
 would reftfain them as leagued with their enemies, and com- 
 mit themfelves to fuch only as are as frantic as themfelves. 
 Hence every attempt to reftore order to France has been fru- 
 ftrated by foreign invafion ; Clermont-Tonnerre and Roch- 
 foucauld have been murdered j and Narbonne, Fayette, and 
 Liancourt have fled. And hence alfo it is but too likely 
 that the fiege of Valenciennes and Conde will prove the 
 ruin of the brave and perhaps honeft infurgents on the banks 
 of the Loire. How certain the overthrow of the Jacobin 
 fyftem in France would be, if the nation were left to itfelf, 
 may be gathered, not only from the nature of that fyftem, 
 but from the attempts to overturn it in the very face of a 
 foreign invafien ; and how very unlikely the allies are to fuc- 
 ceed in their endeavours to give a conftitution to France by 
 force (the only rational object for which war can be con- 
 tinued), may be collected, not only from the hiftory of th 
 paft, and from what has been already mentioned, but from 
 wther confiderations. 
 
 Under the preflure of external invafion, almofl any go- 
 vernment will hold a nation together ; and every form of re- 
 publican government, however unfit for quieter feafons, is at 
 fuch times productive of great energy of mind, and there- 
 fore of great national force. The ciufe of this is to be traced 
 to the peculiar codjeq 'enrz which a republican government 
 
 4 gives
 
 < 5' > 
 
 gives to the individual, by which his country becomes of 
 confequence to him, and the whole ftrength of his private 
 and public affections in a moment of external invafion beart 
 on a tingle object the national defence. The truth of this 
 might be amply illuftrated from the hiftory of the republics 
 of Greece and Rome; where may be feen alfo, what appears 
 fc very extraordinary in modern times, the moft unbounded 
 L'centioufnefs and confufion in the centre of the government, 
 joined with the moft formidable power on the frontiers*. 
 
 In times of peace the exiflence of primary aflemblies, fuch 
 as are univerfal in France, feems incompatible with the fafety 
 of eftablifhed government; but in a fituation like the prefent, 
 thefe will be the nurferies of courage, of eloquence, of daring 
 minds; by giving every individual an active and perfonal in- 
 tereft in the (late, they will ftrengthen its defence in an ex- 
 traordinary manner. The divifion of France into diftricts 
 and departments, eftablifties within it fo many rival republics, 
 and in this way will probably produce that high-fpirited emu- 
 lation between neighbouring communities, fo dangerous to 
 internal quiet, but to which Greece, when invaded, owed its 
 fafety in the claffic ages, and perhaps Switzerland its indepen- 
 dence in modern times. 
 
 In the progrefs of revolutions, it is material to obfervc, that 
 talents do not feem to fuffer an equal degradation with prin- 
 ciples. On the contrary, fituations of continued difficulty 
 and danger have a tendency to call them forth (in as far as 
 
 * In this refpeft, as well as in feveral others, France recalls to our 
 minds the ftates of antiquity. There are indeed circumftances of refem- 
 blance in their fituatioa that might afford room for much curious obferva- 
 tion, and our hefitation in applying the experience we derive from Greece or 
 Rome to modern France is perhaps chiefly founded on a doubt, which at 
 times has appeared reafonable enough whether thefe countries have con- 
 tained beings of the fame fpecies whether thefe French be indeed men, or 
 feme other defcription of animals. 
 
 H 2 they
 
 they are diftina from virtue) more and more, and td 
 ftrengthen and expand them when found. In long efta- 
 blifhed monarchies, fuch as are fpread over the continent of 
 Europe, rank has the chief, or indeed the fole influence in 
 beftowing command, and nature in beftowing talents piya 
 no attention to rank. But in revolutions, artificial diftinc, 
 tions being overturned, the order of nature is in fome degree 
 reftored, and talents rife to their proper level. Hence it h 
 that revolutions, once fet on foot, have the weight of talents 
 generally in their favour. It may be objected, indeed, that 
 when the fword is once drawn, the iflue depends on military 
 difcipline and fkill, and that thefe will always be found on 
 the fide of experience. Daily obfervation however proves, 
 that the mere mechanifm of a foldier is eafily and fpeedily 
 learnt ; and the uniform voice of hiftory tells us, that the 
 qualities of a great general are In an efpecial manner the 
 work of nature ; what fuperior genius feems to acquire the 
 fooneft, and what all other men find it impoflible to acquire 
 it all. Hence, though in the beginning of wars difcipline 
 and eftablifhed rank have ufually the advantage, in the gourfe 
 of them nature and genius always preponderate *. 
 
 * The whole of thefe obfervations might be illuftrated from our own 
 civil wars. Deteftable as Cromwell and his affociates were in many refpects, 
 they muft be allowed to have poffeffed very fuperior talents both in the ca- 
 binet and the field. In the beginning of the war, military experience was 
 entirely with the king ; but, what is curious, there did not arife one good com- 
 mander on his fide, the gallant Montrofe excepted, and he, it may be ob^ 
 ferved, was educated among the covenanters. On the other fide arofe Effex, 
 Fairfax, Cromwell, Ireton, Lambert, and Monk. Moft of thefe had no pre- 
 vious acquaintance with military affairs. Cromwell, the firft captain of the 
 ^ge, was forty-three years old before he became a foldier. Thefe curious 
 eircumftances have not efcaped Mr. Hume, nor the explanation of them. 
 Reflecting on this fubject, I have fometimes amufed myfelf with fuppofing 
 what fort of military commanders our political leaders would make, and I 
 apprehend they would arrange themfelves pretty much according to their 
 prcfent order. Firft-rate talents are of univerfal application
 
 ( S3 ) 
 
 The application of thefe obfervations to the affairs of 
 France is fo obvious, that it would be fuperfluous, as well as 
 tedious, to point it out. 
 
 The impoflibility of conquering opinions by the fword, 
 and the dreadful {laughter which the attempt when perfifted 
 in muft neceflarily occafion, may be learnt from the revolu- 
 tion in the Low Countries, and the bloody tranfalions which 
 were there carried on under the direction of Alva. If the 
 great mafs of the people have imbibed opinions, extermina- 
 tion only can root them out. Hence theftendamenta/ity of 
 the French revolution, fo much exclaimed againft by the 
 weak and fearful, and fo much dreaded even by the en- 
 lightened, though it will probably be the fource of long in- 
 ternal diflentions, renders it invulnerable by foreign attack. 
 Mr. Hume has remarked the univerfal and extreme reluc- 
 tance with which men abandon power once poffefled 5 and 
 you, Mr. Pitt, can probably fpeak to this truth from your 
 own feelings. Well then, Sir, the Sans Culottes have re- 
 covered what they call their rights, and may be faid to be 
 men in power power newly iafted, after long and hard op- 
 preflion. Whether this power be good for them or not is 
 another thing they think it good, and that is enough. When 
 once they have obtained quiet pofleffion of it, they will pro- 
 bably abufe it, as other men in power have done before 
 them. But while it is attempted to be wrefted from them 
 by armed force, it will rife every moment in their eftimation, 
 and death only will be able to rob them of their prize. , 
 The revolution of Poland, on the other hand, was not a 
 fundamental revolution j and it was praifed by Mr. Burke 
 (a fufpicious circumftance) on this account. The truth is, 
 it w as a change of the form of government, and a partial en- 
 largement of its bafis, from which however nine tenths 
 of the people of Poland were entirely fhut out. When the 
 king and the nobles therefore abandoned it, die peafantry 
 
 abandoned
 
 ( 54 ) 
 
 abandoned it alfo, and found no motive for rifklng their live* 
 in defence of bleflings they had not been permitted to tafte. 
 This is the real caufe of the rapid fuccefs of the confederate 
 arms, and not the open plains and difmantled fortrefles of 
 the country, as fome have fuppofed. The true defence of a 
 nation in fuch circumftances the only defence that is im- 
 pregnable, lies in the poor man's heart , that abandoned, 
 the reft is eafy. 
 
 In viewing this fubject, fo many confiderations rufh on 
 the mind to (hew the folly of the prefent invafion of France, 
 that I am compelled to dwell on general topics only ; other- 
 wife I might expatiate on the utter incapacity of the Auftrian 
 army to keep the field at all without fupplies from this coun- 
 try, and the impoflibility of our finding fuch fupplies. Ab- 
 ject as the temper of the nation appears, it will not, I appre- 
 hend, fubmit to utter ruin ; and I pronounce coolly, what I 
 have confidered deeply, that nothing but utter ruin can be 
 the confequence of our perfifting in this copartnerfhip with 
 the folly and bankruptcy of the continental powers. It is 
 jiot enough that we pay with Englifli guineas, extracted from 
 the labour of our opprefled peafantry, the people of Hefle 
 and Hanover, to fight German battles ; we muft fupport 
 the armies of Auftria alfo, and, from the wreck of our 
 ruined manufactures, fupply them with food, clothing, and 
 arms. But what confummates our misfortunes is, that if by 
 our afliftance the confederates (hould fucceed in their views, 
 England will be blotted out of the fyftem of Europe : Hol- 
 land cannot preferve her independence a fmgle day ; a con- 
 nected chain of defpotifm will extend over the faireft portion 
 of the Earth ; and the lamp of Liberty, that has blazed fo 
 brightly in our " Sea-girt Ifle," muft itfelf be extinguiflied in 
 the umverfal night *, 
 
 The 
 
 * I purpofely avoid enlarging oa this view of the fubjsdl, becaufo I think. 
 
 nothing;
 
 ( 55 ) 
 
 The mlfchief that is meditated is of a magnitude that 
 feems more than mortal, but happily the execution of it 
 requires more than mortal force. The ignorant and inno- 
 cent Haves that are the inftruments on this occafion are men 
 they muft be clothed and fed they have men to contend 
 with, and are liable to the death they are fent to inflict they 
 may perifti by the fword,by fatigue, by famine, and by difeafe. 
 The new Alarics that employ them are men alfo, weak, 
 ignorant, and mortal like the reft. Death will foon level them 
 with the inftruments of their guilty ambition. In a few 
 years, or perhaps a few months, Catherine will fleep, lifelefs, 
 with Jofeph, with Leopold, with Peter the Third. New 
 characters lefs tinctured with prejudice will receive a por- 
 tion of the fpirit of the age, the fyftems of defpotifm b 
 broken, and mortality come in aid of reafon and truth. 
 
 In the mean time it is poflible that Conde and Valen- 
 ciennes may be taken, and that the hoftile armies may march 
 into France as before. If purfued into their own country, 
 Frenchmen will, in all probability, continue united ; and they 
 will carry on the war, when compared to their aflailants, at 
 little expenfe. The men are on the fpot ; their provifions 
 are behind them; muflcets are in their hands; enthufiafm 
 in their hearts. The more the nation is comprefled within 
 its centre, the more will the elafticity of its force and cou~ 
 rage increafe. The invaders will probably be again com- 
 pelled to retreat, and their retreat will neither be eafy nor 
 certain: the victorious republicans will purfue them, and 
 again, perhaps, difdaining the reftraints of prudence, pufti 
 their conquefts to the banks of the Rhine. A fingl 
 action loft, a fingle action recovered, Flanders; and 
 Flanders and Holland will now feel the fame blow. 
 
 nothing fo unlikely as the conqueft of France. It has been difcuffed in tht 
 ^forning Chronicle, by a writer under the fignature of " A Calm Obferver," 
 with a perfpicuity and force of reafoning that nothing can furpafs. The 
 wtwle fcries of letters fer execed any fcmiiar production O f the Enghlh preft. 
 
 What
 
 Vftizt (hall fave Holland if Flanders fall ? The Colcf- 
 dream you fee are mortal men. Even the three princes of 
 the blood-royal of England will not appal the fierce republi- 
 cans What care thefe roarers for the name of King * ? If the 
 danger I ftate feema at a diftance, let it not on that account 
 be difregarded. Every ftep the allied armies advance into 
 France, the danger feems to me to approach; and were they 
 within ten leagues of Paris, I ftiould tremble the more for 
 the fate of Amfterdam. 
 
 The opportunity of reftoring general peace prefented it- 
 felf at the time of the congrefs of Antwerp. Dumourier had 
 retreated ; Flanders was recovered. We had nothing to do 
 but to declare, what muft I think be declared in the end, 
 that if France will confine herfelf within her own territory , Jhe 
 may there Jhape out her own conjlltution at her will. Had this 
 been done at the time mentioned, Dumourier, not rendered 
 odious by foreign alliance, would in all probability have been 
 able to reftore the conftitutional monarchy ; and in every 
 event, France, occupied by inteftine divifions, would, as it 
 feems probable, have left Europe in quiet for many years to 
 come. This policy was fo clear that a mere child might 
 have difcerned it j it did not even require a negociation with 
 the French cabinet, and while it fecured our beft interefts, 
 it left our honour without a ftain. 
 
 How then {hall we account for the refolves of the con- 
 grefs of Antwerp ? We muft unveil the truth. The mem- 
 bers of this congrefs were German princes, or their agents $ 
 even the reprefentative of England there was a German prince.* 
 Such men, from their education, are in general ignorant, and 
 labour under prejudices, from their fituation, of a deflruclive 
 kind. 
 
 Military defpots in their own dominions, they feel it thei* 
 perfonal intereft, perhaps they think it the intereft of man- 
 kind (fuch may be the force of prejudice) that defpotifmt 
 * Shakefpea*e's Tcropeft.
 
 ( 57 ) 
 
 fhould be univerfal. To fuch men the anarchy of France, 
 under Jacobin rulers, is not half fo alarming as the conftitu- 
 tion to which this may give birth. They are aware that the 
 crimes a&ing there at prefent are fufEcient to render the 
 French name deteftable among their fubjecls ; but if thefe 
 crimes mould open the eyes of the French themfelves if, out 
 of the mingled wrecks of defpotifm and anarchy, a limited 
 monarchy fhould arifc in France, as it did in England, or any 
 other form of a free conftitution that fecures fubordination to 
 law then it is that the French example will become far more 
 deftructive to arbitrary governments than their arms, and the 
 crowned heads of Germany, great and fmall, will have real 
 caufe to tremble. It is true, if they were enlightened, they 
 need not tremble at all ; they would fee that arbitrary power 
 is as deftruclive to him that poflefTes, as to him that endures 
 it. But it cannot be expecled that they fhould difcern this 
 the errors of education blind all but very fuperior minds ; 
 and though Germany produces more princes than all Europe 
 befides, it is not once in a century that {lie produces a prince 
 that is a truly great man*. 
 
 Mr. Fox contends that government is from the people ; 
 Mr- Wyndham that it is only/>r the people. Thefe philolo- 
 gical diftintlions are not attended to by the rulers of Germany, 
 among whom even the word people is not to be found. Their 
 fubjetts, they know, are accuftomed to obedience , the bleff. 
 
 * Frederick the Second was an extraordinary man, and it has amufed 
 many perfons to fuppofe how he might have adled on the prefent occafion. 
 This however feems pretty certain, that he would not have lain eight 
 months in the neighbourhood of Mentz before he found an opportunity of 
 laying fiege to it. The prefent condvidl of tne PrulTians ccnvcys an eulogitim 
 n the talents of that great monarch, beyond the power of Hertzberg's 
 oratory. As however they confidered themfelves facrificed before, their 
 prefeut back\rardiicfs may arifc as much from fpleen as from any othey
 
 Ings that flow from liberty and property they have never ex- 
 perienced, and they are therefore fit inftruments in the hands 
 of arbitrary power. Germany, it is well known, is inhabited 
 chiefly by princes, nobles, muficians, and peafantry ; mer- 
 chants, manufacturers, and country gentlemen, the leading 
 defcriptions of Englimmen, are there almoft wholly un- 
 known. The three firft of thefe clafles are, during war, 
 in their natural element ; and the lad, who fuftain all the evils 
 and all the burthens, are as yet too abjecl and too ignorant 
 to make their fufFerings dangerous to thofe by whom they are 
 opprefled. A perfeverance in the war will indeed deftroy 
 what little trade and manufactures there are in Germany, and 
 fender their governments (that of Hanover excepted, whofe 
 military expenfes are defrayed by England) univerfally bank- 
 rupt. The creditors of the flates will be ruined, but the ex- 
 penfes of the courts and armies will not perhaps on that 
 account be lefs. The ordinary revenue of a German 
 prince depends chiefly on the produces of the foil, and 
 dreadful muft be the oppreflion indeed, before thefe fail. Th 
 peafantry will be taxed more and more to fupport increafing 
 burthens, and the extortion of fuch taxes will rivet the po- 
 verty and ignorance through which alone thefe burthens are 
 endured. It is thus that the tyranny of the rulers and the 
 degradation of the people muft keep equal pace ; it is thus 
 that defpotifm forms a natural alliance with ignorance, 
 blafts every charm of rational nature, and blunts every 
 feeling of the human heart. There is indeed a point 
 at which the oppreflion of the moft abject becomes no 
 longer fafe a point to which, if I miftake not, the defpotic 
 governments of Europe are faft approaching. They have 
 undertaken to fubdue the enemies of kingly government in 
 France, and are flaking their whole credit on the iflue of an 
 undertaking from which,according to every human appearance, 
 they will return baffled and difgraced. The moft defpotic 
 7 governments
 
 ( 59 ) 
 
 governments depend for their exiftence on opinion, as well as 
 the moft free. If the concert of princes (hould be baffled, 
 the prejudices of their fubjects will b.e fhaken, and the foun- 
 dation of their thrones will from that moment be for ever 
 infecure. 
 
 Behold then, once more, a crifis which has fo often 
 occurred in hiftory j which has prefented fo frequent and 
 fo awful a warning to rulers, and has prefented it fo often 
 in vain ! A government bankrupt by its own wade and 
 folly ; fenfible of its infecurity, and therefore jealous, irri- 
 table, and oppreflive. A people already labouring under 
 almoft intolerable burthens, and doomed to fuffer others 
 more heavy Mill cafting off, with its prejudices, the habitual 
 fubmiffion and refpedl: to its rulers, and imbibing thofe immu- 
 table truths which are fo dangerous to oppreflbrs, and fome- 
 times indeed fo fatal to thofe who are opprefied. Every day 
 the breach widens the fword at length is drawn, and the 
 fcabbard caft away. In the dreadful conflict which follows 
 there is only one alternative ; the government muft be over- 
 turned, or the people reduced to the condition of beads. "We 
 cannot have forgotten the caufes which have produced the 
 revolutions of Switzerland, Holland, and England which 
 have fo recently produced the revolution of France ; the 
 fame caufes are again confpiring to {hake all Europe to its 
 centre, and to form a new aera in human affairs. 
 
 What a dreadful infatuation is it which involves 
 the fate of Englimmen in this impending ruin which em- 
 barks our commerce, our manufactures, our revenue, per- 
 haps our conftitution itfelf, die fource of all our bleflings, in 
 this defperate crufade of defpotifm and fuperftition againft 
 anarchy and enthufiafm ! in the courfe of which, however 
 it terminate, we can reap nothing but misfortune ; and in 
 the ifiue of which we may learn, that no human inftitution 
 can withftand the folly of thofe who admmifter its powers. 
 
 I 2 Men
 
 Men of Switzerland, how I refpecl you ! While thtf 
 hurricane of human paflions fweeps over France, Italy, and 
 Germany, elevated on your lofty mountains, you are above 
 the region of the ftorm. Secure in your native fenfe, your 
 fmcere patriotifm, your fimple government, your invincible 
 valour, your eternal hills you can look down on the follies 
 and the crimes which defolate Europe, with calmnefs and with 
 pity, and anticipate the happy sera when perhaps you may 
 mediate univerfal peace. Sea-girt Britain might have en- 
 joyed this fituation, had {he known how to eftimate her bleff- 
 ings, and kept aloof from the madnefs of the day. 
 
 At this moment the feffion of parliament clofes ; d 
 dead ftillnefs prevails over England, the natural confequencc 
 of aftonifhment at the fpreading deftruclion, and of ftrong 
 paflions violently fupprefled. The Oppofition, deferted by 
 all thofe feeble amate urs whofe minds have not fufficient com- 
 prehenfion to difcern the true intereft of their country, or 
 whofe nerves are too weak to bear up againft vulgar prejudice, 
 has endeavoured, but in vain, to difcover the extent of our 
 continental engagements, or the real objects of the war *. 
 Two hundred and eighty members, ranging behind you, fup- 
 port every meafure you propofe , and among the whole num- 
 ber, not a man has been found to inquire of you openly, in 
 the rlame and in behalf of the people of England, how long 
 their patience is to endure, and how far the progrefs of ruin is 
 to extend? 
 
 You have afTumed on this awful occafion the whole re- 
 fponfibility of public meafures, and your character and repu- 
 tation,! fear, you miftakingly conceive, are wholly committed 
 on the fuccefsful iflue of the war. Your real friends mult 
 
 Security and compenfation are words that may be explained at 
 pleafurc. 
 
 fincerely
 
 fmcerely lament this on your own account ; the friends of 
 their country will lament it, on account of the general. cala- 
 mities it is likely to produce. The nation, Mr. Pitt, has 
 loved you " well not wifely;" and it is partly in confequence 
 of this that at the prefent moment her real interefts are op- 
 pofed to the perfonal honour of him {he has truftcd and ido- 
 lized. In this day of diftrefs {he is told to repofe in the con- 
 llitutional refponfibility of minifters. " Be ftill, ye inhabi- 
 " tants of the ifle, thou whom the merchants of Zidon that 
 " pafs over the fea have replenifhed." ISAIAH. Alas \ 
 what will filence do ? Will the refponfibility of minifters re- 
 ftore her ruined trade, feed her ftarving manufacturers ? will 
 it replace the hufband and father to the widow or the orphan, 
 or reftore to the aged parent his gallant fon ? will it recall 
 to life the brave men now mouldering in unhallowed earth in 
 Flanders, joint-tenants of a common grave with thofe agaimt 
 whom they fought* ? 
 
 If I were bold enough to appreciate your political life, 
 Mr. Pitt, I mould be inclined to allow the outfet of it extra- 
 ordinary merit. The fentiment of approbation that attended 
 you was indeed almoft univerfal you were the hope of the 
 good, the pride of the wife, the idol of your country. If your 
 official career had terminated with the difcuflions on the Re- 
 gency, though one of the mod fatal of your miftakes had 
 been committed before this, it may be queflioned whether mo- 
 dern Europe could have produced a politician or an orator 
 more ftrenuous, more exalted, more authoritative-}--, one whofe 
 
 * This affecling circumftance is, I am told, literally true. 
 
 + See Mr. Gratton's character of Lord Chatham, printed as Dr. Ro- 
 bcrtfon'k. 
 
 ambition
 
 C 61 ) 
 
 ambition was apparently more free from felfifimefs; wh 
 afforded to his opponents lefs room for cenfure, or gave to 
 his friends more frequent occafions of generous triumph and 
 honeft applaufe. The errors that you have fallen into, are 
 natural for men long poflefled of power uncontrolled , and 
 in imputing them to you, I accufe you only of the weak- 
 nefles of human nature. It is not neceflary to a free people 
 to have rulers exempt from fuch weaknefles ; but it is necef- 
 fary for them to watch and to guard againft thefe infirmities. 
 It is natural, I believe, for fuccefsful ambition to feek 
 new objels on which it may exert itfelf. Hence, after you 
 had fubdued oppofition in England, you iflued forth like 
 another Hercules in queft of new adventures, and traverfed 
 the continent of Europe to feek monfters whom you might 
 fubdue. You could not however but be fenfible, that 
 the reputation of a minifter of trade and finance, which 
 you had juftly obtained, was incompatible with that of 
 a great war minifter in the prefent ftate of the nation. You 
 took therefore the middle line j you made preparations for 
 fighting on every occafion, but you took care not to flrike. 
 England might perhaps bear the expenfe of arming, but 
 could not adlually go to war -, and this fecret, which your 
 three fucceflive armaments difcovered to all Europe, led 
 Mirabeau on his death-bed to give you the name of mimjire 
 preparatif. 
 
 In men long in pofleflion of power, a fecret fympathy 
 (unknown perhaps to themfelves) is gradually ftrengthening 
 in favour of others in the fame fituation, and a fecret pre- 
 judice, amounting perhaps at laft to enmity, againft oppofi- 
 tion to power in every form. Hence the danger you faw to 
 England in the triumph of the patriots of Holland over the 
 Prince of Orange, and the fafety we acquired from the 
 fubjugation of the Dutch by the Pruffian arms. Hence alfo 
 the perfect compofure with which, you expected the con- 
 
 queft
 
 jueft of France by the defpots of Germany, and the fudden 
 alarm with which you were feized, on the repulfion of that 
 invafion, and the overrunning of Flanders by the republican 
 arms. By the freedom of Brabant the conftitution of 
 England might be endangered; but it became the more fe- 
 cure in your eye, it mould feem,by the extension of defpotifm 
 over every corner of Europe, and the fuccefs of foreign bay- 
 onets in rooting out liberty as well as licentioufnefs in 
 France. 
 
 It is alfo to the unhappy prejudices of your fituation that 
 I attribute your want of moderation of temper on occafions of 
 the utmoft moment ; your allying your great talents with the 
 weak judgments and violent paffions of thofe around you ; and 
 your blindnefs (if fuch it be) to the real dangers of this com-' 
 mercial nation, and to the path of fafety and of true honour, 
 which it was no lefs your duty than your intereft to purfue. 
 
 In contemplating events of fuch magnitude as thofe 
 connected with the French revolution, the utmoft calmnefs, 
 as well as comprehenfion of mind, is required and more 
 particularly required in him who directs the affairs of a 
 great nation. Unhappily thefe qualities are fcldom found in, 
 any ftation; and this revolution, feen in part only, has become 
 the object of wild encomium, or of bitter reprobation, as the 
 prejudices of men have been affected, or their fympathies en- 
 gaged. The moft prudent part perhaps for one whofe po- 
 litical fituation is influenced by the opinions he is fuppofed to 
 hold, is to be filent on the fubject. It is uncertain how this 
 extraordinary event may terminate, and its ultimate effects on 
 the human race cannot yet be afcertained. At prefent, how- 
 ever, it is well known, that not in England only, but in every 
 part of Europe, the dreadful exceffes in Paris, and elfewhere, 
 have turned the tide of popular fentiment and opinion 
 ftrongly againft the French. Even under the moft defpotic 
 governments, the people at prcfcnt hug- their chains, and 
 
 tyranny
 
 ( 64 ) 
 
 tyranny itfelf is fecure. Can it then be fuppofed, that in 
 England there is any ferious danger from the contagion of 
 French principles ; in England, where the conftitution is fo 
 fubflantially good, and the people fo loyal and united ? The 
 theological and fe&arian prejudices of different and oppofitc 
 kinds through which the affairs of France have been viewed, 
 have indeed contributed moft fatally to bewilder the under-? 
 ilanding, and to inflame the prejudices of Englifhmen ; and 
 to thefe is to be imputed, in a great degree, that moft fmgular 
 delufion that the fafety of our conftitution has depended on 
 our rUking all our bleffings in this moft fruitlefs, expenfive, 
 and bloody war. That delufion (for fuch I confider it) is, 
 now I hope nearly over-, and peace, which is the general in- 
 tereft, will foon, I doubt not, be the univerfal wifh. Every 
 confideration calls loudly for it; and it may be much more 
 eafily obtained now, when our enemies are humbled, and the, 
 people of England are ftill patient and filent, than at a future 
 period, when the invading armies may be checked, or repulfed s 
 and the nation is become openly impatient under the expenfe 
 and ruin of the war. A man of your fagacity will eafily dif- 
 cern, that in times like the prefent, the gale of popular opi- 
 nion is conftantly fhifting the point whence it blows, and 
 will fee that it cannot be trufted to carry you forward in you^ 
 prefent courfe, in the face of great and increasing obftacles. 
 
 The prefent ftate of affairs in this country, and on the 
 continent of Europe, forms a fubjet too interesting to be left 
 without reluctance but far too extenfive to be thoroughly 
 inveftigated within the limits of a letter like this. The 
 events of the day that is pafling are likely to affedt every 
 portion of Europe, and, in their confequences, the condition, 
 of the human race throughout the habitable earth. Many of 
 ^he "bearings and ties" pf ;his important fubjecl I have been 
 obliged to neglect, and others I have only glanced at; for I 
 write on the fpur of the occafion, and under difficulties and, 
 
 interruptions.
 
 ( 6s ) 
 
 interruptions of various kinds. Should what I have written 
 have the fortune to reach you, you will fee that it is addreflcd 
 to you more " in forrow than in anger," and on that account 
 alone that it is not wholly unworthy of your regard. But I 
 would farther perfuade myfclf, that it may fuggeft topics for 
 ferious reflection, by impreiTmg on your mind the progrefs and 
 unexampled extenfion of the war-fyftem throughout Europe j 
 the correfponding progrefs of the funding-fyftem ; the crifis 
 to which this laft has in fome countries reached, and is every 
 where approaching ; and the probable as well as certain' ef- 
 'feels of this on our own commercial nation, and on mankind 
 at large. 
 
 Hitherto you have taken it for granted, that though there 
 is a certain point of depreflion to which the commerce of this 
 country may fink in confequence of the war, yet that from 
 this, as in former wars, it will naturally return. I have fug- 
 gefted to you, that this fuppofition is dangerous, as weU as 
 fallacious, from the increafed progrefs of our debts and taxes, 
 from the locking up of the capital of our manufacturers in 
 foreign debts, and from the growing poverty as well as the 
 general bankruptcy that fpreatls over Europe, in confequencs 
 of the continued prefliife of former burthens, and die unex- 
 ampled extent and expenfe of the prefent war. I have, not 
 ftated to you, under this head, the effects of a rapidly finking 
 revenue, or of the emigration of our people to America j be- 
 caufe thefe confiderations are fo extremely ferious that they 
 cannot be mentioned without grief and alarm, and may form, 
 of themfelves, a very ample i"ubjet for feparate difcuilk>n. 
 
 Mr. Dundas told us, in the houfe of commons, that our 
 Commercial diftrefles arofe from our extraordinary profperity, 
 and beaded that all the world united with us in the war againit 
 France. I have {hewn that his afiertion is a poor fophifm, and 
 his boaft a fubject of forrow and apprehenfion. 
 
 Mr. "Wyndham expreiTed his acquicfcence in the lofs of 
 K Qur
 
 -( 66 ) 
 
 cur commerce, if we might retain our conftitutipn ; and ort 
 the fame ground of preferving our conllitution, this perilous 
 war has been often defended by yourfelf, your followers, and> 
 a great part of the nation. I have made out to you, -what I 
 know not how, as chancellor of the exchequer, you can well 
 be ignorant of, that ouf commerce and our conftitution have 
 a moil intimate dependence on each other j and that whert 
 the union is formed by twenty-four millions of taxes, tythes, 
 and poor-rates, and two hundred and fifty millions of debt, 
 they may be confidered as embarked in the fame adventure, 
 and as likely to perifli in the fame florin. 
 
 How the war commenced I have endeavoured to explain, 
 and you will confuler in your calmer moments, whether you 
 really exerted yourfelf to -preferve peace by negociation, in- 
 ftead of procuring it by arms ; and to what profit you have 
 turned the honed affection of your countrymen for their 
 conftitution and king, and the generous indignation with 
 which they furveyed the madnefs and brutality of their 
 neighbours. 
 
 On various occafions during this bloody contefl I have- 
 (hewn that the peace of Europe was in our power , that it 
 was in our power recently on the retreat of Dumourier, and 
 after we ourfelves had tailed the calamities of war. Why it 
 was rejected you mud yourfelf explain ; I have defcribcd 
 the congrefs at Antwerp, and am no farther mailer of the 
 fubject. 
 
 The views that you conceal cannot be afcertaineJ, but 
 what you have actually performed is not liable to mif- 
 apprehenfion. I have fuggefled to you, that you have 
 united Englishmen in the intereils and in the councils of 
 thofe who formed the treaty of Pillnitz ; who retain 
 Vayette in chains ; who were the real caufe of the triumphs 
 of the Jacobin party in France over limited monarchy ; 
 who are in fact the pretext that the prefcnt anarchifts 
 
 have
 
 fcave employed, and will employ, to juftify their defperattf 
 proceedings; and who, by their recent conduct in Poland* 
 have given fuch proofs of their ambition, as well as of theit 
 power, as muft fill the heart of every friend of his fpecie 
 with horror and alarm. That the deftroyers of the con- 
 ftitution of Poland can be friendly to our own, the model 
 on which it was formed, no one will believe. They are the 
 deadly foes of liberty throughout the world j and I might 
 have fhewn you, that in the deftrudlion of our revenue and 
 commerce, the bulwarks will be removed which fecure u 
 from their overwhelming force. I might alfo have pointed 
 out the danger of fending our army to fight under their ban- 
 ners, and our princes to aflbciate in their councils j but 
 there are fentiments of ferious alarm which a lover of his 
 country muft deeply feel, that in this feafon of delufion it 
 may be dangerous to utter. 
 
 Of the two motives for continuing the war, fecurity and 
 eompenfation, I have confidered that which alone I can un- 
 derftand, the former ; and have fhewn that the attempt to 
 take and to feparate from France its frontier towns on the 
 north, is full of difficulty and hazard, and that while it may 
 render the war doubly bloody and defperate, it can afford 
 no fecurity beyond wlr.it might be obtained from fortifying 
 Auitrian Flanders, already in. our power. The true fecurity 
 to thi country arifing from the fettlement of the French go- 
 vernment, I have endeavoured to (hew, is not promoted, but 
 abfolutely prevented by the prefent invafion, which, mould it 
 be repelled, may leave unfortified Brabant, as well as Hol- 
 land, an eafy conqueil to the republican arms 1 . 
 
 In the fearful tragedy which is now a&ing on the theatre 
 of Europe, you have unhappily made England one of the per- 
 fons of the drama, and (he cannot but act a part of unparal- 
 leled importance. You have aflumed the direction of thi< 
 
 K 2 part'
 
 ( 68 ) 
 
 part to yourfelf, and before parliament again meets, the hope$ 
 and the fears of the enlightened, and the real interefts of at 
 leaft the prefent race of mankind, may be at ilTue on your 
 fmgle counfels. More than one falfe ftep you have already 
 made the precipice is direlly in your path, that leads to 
 inevitable deftruclion. I know the temptations and the dif-? 
 ficulties of your fituation we will forget the pad, but if you 
 advance, how (hall you be forgiven ? 
 
 In confidering the afpe<5t of the prefent times, I am fome-r 
 times affeded with deep melancholy, yet I am not one of 
 thofe who defpair of the fortunes of the human race. 
 Through the thick clouds and darknefs that furround us, I 
 difcern the workings of an over-ruling mind. Superflition I 
 know is the natural offspring of ignorance, and governs in 
 the dark ages with a giant's flrength. Unaflifced reafon is a 
 feeble enemy : oppofed to fuperftition, reafon, in days of ig- 
 norance, is a dwarf. In the order of providence, enthufiafm 
 arifes to refift fuperftition to combat a monfler with a mon- 
 fter's force. What did Erafmus in the* days of Luther ? 
 What would Lowth have done in the days of Wycliffe, or 
 Blair in thofe of Knox ? In the councils of Heaven, mean 
 and wicked inftruments are often employed for the higheft 
 purpofes. The authors of the reformation were many of them 
 ignorant, fierce, and even bloody : but the work itfelf was of 
 the moft important and moft univerfal benefit to the human 
 race. The defpotifm of priefts then received its death-wound, 
 and the defpotifm of princes has now perhaps fuftained a 
 fimilar blow. Pure religion has furvived and improved after 
 the firll ; the true fcience of government may improve after 
 the laft, and be built every where on the folid foundations of 
 utility and law. Before fuch happy confequences enfue, dread- 
 ful commotions may indeed be expected over Europe, com- 
 motions which England, and perhaps England only, may, if 
 
 fhe
 
 (he Is wife, efcape. The prefent generation will probably be 
 fwept away before the intelle&ual earthquake fubfides ; but 
 fhofe who fucceed them, will, I trufl, find the air more pure 
 and balmy, and the Ikies more bright and ferene. 
 
 June 6, 1793, 
 
 jf. W, 
 
 POST.
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 .IN printing a fecond edition o this letter, it may not be 
 ufelefs to enquire, how far the events which have happened 
 Cnce itsfirfl publication correfpond to the reprefentations, or 
 illuftrate the reafonings, it contains. 
 
 Your warmeft and moll injudicious partizans, Mr. Pitt, 
 will not deny that the bankrupt flate of the continental 
 powers, our allies, becomes every day more evident. Eng- 
 limmen have had a melancholy proof of the nature of the 
 connections they have formed, not merely in the fubfidies to 
 Hanover, or to that flower of chivalry the Prince of Heflc 
 (who fells the lives of his fubjeds at the rate of thirty banco 
 crowns for each), but in the fuccours demanded by the 
 Auftrians to enable them to keep the field j in the ruin of the 
 commerce as well as the finance of Ruflia (when the ruble, 
 by the regular operations of its government, is reduced, in 
 foreign exchange, to lefs than half its value) ; and in that 
 jnoft unprecedented of all treaties with the King of Sardinia, 
 by which we are to pay him two hundred thoufand pounds 
 annually, to keep up his own army, for the defence of his 
 own country ! 
 
 Though the merchants of this kingdom felt the fad ef- 
 fects of the war firft, it was predicted that on the manufac- 
 turers it would fall with the moft unrelenting ruin. The 
 truth of this is now undeniable : even the woollen and iron 
 branches of manufacture, which in former wars in a great 
 meafure efcaped, are now almoft in a ftate of ftagnation 
 He who handled the fhuctle for three {hillings a day, muft 
 now take fixpence, and handle the fpear ; and many of the 
 enlightened and virtuous aflertors of the conftitution at 
 Birmingham, fo fuccefsful in their fcirmiflics with herefy 
 
 and
 
 the beads of the flefh, are now doomed to a harder Ter- 
 Vice on the frontiers of France, where the " Bubble Reputa- 
 tion" muft be " fought," not in the libraries or laboratories, 
 or peaceful habitations of unprotected fcience, but in the 
 hoftile fortrefs, " and in the cannon's mouth." 
 
 The reafoning refpeting paper-money is alfo con- 
 firmed So far from this being the caufe of our commercial 
 diilrefljes, it is now found, under proper regulations, to be 
 the bed alleviation for them that the times admit ; and 
 Bank is propofed at Glafgow, and one has been eilablimed 
 at Liverpool, for this exprcfs purpofe. 
 
 What was obferved on the fubjecl: of the fuppofed ploti 
 and confpiracies, which have fo fatally bewildered die un- 
 derftandinga of men, feems alfo to be ftrengthened by the 
 progrefs of events. The trial of Mr. Froflr, from which fq 
 much was expected, is now before the public, and the tender- 
 nefs of the recorder of Leicefter has funk deep into the pub- 
 lic mind. The zeal and activity of government have mili- 
 tated various profccutions, and leave no reafon to fuppofe, 
 that, through miilaken lenity, treafon or fedition have been 
 Ipared. As yet, however, the fhadow of a confpiracy has 
 
 not been difcovered If there be men, Mr. Pitt, lurking in 
 
 the bofom of their country, who have plotted with France 
 for the dcflruclion of our conilitution, let their guilty blood 
 itream on the feairbld ; tlie minister, who would (pare them, 
 is himfelf a traitor but let not the friends of their king and 
 country, who oppofe your prefent meafures, be involved in 
 ib foul a charge, " to fright the iile from its propriety," and 
 to involve Us Hill deeper in this ruinous war. 
 
 With regard to thole men who have perfuaded them- 
 felvcs, that the falVty of England depends on her per filling in 
 ffye invafion of France, till monarchy {hall be forced on that 
 kingdom by the allied arms ; the occurrences of the lad two 
 n;onth en the continent may abate their confidence, and 
 
 difpofe
 
 ( 72 ) 
 
 flifpofe them to regard, with more attention and alarm, ouf 
 Jituation at home The fearful diminution of our exifting 
 revenue, and the increafed expenfes of the war, will require^ 
 it is evident, hew methods and objects of taxation : thefe 1 
 our wounded commerce and our diminifhed confumption 
 cannot poiiibly fupport ; and the necefiity of increafmg the 
 land tax is already incurred. But if the war continues, 
 eight (hillings in the pound will do little towards the fupport 
 of the public expenditure, which, even on the peace efta- 
 blifhment (if poor-rates be included), already exceeds the 
 'grofs amount of all the landlords' rents in England : a tax on 
 the funds, of which the Dutch have long ago fet us the ex- 
 ample, may therefore be expe&ed, and may at lait roufe the 
 inonied men from that blind and felfim acquiefcence in the 
 meafures of every adminiilration, which has been the chief 
 fupport of our war-politics. A friend, Sir, to the family on 
 the throne, to our limited monarchy, and our eonftitution of 
 three eilates a friend, above all, to the interefts of my 
 country, and the happindfs of the human race, I deprecate 
 the continuance of this dreadful war My reafons are now 
 before you and the public However ineffectual my humble 
 exertions may be to ward off the impending calamities, I 
 (hall (till have the fatisfac~Hon of having performed my duty, 
 tnd can appeal to the Searcher of Hearts for the purity of 
 my views* 
 
 God of peace and love, look down in mercy on thy 
 erring creatures ! and bid hatred, madnefs, and murder 
 ceafe ! 
 
 Jftyzf* 1793- 
 
 J. W.
 
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