UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS AiMGELES
 
 jfourtf) tuticm. 
 TWO LETTERS 
 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 A MEMBER 
 
 OF 
 
 THE PRESENT PARLIAMENT. 
 
 Price 35. 6d. 
 
 9082.
 
 TWO LETTERS 
 
 'ADDRESSED TO 
 
 A MEMBER 
 
 OF 
 
 THE PRESENT PARLIAMENT, 
 
 ON THE PROPOSALS FOR 
 
 PEACE / 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 REGICIDE DIRECTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 BY THE RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 XonDon : 
 
 PRINTED FOR F AND C. RIVINGTON, 
 ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD. 
 
 1796.
 
 
 ERRATA. 
 Page 24, 1. 15> inftead of " For as we have gone" read 
 
 " Far as we have gone," &c. 
 39,1. 17, inftead of " with him," read " with 
 
 Citizen Barthelemi" 
 57, 1. 25, inftead of "from her" read "from them." 
 
 .3X ^^H CT/IUMGZ .KOII T? ^
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 ^ y ; 
 
 On the Overtures of Peace. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 >- ^\UR lafl converfation, though not in the tone 
 5 V^/ of abfolute defpondericy, was far from chear- 
 ^ful. We could not eaiily account for fome un- 
 pleafant appearances. They were represented to 
 us as indicating the ftate of the popular mind ; and 
 they were not at all what we mould have expected 
 from our old ideas even of the faults and vices of 
 the Englim character. The difaftrous events, 
 S which have followed one upon another in a long 
 co unbroken funereal train, moving in a proceffion, 
 ** that feemed to have no end, thefe were not the 
 3j principal caufes of our dejection. We feared more 
 from what threatened to fail within, than what me- 
 naced to opprefs us from abroad. To a people 
 who have once been proud and great, and great 
 becaufe they were proud, a change in the national 
 fpirit is the moft terrible of all revolutions. 
 
 1 mall not live to behold the unravelling of the 
 intricate plot, which faddens and perplexes the 
 B awful 
 
 300333
 
 awful drama of Providence, now acting on the 
 moral theatre of the world. Whether for thought 
 or for action, I am at the end of my career. You are 
 in the middle of yours. In what part of it's orbit 
 the nation, with which we are carried along, moves 
 at this inftant, it is not eafy to conjecture. It 
 may, perhaps, be far advanced in its aphelion. 
 But when to return ? 
 
 Not to lofe ourfclvcs in the infinite void of the 
 conjectural world, our bulinefs is with what is 
 likely to be affected for the better or the 
 worfe, by the wifdom or weaknefs of our plans. 
 In all fpeculations upon men and human affairs, 
 it is of no fmall mome.nt to diftinguifh things 
 of accident from permanent caufes, and from 
 effects that cannot be altered. It is not every 
 irregularity in our movement that is a total devi- 
 ation from our courfe. I am not quite of the 
 mind of thofe fpeculators, who feem aliiired, that 
 necefTarily, and by the conftitution of things, all 
 States have the fame periods of infancy, manhood, 
 and decrepitude, that are found in the individuals 
 who compofe them. Parallels of this fort rather 
 furnifh fimilitudcs to illultrate or to adorn, 
 than to fupply analogies from whence to rea- 
 fon. Thi; objects which are attempted to be 
 forced into an analogy are not found in the fame 
 dalles of exiftencc. Individuals are phyfical be- 
 ings,
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
 ings, fubjeft to laws univerfal and invariable. The 
 immediate caufe acling in thefe laws may be ob- 
 fcure : The general refults are fubjecls of certain 
 calculation. But commonwealths are not phyfical 
 but moral eflences. They are artificial combina- 
 tions ; arid in their proximate efficient caufe, the 
 arbitrary productions of the human mind. We 
 are not yet acquainted with the laws which necef- 
 farily influence the liability of that kind of work 
 made by that kind of agent. There is not in the 
 phyfical order (with which they do not appear to 
 hold any affignable connexion) a diftincl caufe by 
 which any of thofe fabricks muft necefiarily grow, 
 flourifh, or decay ; nor, in my opinion, does the 
 moral world produce any thing more determinate 
 on that fubjecl, than what may ferve as an amufe- 
 ment (liberal indeed, and ingenious, but ftill only 
 an amufement) for fpeculative men. I doubt whe- 
 ther the hiftory of mankind is yet compleat enough, 
 if ever it can be fo, to furnim grounds for a furc 
 theory on the internal caufes which neceflarily af- 
 fect the fortune of a State. I am far from deny- 
 ing the operation of fuch caufes : But they are in- 
 finitely uncertain, and much more obfcure, and 
 much more difficult to trace, than the foreign 
 caufes that tend to raile, to deprefs, and fome- 
 times to overwhelm a community. 
 
 It is often impoffiblc, in thefe political < nquirics, 
 
 to find any proportion between the apparent force 
 
 B2 of
 
 of any moral caufes we may atfign and their known 
 operation. We are therefore obliged to deliver up 
 that operation to mere chance, or more pioufly 
 (perhaps more rationally) to the occafional inter- 
 pofition and irrefiftible hand of the Great Dif- 
 pofer. We have feen States of confiderable duration, 
 which for ages have remained nearly as they have 
 begun, and could hardly be faid to ebb or flow. 
 Some appear to have fperit their vigour at their 
 commencement. Some have blazed out in their 
 glory a little before their extinction. The meri- 
 dian of fome has been the moft fplendid. Others, 
 and they the greateft number, have fluctuated, and 
 experienced at different periods of their exiftence 
 a great variety of fortune. At the very moment 
 when fome of them feemed plunged in unfathom- 
 able abyfles of difgrace and difafter, they have 
 fuddenly emerged. They have begun a new courfe 
 and opened a new reckoning ; and even in the 
 depths of their calamity, and on the very ruins of 
 their country, have laid the foundations of a tow- 
 ering and durable greatnefs. All this has happened 
 without any apparent previous change in the ge- 
 neral circumftances which had brought on their 
 diftrefs. The death of a man at a critical junc- 
 ture, his difguft, his retreat, his difgrace, have 
 brought innumerable calamities on a whole na- 
 tion. A common foldier, a child, a girl at the 
 door of an inn, have changed the face of fortune, 
 and alnjoft of Nature, 
 
 Such
 
 ( 6 ) 
 
 Such, and often influenced by fuch caufes, 
 has commonly been the fate of Monarchies of 
 long duration. They have their ebbs and their 
 flows. This has been eminently the fate of the 
 Monarchy of France. There have been times in 
 which no Power has ever been brought fo low. 
 Few have ever flourifhed in greater glory. By 
 turns elevated and deprefied, that Power had 
 been, on the whole, rather on the encreafe ; and 
 it continued not only powerful but formidable to 
 the hour of the total ruin of the Monarchy. This 
 fall of the Monarchy was far from being preceded 
 by any exterior fymptoms of decline. The interior 
 were not vifible to every eye ; and a thoufand ac- 
 cidents might have prevented the operation df 
 what the moft clear-fighted were not able to 
 difcern, nor the moft provident to divine. A 
 very little time before its dreadful catailrophe, 
 there was a kind of exterior fplendour in the 
 fituation of the Crown, which ufually adds to 
 Government ftrength and authority at home. The 
 Crown feemed then to have obtained Ibme of the 
 moft fplendid objects offtate ambition. None of 
 the Continental Powers of Europe were the ene- 
 mies of France. They were all, either tacitly 
 difpofed to her, or publickly connected with her ; 
 and in thofe who kept the moft aloof, there \vas 
 little appearance of jealoufy ; of animofity there 
 was no appearance at all. The Britifh Nation, her 
 great preponderating rival, (lie had humbled; to 
 
 a!!
 
 all appearance fhe had weakened ; certainly had 
 endangered, by cutting off a very large, and by 
 far the moft growing part of her empire. In that it's 
 acme of human profperity and greatnefs, in the high 
 and palmy ftate of the Monarchy of France, it fell 
 to the ground without a ftruggle. It fell without 
 any of thofe vices in the Monarch, which have 
 fometimes been the caufes of the fall of kingdoms, 
 but which exifted, without any vifible effecl: on the 
 ftate, in the higheft degree in many other Princes ; 
 and, far from deftroying their power, had only left 
 fome flight ftains on their character. The finan- 
 cial difficulties were only pretexts and inftruments 
 of thofe who accomplifhed the ruin of that Mo- 
 narchy. They were not the caufes of it. 
 
 Deprived of the old Government, deprived in a 
 manner of all Government, France fallen as a Mo- 
 narchy, to common fpeculators might have ap- 
 peared more likely to be an object of pity or in- 
 fult, according to the difpofition of the circumja- 
 cent powers, than to be the fcourge and terror of 
 them all : But out of the tomb of the murdered 
 Monarchy in France, has arifen a vaft, tremendous, 
 unformed fpc6lre, in a far more terrific guifc than] 
 any which ever yet have overpowered the imagina - 
 lion, and wbdued the. fortitude of man. Going 
 Straight forward to it's end, unappalled by peril, un- 
 checked by remorfe, defpifing all common max- 
 ims and all common means, that hideous phan- 
 tom
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 torn overpowerd thofe who could not believe it was 
 poffible (lie could at all exift, except on the prin- 
 ciples, which habit rather than nature had perfuad- 
 cd them were necefiary to their own particular 
 welfare and to their own ordinary modes of action. 
 But the conftitution of any political being, as 
 well as that of any phyfical being, ought to be 
 known, before one can venture to fay what is fit 
 for it's confcrvation, or what is the proper means 
 of it's power. The poifon of other States is the 
 food of the new Republick. That bankruptcy, 
 the very apprehenfion of which is one of the caufes 
 affigned for the fall of the Monarchy, was the ca- 
 pital on which fhe opened her traffick with the 
 world. 
 
 The Republick of Regicide with an annihilated 
 revenue, with defaced manufactures, with a ruined 
 commerce, with an uncultivated and half depopu- 
 lated country, with a difcontented,diftrefled,enflav- 
 cd, and famifhed people, palling with a rapid, eccen-/ 
 trick, incalculable courfe, from the wildeft anarchy 
 to the ftcrncfl defpotifm, has actually conquered 
 the fineil parts of Europe, has diftrefled, difunited, 
 deranged, and broke to pieces all the reft ; and fo 
 fubdued the minds of the rulers in every nation, 
 that hardly any reiburce prefents itlelf to them, 
 except that of entitling themfelves to a contemp- 
 tuous mercy by a difplay of their imbecility an4 
 meannefs. Even jn their greateft military efforts 
 
 and
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 and the greateft difplay of their fortitude, they feem 
 not to hope, they do not even appear to wifh, the 
 extinction of what fubfifts to their certain ruin. 
 Their ambition is only to be admitted to a more 
 favoured clafs in the order of fervitude under that 
 domineering power. 
 
 This feems the temper of the day. At firft 
 the French force was too much defpifcd. Now it is 
 too much dreaded. As inconii aerate courage 
 has given way to irrational fear, fo it may be 
 hoped, that through the medium of deliberate fober- 
 apprehenfion, we may arrive at fteady fortitude. 
 Who knows whether indignation mcy not fucceed 
 to terror, and the revival of high fentiment, fpurn- 
 ing away the dt- lulion of a fafety purchafed at the 
 expencc of glory, may not yet drive us to that ge- 
 nerous defpair, which has often fubdued diftem- 
 pers in the State for which no remedy could be 
 found in the wifeft councils. 
 
 Other great State?, having been without any re- 
 gular certain courfe of elevation, or decline, wo 
 may hope that the Britifli fortune may fluctuate al- 
 fo; becaufethe public mind, which greatly influences 
 that fortune, may have it's changes. We are there- 
 fore never authorized to abandon our country to it's 
 fate, or to acl: or advife as if it had no refource. 
 There is no rcafon to apprehend, bccaufc ordinary 
 
 means
 
 ( 9 ) 
 
 means threaten to fail, that no others can 
 up. Whilft our heart is whole, it will find means, 
 or make them. The heart of the citizen is a pe- 
 rennial fpring of energy to the State. Becaufethe 
 pulfe feems to intermit, we muft not prefume that it- 
 will ceafe inftantly to beat. The publick muft never 
 be regarded as incurable. I remember in the be- 
 ginning of what has lately been called the feven 
 years war, that an eloquent writer and ingenious 
 fpcculator, Dr. Browne, upon fome reveries which 
 happened in the beginning of that war, publilhed 
 an elaborate philofophical difcourfe to prove that 
 the diftinguifhing features of the people of Eng- 
 land had been totally changed, and that a frivolous 
 effeminacy was become the national character. 
 Nothing could be more popular than that work. It 
 was thought a great confolation to us the light 
 people of this country (who were and are light, 
 but who were not and are not effeminate) that 
 we had found the caufes of our misfortunes in 
 our vices. Pythagoras could not be more pleafed 
 with his leading difcovery. But whilft in that 
 fplenetick mood we amufed ourfelves in a four 
 critical fpeculation, of which we were ourfelves 
 the objects, and in which every man loft his par- 
 ticular fenfe of the publick difgrace in the epide- 
 mic nature of the diftemper ; whilft, as in the Alps 
 Goitre kept Goitre in countenance; whilft we 
 were thus abandoning ourfelves to a direct con- 
 C feffion
 
 feffion of our inferiority to France, and whilft 
 many, very many, were ready to a& upon a 
 fenfe of that inferiority, a few months effected a 
 total change in our variable minds. We emerged 
 from the gulph of that fpeculative defpondency ; 
 and were buoyed up to the higheft point of prac- 
 tical vigour. Never did the mafculine fpirit of Eng- 
 land difplay itfelf with more energy, nor ever did 
 it's genius foar with a premier pre-eminence over 
 France, than at the time when frivolity and effe- 
 minacy had been at leaft tacitly acknowledged as 
 their national character, by the good people of this 
 kingdom. 
 
 For one (if they be properly treated) I defpair nei- 
 ther of the publick fortune nor of the publick mind. 
 There is much to be done undoubtedly, and much 
 to be retrieved. We muft walk in new ways, or we 
 can never encounter our enemy in his devious march. 
 We are not at an end of ourftruggle, nor near it. Let 
 us not deceive ourfelves : we are at the beginning 
 of great troubles. I readily acknowledge that the 
 ttate of publick affairs is infinitely more unpromil- 
 ing than at the period I have juft now alluded to, 
 and the pofition of all the Powers of Europe, 
 in relation to us, and in relation to each other, is 
 more intricate and critical beyond all comparifon. 
 Difficult indeed is our fituation. In all fitua- 
 tions of difficulty men will be influenced in the 
 
 part
 
 ( 11 ) 
 
 part they take, not only by the reafon of the cafe, 
 but by the peculiar turn of their own character. 
 The fame ways to fafety do not prefent themfelves 
 to all men, nor to the fame men in different tem- 
 pers. There is a courageous wifdom : there is alfo 
 a falfe reptile prudence, the refult not of caution 
 but of fear. Under misfortunes it often happens 
 that the nerves of the understanding are fo relaxed, 
 the preffing peril of the hour fo completely con- 
 founds all the faculties, that no future danger can 
 be properly provided for, can be juftly cfti mated, 
 can be Ib much as fully 'feen. The eye of the 
 mind is dazzled and vanquifhed. An abject dif- 
 truft of ourfelves, an extravagant admiration of the 
 enemy, prefent us with no hope but in a com- 
 promife with his pride, by a fubmiflion to his will. 
 This fhort plan of policy is the only counfel which 
 will obtain a hearing. We plunge into a dark 
 gulph with all the rajh precipitation of fear. The 
 nature of courage is, without a queftion, to be con- 
 vcrfant with danger ; but in the palpable night of 
 their terrors, men under confternation fuppofe, not 
 that it is the danger, which, by a fure inltincl, 
 calls out the courage to refift it, but that it is the 
 courage which produces the danger. They therefore 
 feek for a refuge from their fears in the fears them- 
 fclves, and coniider a temporizing meannefs as the 
 only fource of fafety. 
 
 C '1 The?
 
 The rules and definitions of prudence can rarely 
 be exatf; never univerfal. I do not deny that in 
 fmall truckling ftates a timely compromife with 
 power has often been the means, and the only 
 means, of drawling out their puny exiftence : But 
 a great ftate is too much envied, too much dreaded, 
 to find fafety in humiliation. To be fecure, it 
 muft be refpected. Power, and eminence, and 
 confideration, are things not to be begged. They 
 muft be commanded : and they who fupplicate for 
 mercy from others can never hope for juftice thro' 
 themfelves. What juftice they are to obtain, as 
 the alms of an enemy, depends upon his character; 
 and that they ought well to know before they im- 
 plicitly confide. 
 
 Much controverfy there has been in Parliament, 
 and not a little amongft us out of doors, about the 
 inftrumental means of this nation towards the 
 maintenance of her dignity, and the afiertion of her 
 rights. On the mpft elaborate and correct detail 
 effaces, the refult feems to be, that at no time has 
 the wealth and power of Great Britain been fo con- 
 fiderable as it is at this very perilous moment. We 
 have a yaft intereft to-preferve, and we poflefs great 
 means of preferving it : But it is tp be remembered 
 that the artificer may be incumbered by his tools, 
 and that refources may be among impediments. 
 Jf wealth is the obedient and laborious flave of 
 
 virtue
 
 ( 13 ) 
 
 virtue and of publick honour, then wealth is in it's 
 place, and has it's ufe : But if this order is chang- 
 ed, and honor is to be facrificed to the confer- 
 vation of riches, riches which have neither eyes 
 nor hands, nor any thing truly vital in them, 
 cannot long furvive the being of their vivifying 
 powers, their legitimate mafters, and their potent 
 proteclors. If we command our wealth, we fhall 
 be rich and free : If our wealth commands us, we 
 are poor indeed. We are bought by the enemy 
 with the treafure from our own coffers. Too great 
 a fenfeof the value of a fubordinate intereft may be 
 the very fource of it's danger, as well as the certain 
 ruin of interefts of a fuperiour order. Often has a. 
 man loft his all becaufe he would not fubmit to ha- 
 zard all in defending it. A difplay of our wealth 
 before robbers is not the way to reftrain their bold- 
 nefs, or to Icflcn their rapacity. This difplay is 
 made, I know, to perfuade the people of England 
 that thereby we fhall awe the enemy, and improve 
 the terms of our capitulation : it is made, not that 
 we fhould fight with more animation, but that we 
 fhould fupplicate with better hopes. We are 
 miftaken. We have an enemy to deal with who ne- 
 ver regarded our conteft as a meafuring and weigh- 
 ing of purfes. He is the Gaul that puts hisfword 
 into the fcale. He is more tempted with out* 
 wealth as booty, than terrified with it as power. 
 J3ut let us be rich or poor, let us be either in what 
 
 proportion
 
 ( 14 ) 
 
 proportion we may, nature is falfe or this is truer, 
 that where the eflential publick force., (of which 
 money is but a part,) is in any degree upon a par in 
 a conflict between nations, that ftate which is re- 
 folved to hazard it's exjltence rather than to aban- 
 don it's objects, muft have an infinite advantage 
 over that which is refolved to yield rather than to 
 carry it's refinance beyond a certain point. Hu- 
 manly fpeaking, that people which bounds it's ef- 
 forts only with it's being, muft give the law to that 
 nation which will net pufh it's oppolition beyond 
 ' its convenience. 
 
 If we look to nothing but our domeftick condU 
 tion, the Itate of the nation is full even to plethory ; 
 but if we imagine that this country can long main- 
 tain it's blood and it's food, as disjoined from the 
 community of mankind, Inch an opinion does not 
 deferve refutation as abfurd, but pity as infanc. 
 
 I do not know that fueh an improvident and 
 ftupid felfiflinels, defcrves the difcuflion, which* 
 perhaps, 1 may beftow upon it hereafter. We can- 
 not arrange with our enemy in the prcfent conjunc- 
 ture, without abandoning the interdict" mankind. 
 If we look only to our own petty peculium in the 
 war, we have had fome advantages ; advantages 
 ambiguous in their nature, and dearly bought. W<J 
 have not in the ilighteft degree, impaired the 
 
 ftrcngth
 
 ( 15 ) 
 
 Arength of the common enemy, in any one of 
 thofe points in which his particular force conlifts ; 
 at the fame time that new enemies to ourfelves, 
 new allies to the Regicide Republick, have been 
 made out of the wrecks and fragments of the ge- 
 neral confederacy. So far as to the felfifh part. As 
 .compofing a part of the community of Europe, and 
 interefted in it's fate, it is not eafy to conceive a ftate 
 of things more doubtful and perplexing. When 
 Louis the XlVth had made himfelf mafter of one 
 of the largeft and moft important provinces of 
 Spain ; when he had in a mariner over-run 
 Lombardy, and was thundering at the gates of 
 Turin ; when he had mattered almoft all Germa- 
 ny on this fide the Rhine ; when he was on the 
 point of ruining the auguft fabrick of the Empire; 
 when with the Elector of Bavaria in his alliance, 
 hardly any thing interpoled between him and Vi- 
 enna ; when the Turk hung with a mighty force 
 over the Empire on the other fide,; I do not 
 know, that in the beginning of 1704 (that is in 
 the third year of the renovated war with Louis the 
 XIV) the ilate of Europe was fq truly alarming.' 
 To England it certainly was not. Holland (and 
 Holland is a matter to England of value ineftima- 
 ble) was then powerful, was then independent, and 
 tiiough greatly endangered,' was then full of energy 
 and fpirit. But the great refource of Europe was 
 ip England : Not in a fort of England detached 
 
 from
 
 from the reft of the world, and amufifig herfelf 
 with the puppet mew of a naval power, (it can be 
 no better, whilft all the fources of that power, and 
 of every fort of power, are precarious) but in that 
 fort of England, who conlidered herfelf as embo- 
 died with Europe ; but in that fort of England, 
 who, fympathetick with the adverlity or the happi- 
 nefs of mankind, felt that nothing in human af- 
 fairs was foreign to her. We may confider it as 
 a fure axiom that, as on the one hand no con- 
 federacy of the lead effect or duration can exift 
 againft France, of which England is not only a 
 part, but the head, fo neither can England pre- 
 tend to cope with France but as connected with 
 the body of Chriftendom; 
 
 Our account of the war, as a iscar of communion, 
 to the very point in which we began to throw out 
 lures, oglings, and glances for peace, was a war 
 of difafter and of little elfe. The independant 
 advantages obtained by us at the beginning of the 
 war, and which were made at the expence of that 
 common caufe, if they deceive us about our 
 largeft and our fureft intereft, are to be reckoned 
 amongft our heavieft lofles. 
 
 The allies, and Great Britain amongft the reft, 
 (and perhaps amongft the forcmoft) have been mi- 
 ferably deluded by this great fundamental error; 
 
 that
 
 ( 17 ) 
 
 that it was in our power to make peace with this 
 monfter of a State, whenever we chofe to forget 
 the crimes that made it great, and the defigns 
 that made it formidable. People imagined -that 
 their ceafing to refill was the fure way to be fe- 
 cure. This " pale caft of thought licklied over 
 all their enterprises and turned all their politicks 
 awry." They could not, or rather tfrey would not 
 read, in the moil unequivocal declarations of the ene- 
 my, and in his uniform conduct, that more fafe- 
 ty was to be found in the mofl arduous war, than 
 in the friendfhip of that kind of being. It's hoftile 
 amity can be obtained on no terms that do not im- 
 ply an .inability hereafter to refill it's defigns. This 
 great prolific error (I mean that peace was always 
 in our power) has been the caufe that rendered the 
 allies indifferent about the dire&ion of the war ; 
 and perfuaded them that they might always rifque 
 a choice, and even a change in it's objects. They 
 feldom improved any advantage; hoping that the 
 enemy, affected by it, would make a proffer of 
 peace. Hence it was, that all their early victo- 
 ries have been followed almoft immediately 
 with the ufual effects of a defeat; whilfl all 
 the advantages obtained by the Regicides, hav* 
 been followed by the confequences that were na- 
 tural. The difcomfitures, which the Republick 
 of Alfaffins has fuffered, have uniformly called 
 forth new exertions, which not only repaired old 
 D ' lofl^s
 
 C 13 ) 
 
 lolTes, but prepared new conqucfts. The loiTes of 
 the allies, on the contrary, (no provifion having 
 been made on the fpeculation of fuch an event) 
 have been followed by defertion, by difmay, by dif- 
 union, by a dereliction of their policy, by a flight 
 from their principles, by an admiration of the ene- 
 my, by mutual accufations, by a diftruft in every 
 member of the alliance of it's fellow, of it's caufe, 
 it's power, and it's courage. 
 
 Great difficulties in confequence of our errone- 
 ous policy, as I have faid, prefs upon every fide of 
 us. Fur from defiring to conceal or even to palli- 
 ate the evil in the reprefentation, I wifli to lay it 
 down as my foundation, that never greater exifted. 
 In a moment when fudden panick is apprehended, 
 it may be wife, for a while to conceal fome great 
 publick difaftery or to reveal it by degrees, until the 
 minds of the people have time to be re-collecled, 
 that their underftanding may have leifure to 
 rally, and that more fteady councils may prevent 
 their doing fomething defperate under the firft 
 imprciffions of 'rage or terror. But with regard to 
 a general ftste of things, growing out of events and 
 caufcs already known m the grofs, there is no piety 
 in the fraud that covers it's true nature ; becaufe 
 nothing but erroneous refolutions can be the refult 
 of falfe reprefentation s. Thofe meafures which in 
 common dttircis might be available, in greater, 
 Mi'*- are
 
 C 19 ) 
 
 arc no better than plaving with the evil. That 
 the effort may bear a proportion to the exigence, 
 it is fit it fhould be known ; known in it's quality, in 
 it's extent, and in all the circumltances which at- 
 tend it. Great reverfes of fortune, there have been, 
 and great embarrafTments in council: a princi- 
 pled Regicide enemy poifeiled of themoft important 
 part of Europe and ftruggiing for the reft : within 
 ourfelves a total relaxation of all authority, whili'l 
 a cry is raifed againft it, as if it were the mod fero- 
 cious of all defpotifm : aworfe phenomenon ; our 
 government difowned by the moft efficient member 
 of it's tribunals; ill fupported by any of their confti- 
 tuent parts; and the higheft tribunal ofall (from caufes 
 not for our prefent purpoie to examine) deprived of 
 all that dignity and all that efficiency which might 
 enforce, or regulate, or if the cafe required it, might 
 fupply the want of every other court. Public pro- 
 fecutions are become little better than fchools for 
 treafon ; of noufe but to improve the dexterity of cri- 
 minals inthemyfteryof evafion; or to {hew with what 
 tompleat impunity men may confpire againfl the 
 Commonwealth ; with what fafety aflaffins may at- 
 tempt it's awful head. Every thing is fecure, ex- 
 cept what the laws have made facred ; every thing 
 is tamenefs and languor that is not fury and fac- 
 tion. Whilft the diftcmpers of a relaxed fibre 
 prognofticate and prepare all the morbid force of 
 convulfion in the body of the State, the {tcadinefs 
 D2 o
 
 ( 20 ) 
 
 of the phyfician is overpowered by the very afpedl 
 of the difeafe.* The doctor of the Conftitution, prc 
 tending to under- rate what he is not able to contend 
 with, fhrinks from his own operation. He doubts 
 and queftionsthe falutary but critical terrors of the 
 cautery and the knife. He takes a poor credit 
 even from his defeat ; and covers impotence un- 
 der the mafk of lenity. He praifes the moderation 
 of the laws, as, in his hands, he fees them baf- 
 fled and defpifed. Is all this, becaufe in our day 
 the tfatutes of the kingdom are not etigrofled in 
 as firm a character, and imprinted in as black and 
 legible a type as ever ? No ! the law is a clear, 
 but it is a dead letter. Dead and putrid, it is 
 infufficient to fave the State, but potent to infect, 
 and to kill. Living law, full of reafon, and of 
 equity and juftice, (as it is, or it fhould not 
 exift) ought to be fevere and awful too; or the 
 words of menace, whether written on the parch- 
 ment roll of England, or cut into the brazen ta- 
 blet of Rome, will excite nothing but contempt. 
 How comes it, that in all the State profecutions of 
 magnitude, from the Revolution to within thefe 
 two or three years, the Crown has fcarcely ever 
 retired difgraced and defeated from it's Courts ? 
 Whence this alarming change ? By a connexion ca- 
 fily felt, and not impoffible to be traced to it's caufe, 
 11 the parts of the State have their correfpon- 
 
 * " Muflabat tacito medicina tiipore." 
 
 dence
 
 dence and confent. They who bow to the enemy 
 abroad will not be of power to fubdue the confpi- 
 rator at home. It is impoffible not to obferve, 
 that in proportion as we approximate to the poi- 
 fonous jaws of anarchy, the fafcination grows ir- 
 refiftible. In proportion as we are attracted to- 
 wards the focus of illegality, irreligion, and def- 
 perate enterprize, all the venomous and blighting 
 infecls of the State are awakened into life. The 
 promife of the year is blafted, and (hrivelled, and 
 burned up before them. Our moft falutary and 
 mofl beautiful inftitutions yield nothing but dm% 
 and fmut : the harveft of our law is no more than 
 ftubble. It is in the nature of thefe eruptive diP 
 cafes in the State. to fink in by fits and re-appear. 
 But the fuel of the malady remains ; and in mj 
 opinion is not in the fmallelt degree mitigated in 
 it's malignity, though it waits the favourable mo- 
 ment of a freer communication with the fourcc 
 of Regicide to exert and to encreafe it's force. 
 
 Is it that the people are changed, that the Com- 
 monwealth cannot be protected by its Jaws? I hardly 
 think it. On the contrary, I conceive, that thefe 
 things happen becaufe men are not changed, but re T 
 main always what they always were ; they remain 
 whatthebulkofusmufteverbe,when abandoned t<} 
 our vulgar propenfities, without guide, leader or con- 
 troul : That is, made to be full of a blind elevation in 
 
 profperity;
 
 ( 22 } 
 
 proiperity; to dcfpife untried dangers; to be over- 
 powered with unexpected rcverfes ; to find no clue 
 in a labyrinth of difficulties ; to get out of a pre- 
 fent inconvenience with any rifque of future ruin ; . 
 to follow and to bow to fortune ; to admire fuc- 
 cefsful though wicked enterprize, and to imitate 
 what we admire; to contemn the government 
 which announces danger from facrilege and regi- 
 cide, whilft they are only in their infancy and their 
 ftruggle, but which finds nothing that can alarm in 
 their adult ftate and in the power and triumph of 
 thofc deftruclive principles. In a mafs we cannot 
 be left to ourfelves. We muft have leaders. If none 
 will undertake to lead us right, we fhall find guides 
 who will contrive to conduct us to fhame and ruin, 
 
 We are in a war of a peculiar nature. It is not 
 with an ordinary community, which is hoftile or 
 friendly as paflion or as interefl may veer about ; 
 not with a State which makes war through wan- 
 tonnefs, and abandons it through laflitude. We ares 
 at war with a fyftem, which, by it's eflence, is inimi-! 
 cal to all other Governments, and which makes' 
 peace or war, as peace and war may beft contributor 
 to their fubverfion. It is with an armed dofirine,\ : : 
 that we are at war. It has, by it's eflence, a faction 
 of opinion, and of intereft, and of enthufiafm, in! 
 every country. To us it is a Coloffus which be- 
 ftrides our channel. It has one foot on a foreign 
 
 (bore,
 
 there, the other upon the Britifh foil. Thus ad- 
 vantaged if it can at all exift, it muft finally pre- 
 vail. Nothing can fo compleatly ruin any of the 
 old Governments, ours in particular, as the ac- 
 knowledgment, direclly or by implication, of any 
 kind of fuperiority in this new power. This ac- 
 knowledgment we make, if in a bad or doubtful 
 lituation of our affairs, we fblicit peace ; or if we 
 yield to the modes of new humiliation, in which 
 alone fhc is content to give us an hearing. By 
 that means the terms cannot be of our choofing ; 
 no, not in any part. 
 
 It is laid in the unalterable conftitution of 
 things : None can afpire to act greatly, but thofe 
 who are of force greatly to fuffer. They who 
 make their arrangements in the firft run of miiad- 
 vcnture, and in a temper of mind the common 
 fruit of difappointment and difmay, put a feal on 
 their calamities. To their power they take a fe- 
 curity againfl any favours which they might hope 
 from the ufual inconftancy of fortune. I am there- 
 fore, my dear friend, invariably of your opinion 
 (though full of refpeel for thoie who think diffe- 
 rently) that neither the time chofcn for it, nor the 
 manner of foliciting a negotiation, were properly 
 confidered; even though I had allowed (I hardly 
 fliall allow) that with the hord of Regicides we 
 could by any felccltion of time, or ufe of means, 
 
 ' obtain
 
 C 24 ) 
 
 obtain anything at all deferving the name of 
 peace. 
 
 In one point we are lucky. The Regicide has 
 received our advances with fcorn. We have an 
 enemy, to whofe virtues we can owe nothing ; 
 fcut on this occafion we are infinitely obliged to 
 one of his vices. We owe more to his infolence 
 than to our own precaution. The haughtinefs by 
 which the proud repel us, has this of good in it ; 
 that in making us keep our diflance, they mnft 
 keep their diftance too. In the prefent cafe, the 
 pride of the Regicide may be our fafety. He has 
 given time for our reafon to operate ; and for Bri- 
 tiih dignity to recover from it's furprife. From 
 firft to laft he has rejected aH our advances. For 
 as we have gone he has flill left a way open to our 
 retreat. 
 
 There is always an augury to be taken of what 
 a peace is likely to be, from the preliminary fleps 
 that are made to bring it about. We may gather 
 fomething from the time in which the firft over- 
 tures are made ; from the quarter whence they 
 pome; from the manner in which they are received. 
 Thefe difcover the temper of the parties. If your 
 enemy offers peace in the moment of fuccefs, it 
 indicates that he is fatisfied with fomething. It 
 ihews that there are limits to his ambition or his 
 
 refentment.
 
 ( 25 ) 
 
 relentmcnt. If he offers nothing under misfor- 
 tune, it is probable, that it is more painful to him 
 to abandon the profpect of advantage than to en- 
 dure calamity. If he rejects felicitation, and will 
 not give even a nod to the fuppliants for peace, 
 until a change in the fortune of the war threatens 
 him with ruin, then I think it evident, that he 
 wifhes nothing more than to difarm his adverfary 
 to gain time. Afterwards a queftion arifes, which 
 of the parties is likely to obtain the greater ad- 
 vantages, by continuing difarmed and by the ufe 
 of time. 
 
 With thefe few plain indications in our minds, 
 it will not be improper to re-conlider the conduct 
 . of the enemy together with our own, from the 
 day that a queftion of peace has been in agitation. 
 In confidering this part of the queftion, I do not 
 proceed on my own hypothesis. I fuppofe, for a 
 moment, that this body of Regicide, calling itfelf 
 a Republick, is a politick perfon, with whom 
 fomething deferring the name of peace may be 
 made. On that fuppolition, let us. examine our 
 own proceeding. Let us compute the profit it 
 has brought, and the advantage that it is likely 
 to bring hereafter. A peace too eagerly fought, 
 is not always the fooner obtained. The difcovery 
 of vehement wifhes generally fruftrates their at- 
 tainment ; and your adverfary has gained a great 
 E advantage
 
 ( 26 ) 
 
 advantage over you when he finds you impatient 
 to conclude a treaty. There is in referve, not 
 only fomething of dignity, but a great deal of 
 prudence too. A fort of ourage belongs to nego- 
 tiation as well as to operations of the field. A 
 negotiator mufl often feem willing to hazard the 
 whole ifliie of his treaty, if he willies to fecureany 
 one material point. 
 
 The Regicides were the firft to declare war. We 
 are the firft to fue for peace. In proportion to the 
 humility and perfeverance we have ihewn in our 
 addreffes, has been the obftinacy of their arro- 
 gance in rejecting our fuit. The patience of their 
 pride feems to have been worn out with the im- 
 portunity of our courtmip. Difgufted as they are 
 with a conduct fo different from all the fentiments 
 by which they are themfelves filled, they think to 
 put an end to our vexatious follicitation by re- 
 doubling their infults. 
 
 It happens frequently, that pride may reject a 
 public advance, while intereft liftens to a fecret 
 fuggeftion of advantage. The opportunity has 
 been afforded. At a very early period in the diplo- 
 macy of humiliation, a gentleman was fent on 
 an errand*, of which, from the motive of it, what- 
 
 * Mr. Bird fent to flate the real fituation of the Due de 
 Choifeul. 
 
 ever
 
 ever the event might be, we can never be afhamed. 
 Humanity cannot be degraded by humiliation. 
 It is it's very character to fubmit to fuch things. 
 There is a confanguinity between benevolence and 
 humility* They are virtues of the fame flock. 
 Dignity is of as good a race; but it belongs to the 
 family of Fortitude. In the fpirit of that benevo- 
 lence, we fent a gentleman to befeech the Direc- 
 tory of Regicide, not to be quite fo prodigal as their 
 Republickhadbeen of judicial murder. We folicited 
 them to fpare the lives of fome unhappy perfons of 
 the firft diftin&ion, whofe fafety at other times 
 could not have been an object of felicitation. They 
 had quitted France on the faith of the declaration 
 of the rights of citizens. They never had been in 
 the fervice of the Regicides, nor at their hands had 
 received any flipend. The very fyftem and con- 
 ftitution of government that now prevails, was fet- 
 tled fubfequent -to their emigration. They were 
 under the protection of Great Britain, and in his 
 Majefty's pay and fervice. Not an hoftile inva- 
 fion, but the difafters of the fea had thrown them 
 upon a more, more barbarous and inhofpitable 
 than the inclement ocean under the mod pitilefs of 
 it's ftorms. Here was .an opportunity to exprefs 
 a feeling for the miferies of war; and to open fome 
 fort of converfation, which (after our publick over- 
 tures had glutted their pride), at a cautious and 
 ]ealous diftance, might lead to fomething like an 
 E 2 accommo-
 
 ( 28 ) 
 
 accommodation. What was the event ? A ftrangs 
 
 uncouth thing, a theatrical figure of the opera, his 
 
 head /haded with three-coloured plumes, his body 
 
 fanraflically habited, ftrutted from the back fcenes, 
 
 and after a rnort fpeech, in the mock-heroic falfetto 
 
 of ftupid tragedy, delivered the gentleman who 
 
 came to make the reprefentation into the cuftody 
 
 of a guard, with direftions not to lofe fight of him 
 
 for a moment ; and then ordered him to be fent 
 
 from Paris in two hours. 
 
 Here it is impoflible, that a femiment of tender- 
 nefs mould not ftrike athwart the fternnefs of po- 
 liticks, and make us recal to painful memory, the 
 difference between thisinfolent and bloody theatre, 
 and the temperate, natural majefty of a civilized 
 court, where the afflicTed family of Afgill did not 
 in vain folicit the mercy of the higheft in rank, 
 and the mofl compaffionate of the compaffionatc 
 fex. 
 
 In this intercourfe, at leaft, there was nothing 
 to promife a great deal of fuccefs in our future adr 
 vances. Whilfl the fortune of the field was wholly 
 with the Regicides, nothing was thought of but to 
 follow where it led ; and it led to every thing. Not 
 fo much as a talk of treaty. Laws were laid down 
 with arrogance. The moil moderate politician
 
 5n their clan * was chofen as the organ, not Co 
 much for prescribing limits to their claims, as to 
 mark what, for the prefent, they are conteut to 
 leave to others. They made, not laws, not Con- 
 ventions, not late poflemon, but phyfical nature, 
 and political convenience, the fole foundation 
 of their claims. The Rhine, the Mediterra- 
 nean, and the ocean were the bounds which, 
 for the time, they affigned to the Empire of 
 Regicide. What was the Chamber of Union 
 of Louis the Fourteenth, which aftoniflred and 
 provoked all Europe, compared to this declara- 
 tion? In truth, with thefe limits, and their prin- 
 ciple, they would not have left even the madow of 
 liberty or fafety to any nation. This plan of em- 
 pire was not taken up in the firft intoxication of 
 unexpefted fuccefs. You muft recoiled, that it 
 was projeded, juft as the report has ftated it. 
 from the very firft revolt of the faction againft their 
 Monarchy ; and it has been uniformly purfued, as 
 a {landing maxim of national policy, from that 
 time to this. It is, generally, in the feafon of prof, 
 perity that men difcover their real temper, prin- 
 ciples, .and defigns. But this principle fug* 
 gefted in their firft ftruggles, fully avowed in their 
 profperity, has, in the moft adverfe ftate of their 
 affairs, been tenacioufly adhered to. The report, 
 
 * Boifly d'Anglas, 
 
 combined
 
 C 3<> ) 
 
 combined with their conduft, forms an infallible 
 criterion of the views of this Republick. 
 
 In their fortune there has been fome fluctuation. 
 We are to fee how their minds have been af- 
 fected with a change. Some impreffion it made 
 on them undoubtedly. It produced forne oblique 
 notice of the fubmifTions that were made by fup- 
 pliant nations. The utmoft they did, was to make 
 fome of thofe cold, formal, general profefiions of 
 a love of peace which no Power has ever refufed to 
 make ; becaufe they mean little, and coft nothing. 
 The firft paper I have feen (the publication at 
 Hamburgh) making a (hew of that pacific difpo- 
 iition, difcovered a rooted animofity againft this 
 nation, and an incurable rancouf, even more 
 than any one of their hoftile acts. In this Ham- 
 burgh declaration, they choofe to fuppofe, that 
 the war, on the part of England, is a war of Go- 
 vernment, begun and carried on agaittft the fenfi 
 and interefis of the people; thus fowing in their 
 very overtures towards peace, the feeds of tumult 
 and fedition : for they never have abandoned, and 
 never will they abandon, in peace, in war, in treaty, 
 in any fituation, or for one inftant, their old fteady 
 maxim of feparating the people from their Go- 
 vernment. Let me add and it is with unfeign- 
 ed anxiety for the character and credit of Mi- 
 nifters that I do addif our Government per- 
 
 fevere^
 
 C 3' D 
 
 feveres, in its as uniform courfe, of acting un- 
 der inftruments with fuch preambles, it pleads 
 guilty to the charges made by our enemies againft 
 it, both on it's own part, and on the part of par- 
 liament itfeif. The enemy muft fucceed in his 
 plan for loofening and difconnecting all the inter- 
 nal holdings of the kingdom. 
 
 It was not enough, that the Speech from the 
 Throne in the opening of the feflion in 1795, 
 threw out oglmgs and glances of tendernefs. Left 
 this coquetting mould feem too cold and ambigu- 
 ous, without waiting for it's effect, the violent paf- 
 fion for a relation to the Regicides, produced a di- 
 rect Meflage from the Crown, and it's confequences 
 from the two Houfes of Parliament. On the part 
 of the Regicides thefe declarations could not be 
 entirely paffed by without notice: but in that 
 notice they difcovered ilill more clearly the bot- 
 tom of their character. The offer made to 
 them by the meffage to Parliament was hinted 
 at in their anfwer; but in an obfcure and ob- 
 lique manner as before. They-accompanied their 
 notice of the indications manifefted on our fide, 
 with every kind of infolent and taunting reflec- 
 tion. The Regicide Directory, on the day which, 
 in their gipfey jargon, they call the 5th of Pluviofe, 
 in return for our advances, charge us with elud- 
 ing our declarations under " evafive formalities 
 
 and
 
 and frivolous pretexts." What thefe pretexts and 
 cvaficns were, they do not lay, and I have never 
 heard. But they do not reft there. They pro- 
 ceed to charge us, and, as it fhould feem, our 
 allies in the mafs, with direct perfidy ; they are fo 
 conciliatory in their language as to hint that this 
 perfidious character is not new in our proceedings. 
 However, notwithftanding this our habitual per- 
 fidy, they will offer peace " on conditions as mo- 
 derate*' as what? as reafon and as equity re- 
 quire? No! as moderate " as are fuitable to 
 their national dignity" National dignity in all 
 treaties I do admit is an important consideration. 
 They have given us an ufeful hint on thatfubject : 
 but dignity, hitherto, has belonged to the mode 
 of proceeding, not to the matter of a treaty. Ne- 
 ver before has it been mentioned as the ftandard 
 for rating the conditions of peace; no, never by 
 themoft violent of conquerors. Indemnification is 
 capable of fome eflimate ; dignity has no ftandard. 
 It is impoffible to guefs what acquifuions pride and 
 ambition may think fit for their dignity. But left 
 any doubt fhould remain on what they think for 
 their dignity, the Regicides in the next paragraph 
 tell us " that they will have no peace with their 
 ** enemies, until they have reduced them to a 
 * 4 ftate, which will put them under an tmpoflibi&tyQt 
 " purfuing their wretched projects ;" that is, in 
 plain French or Englifh, until they have accom- 
 
 plifhed
 
 ( 33 ) 
 
 plifhed our utter and irretrievable ruin. This is 
 their pacific language. It flows from their unalter- 
 able principle in whatever language they fpeak, or 
 whatever .fteps they take, whether of real war, or 
 of pretended pacification. They have never, to do 
 them juftice, been at much trouble in concealing 
 their intentions. We were as obftinately re- ' 
 folved to think them not in earneft : but I confefs 
 jefts of this fort, whatever their urbanity may be, 
 are not much to my tafte. 
 
 To this conciliatory and amicable publick com- 
 munication, our fole anfwer, in effecT:, is this 
 " Citizen Regicides ! whenever you find yourfelves 
 " in the humour, you may have a peace with us. 
 <c That is a point you may always command. We 
 " are conftantly in attendance, and nothing you 
 <e can do (hall hinder us from the renewal of our 
 " fup plications. You may turn us out at the 
 *' door j but we will jump in at the window." 
 
 To thofe, who do not love to contemplate the 
 fall of human greatnefs, I do not know a more 
 mortifying fpe&acle, than to fee the aflembled 
 majefty of the crowned heads of Europe waiting 
 as patient fuitors in the anti-chamber of Regicide. 
 They wait, it feems, until the fanguinary tyrant 
 Carnot, (hall have fnorted away the fumes of the 
 indigefted blood of his Sovereign. Then, when 
 F funk
 
 ( 34 ) 
 
 funk on the down of ufurped pomp, he (hall have 
 fufficiendy indulged his meditations with what 
 Monarch he fhall next glut his ravening maw, he 
 may condefcend to fignify that it his pleafure to be 
 awake -, and that he is at leifure to receive the pro- 
 pofals of his high and mighty clients for the terms 
 on which he may refpite the execution of the fen- 
 tence he has paffed upon them. At the opening 
 of thofe doors, what a fight it muft be to behold the 
 plenipotentiaries of royal impotence, in the prece- 
 dency which they will intrigue to obtain, and which 
 will be granted to them according to the feniority 
 of their degradation, fneaking into the Regicide 
 prefence, and with the reliques of the fmile which 
 they had drefied up, for the levee of their rmfters, 
 flill flickering on their curled lips, prefenting 
 the faded remains of their courtly graces, to meet 
 the fcornful, ferocious, fardonic grin of a bloody 
 ruffian, who, whilft he is receiving their homage, 
 is meafuring them with his eye, and fitting to their 
 fizethe flider of his Guillotine! Thefe ambafla- 
 dors may eafily return as good courtiers as they 
 went ; but can they ever return from that degrad- 
 ing refidence, loyal and faithful fubjcfts; or with 
 any true affedion to their matter, or true attach- 
 ment to the conftitution, religion, or laws of their 
 country ? There is great danger that they who 
 enter fmiling into this Trophonian Cave, will 
 come out of it fad and ferious confpirators; and 
 
 fuch
 
 [ 35 ] 
 
 fuch will continue as long as they live. They 
 will become true conductors of contagion to eve- 
 ry country, which has had the misfortune to 
 fend them to the fource of that electricity. 
 At beft they will become totally indifferent 
 to good and evil, to one inftitution or another. 
 This fpecies of indifference is but too generally 
 diftingui (liable in thole who have been much em- 
 ployed in foreign Courts; but in the present cafe 
 the evil muft be aggravated without meafuie; for 
 they go from their country, not with the pride of 
 the old character, but in a ftate of theloweft degra- 
 dation; and what muft happen in their place of refi- 
 dence can have no effect in railing chem to the le- 
 vel of true dignity, or of chafte felf eftimation, 
 either as men, or as reprefentatives of crowned 
 heads, 
 
 Our early proceeding, which has produced thefe 
 returns of affront, appeared to me totally new, with- 
 out being adapted to the new circumftances of 
 affairs. 1 have called to my mind the fpeeches 
 and meflages in former times. I find nothing like 
 thefe. You will look in the journals to find whe- 
 ther my memory fails me. Before this time, never 
 was a ground of peace laid, (as it were, in a parlia- 
 mentary record,) until it had been as good as con- 
 cluded. This was a wife homage paid to the dif- 
 crerion of the Crown. It was known how much 
 F 2 a nego-
 
 a negotiation muft fuffer by having any thing in - 
 the train towards it prematurely difclofed. But 
 when thofe parliamentary declarations were made, 
 not fo much as a ftep had been taken towards a 
 negotiation in any mode whatever. The meafure 
 was an unpleafant and unfeatonable difcovery. 
 
 I conceive that another circumftance in that 
 tranfaction has been as little authorifed by any ex- 
 ample ; and that it is as little prudent in itfelf; 
 I mean the formal recognition of the French Re- 
 publick. Without entering, for the prefent, into 
 a queftion on the good faith manifefted in that 
 meafure, or on it's general policy, I doubt, upon 
 mere temporary confiderations of prudence, whe- 
 ther it was perfectly advifeable. It is not within 
 the ruies of dexterous conduit to make an ac- 
 knowledgment of a contefled title in your enemy, 
 before you are morally certain that your recogni- 
 tion will fecure his friendfhip. Otherwife it is a 
 meafure worfe than thrown away. It adds infi- 
 nitely to the (Irength, and confequently to the de- 
 mands of the adverfe party. He has gained a 
 fundamental point without an equivalent. It has 
 happened as might have been forefeen. No no- 
 tice whatever was taken of this recognition. In 
 fact, the Directory never gave themfelves any con- 
 cern about it; and they received our acknowledg- 
 ment with perfect fcorn. With them, it is not for 
 
 the
 
 ( 37 ) 
 
 the States of Europe to judge of their title : But in 
 their eye the title of every other power depends 
 wholly on their pleafure. 
 
 Preliminary declarations of this fort, thrown 
 out at random, and fown, as it were* broad-caft, 
 were never to be found in the mode of our pro- 
 ceeding with France and Spain, whilft the great 
 Monarchies of France and Spain exifted. I do not 
 fay, that a diplomatick meafure ought to be, like 
 a parliamentary or a judicial proceeding, according 
 to ftrict precedent. I hope I am far from that 
 pedantry : But this I know, that a great ftate 
 ought to have fome regard to it's antient maxirr:?; 
 efpecialiy where they indicate it's dignity ; where 
 they concur with the rules of prudence ; and above 
 all, where the circumftances of the time require 
 that a fpirit of innovation, mould be refifted, which 
 leads to the humiliation of fovereign powers. It 
 would be ridiculous toaflert, that thofe powers have 
 fuffered nothing in their eftimation. I admit, that 
 the greater interefts of ftate will for a moment 
 fuperfede all other confiderations : but if there 
 was a rule that a fovereign never fhould let down his 
 dignity without a fure payment to his intereft, the 
 dignity of Kings would be held high enough. 
 At prefent, however, famion governs in more fe- 
 rious things than furniture and drefs. It looks a$ 
 if fovereigns abroad were 'emulous in bidding 
 
 againft 
 
 300993
 
 f 33 ) 
 
 againft their eftimation. It feems as if the pre-emi- 
 nence of Regicide was acknowledged ; and that 
 Kino-s tacitly ranked themielves below their facri- 
 legious murderers, as natural magiftrates and 
 judges over theai. It appears as if dignity were the 
 prerogative of crime; and a temporifing humiliation 
 the proper part for venerable authority. If the 
 vilefl of mankind are refolved to be the moft wick- 
 ed, they lofe all the bafenefs of their origin, and 
 take their place above Kings. This example in fo- 
 reign Princes, I truft, will not ipread. It is the 
 concern of mankind, that the deftruction of order 
 (hould not be a claim to rank: that crimes mould 
 not be the only title to pre-eminence and honour. 
 
 ' At this feconcl ftage of humiliation, (I mean 
 the infulting declaration in confequence of the 
 meffage to both Houles of Parliament) it might 
 not have been amifs to paufe; and not to fquander 
 away the fund of our fubmiffions, until we know 
 what final purpofes of publick intereft they might 
 anfwtr. The policy of lubjecting ourfelves to fur- 
 ther infults is not to me quiie apparent. It was 
 refolved however, to hazard a third trial. Citizen 
 Barthelemi had been eftablifhed on the part of the 
 new Republkk, at Bafle; where, with his procon- 
 fulate of Switzerland and the adjacent parts of Ger- 
 many, he was appointed as a fort of factor to deal 
 in the degradation of the crowned heads of Europe. 
 
 At
 
 ( 39 ) 
 
 At Bafle it was thought proper, in order to keep 
 others, I fuppofe, in countenance, that Great Bri- 
 tain fhould appear at this market, and bid with the 
 reft, for the mercy of the People-King. 
 
 On the 6th of March 1796 Mr. Wickham, in 
 confequence of authority, was defired to found 
 France on her difpolition towards a general pacifi- 
 cation ; to know whether (he would confent to fend 
 Minifters to a Congrefs at fuch a place as might 
 be hereafter agreed upon ; to know whether they 
 would communicate the general grounds of a pa- 
 cification fuch as France (the diplomatick name of 
 the Regicide power) would be willing to propofe, 
 as a foundation for a negociation for peace with 
 his Majefty and his allies : but he had no au- 
 thority to enter into any negociation or difcuffion 
 with him upon thefe fubjects. 
 
 On the part of Great Britain this meafure was a 
 voluntary aft, wholly, uncalled for on the part of 
 Regicide. Suits of this fort are at leaft ftrong in- 
 dications of a defire for accommodation. Any 
 other body of men but the Directory would be 
 fomewhatfoothed with fuch advances. They could 
 not however begin their anfwer, which was given 
 without much delay, and communicated on the 
 28th of the fame month, without a preamble of 
 infult and reproach. " They doubt the fincerity
 
 C 4^ ) 
 
 ef the pacifick intentions of this Court/' She did 
 not begin, fay they, yet to " know her real into- 
 refts," " Hie did not feek peace with good faith" 
 This, or fomething to this effect, has been the con 
 ftant preliminary obfervation, (now grown into a 
 fort of office-form) on all our overtures to this 
 power : a perpetual charge on the Britilh Govern- 
 ment of fraud, evafion, and habitual perfidy. 
 
 It might be afked, from whence did thefe opi- 
 nions of our infincerity and ill faith arife? It was, 
 becaufe the Britifh Miniftry (leaving to the Direc- 
 tory however to propofe a better mode) propofed a 
 Congrefs for the purpofe of a general pacification, 
 and this they faid " would render negociation end- 
 lefs." From hence they immediately inferred a 
 fraudulent intention in the offer. Unqueftionably 
 their mode of giving the law would bring matters 
 to a more fpeedy conclufion. As to any other me- 
 thod more agreeable to them than a Congrefs, an 
 alternative exprefsly propofed to them, they did not 
 condefcend to fignify their pleafure. 
 
 i 
 
 This refufal of treating conjointly with the pow- 
 ers allied againft this Republick, furnifhes matter 
 for a great deal of ferious reflexion. They have 
 hitherto conflantly declined any other than a 
 treaty with a fingle power. By thus diflbciating 
 every State from every other, like deer feparated 
 
 from
 
 from the herd, each power is treated with, on the 
 merit of his being a deferter from the common 
 caufe. In that light the Regicide power finding 
 each of them infulated and unprotected, with great 
 facility gives the law to them all. By this fyftem 
 for theprefent, an incurable diftruft isfown among'l 
 confederates; and in future all alliance is rendered 
 impracticable. It is thus they have treated with 
 Pruffia, with Spain, with Sardinia, with Bavaria, 
 with the Ecclefiaftical State, with Saxony; and 
 here we fee them refufe to treat with Great Britain 
 in any other mode. They muft be worfe than 
 blind who do not fee with what undeviating regu- 
 larity of fyftem, in this cafe and in all cafes, they 
 purfue their fcheme for the utter deftruction of 
 every independent power; efpecially the fmaller, 
 who cannot find any refuge whatever but in fome 
 common caufe. 
 
 Renewing their taunts and reflections, they tell 
 Mr. Wickham, " that their policy has no guides 
 " but opennefs and good faith, and that their 
 te conduct (hall be conformable to tbefe princi- 
 " pies.'* They fay concerning their Government, 
 that <e yielding to the ardent defire by which it is 
 " anirnated to procure peace for the French Re- 
 " publick, and for all nations, it will not fear to 
 " declare itfelf openly. Charged by the Conftitu- 
 " tion with the execution of the laws t it cannot 
 G make
 
 " make or liflen to any propofal that would be 
 * contrary to them. The constitutional act does 
 " not permit it to confent to any alienation of 
 ' that which, according to the exifting laws, con- 
 ft fliuites the territory of the Republick." 
 
 " With refpedl: to the countries occupied by the 
 " French armies and 'which have not been united to 
 " France -, they, as well as other interefts political 
 " and commercial, may become the fubject of a 
 " negociation, which will prefent to the Directory 
 " the means of proving how much it dtfires to 
 " attain fpeedily to a happy pacification. That 
 " the Directory is ready to receive in this refpect 
 " any overtures that mall be juft, reafonable, and 
 " compatible with the dignity of the Republick" 
 On the head of what is not to be the fubject of 
 negotiation, the Directory is clear and open. As 
 to what may be a matter of treaty, all this open 
 dealing is gone. She retires into her fhell. There 
 Ihe ex pefts overtures from you and that you are 
 to gods what (lie (hall judge juft, reafonable, and 
 above all, compatible with her dignity* 
 
 In the records of pride there does not exift fo 
 infuhincr a declaration. It is infolent in words, 
 in maniK-r, but in fubftance it is nor only infulting 
 but alarming. It is a fpecimen of what may be 
 expc&ed from the matters we are preparing for 
 
 our
 
 ( 43 ) 
 
 our humbled country. Their opennefs and can- 
 dour conlift in a direct avowal of their defpotifm 
 and ambition. We know that their declared refj- 
 lution lud bee-n to furrender no object belonging to 
 France previous to the war. They had refolved, 
 that the Republick was entire, and muft remain fo. 
 As to what (he has conquered from the allies and 
 united to the fame indivifible body, it is of 
 .the fame nature. That is, the allies are to give 
 up wba.ever conquefts they have made or may 
 rcuke upon France, but all which (he has vio- 
 len'Jy ravimed from her neighbours and thought 
 fit to appropriate, are not to become fo much as 
 objecls of negociation. 
 
 In this unity and indivifibility of pofleffion are 
 funk ten immenle and wealthy provinces, full of 
 ftrong, flourishing and opulent cities, the Audi ian 
 Netherlands, the part of Europe the mod neceflary 
 to preferve any communication between this king- 
 dom and its natural allies, next to Holland the 
 mod int; reding to this country, and without' 
 which Holland mud virtually belong>to France. 
 Savoy and Nice, the keys of Italy, and the cita- 
 del in her hands to bridle Switzerland, are in 
 that confoiidation. The. important terricory of 
 Leige is torn out of the heart of the Empire. All 
 thefe are integrant partsiof the Republick; not to 
 be fubject to any difcuffion, or to be purchafed 
 G 2'
 
 C 44 ) 
 
 by any equivalent. Why ? becaufe there is a law 
 which prevents it. What law? The law of nations? 
 The acknowledged public law of Europe? Treaties 
 and conventions of parties ? No ! not a pretence of 
 the kind. It is a declaration not made in confe- 
 quence of any prefcription on her fide, not on any 
 ceffionor dereliction, actual or tacit, of other pow- 
 ers. It is a declaration pendente lite in the middle 
 of a war, one principal objeft of which was origi- 
 nally the defence, and has fince been the recovery 
 of thefe very countries. 
 
 This ftrange law is not made for a trivial object, 
 not for a fingle port, or for a fmgle fortrefs ; but 
 for a great kingdom; for the religion, the morals, 
 the laws, the liberties, the lives and fortunes of 
 millions of human creatures, who without their 
 confent, or that of their lawful government, are, 
 by an arbitrary act of this regicide and homicide 
 Government, which they call a law, incorporated 
 into their tyranny. 
 
 In other words, their will is the law, not only 
 at home, but as to the concerns of every na- 
 tion. Who has made that law but the Regicide 
 Republick itfelf, whofe laws, like thofe of the 
 Medes and Perfians, they cannot alter or abrogate, 
 or even fo much as take into confideration ? With- 
 out the leaft ceremony or compliment, they have 
 
 fent
 
 ( 45 ) 
 
 fent out of the world whole fets of laws and law- 
 givers. They have fwept away the very conftitu- 
 tions under which the Legislatures a&ed, and the 
 Laws were made. Even the fundamental facred 
 rights of man they have not fcrupled to profane. 
 They have fee this holy code at nought with igno- 
 miny and fcorn. Thus they treat all their domef- 
 tick laws and conflitutions, and even what they 
 had confidered as a Law of Nature ; but whatever 
 they' have put their feai on for the purpofes of 
 their ambition, and the ruin of their neighbours, 
 this alone is invulnerable, impaflible, immortal. 
 Afluming to be mafteis of every thing human and 
 divine, here, and here alone, it feems they are li- 
 mited, " cooped and cabined in ;" and this omnipo- 
 tent legislature finds itfelf wholly without the power 
 of exercifing it's favourite attribute, the love of 
 peace. In other words, they are powerful to ufurp, 
 impotent to reftore; and equally by their power 
 and their impotence they aggrandize themfelves, 
 and weaken and impoveriih you and all other 
 nations. 
 
 Nothing can be more proper or -more manly 
 than the (late publication called a note on this pro- 
 ceeding, datecl Downing-ftreet, the loth of April, 
 1796. Only that it is better exprefled, it perfectly 
 agrees with the opinion I have taken the liberty of 
 
 Submitting
 
 fubmitting to your confederation.* I place it be- 
 low at full length as my juftification in thinking 
 that this aftonifhing p^per is not only a direct 
 negative, to all treaty, but is a rejection of every 
 principle upon which treaties could be made. To 
 admit ii for a moment were to ereft this power, 
 ufurped at home, into a Legiflature to govern 
 
 * " This Court has feen, with regret, how far the tone and 
 fpirit of that anfwer, the nature and extent of the demands 
 which it contains, and the manner of announcing them, are 
 remote from any difpofitions for peace. 
 
 " The inadmiflible pretenfion is there avowed of appropri- 
 ating to France all that the laws exifting there may have com- 
 prifed under the denomination of French territory. To a de- 
 mand fuch as this, is added an exprefs declaration that no pro- 
 pofal contrary to it will be made, or even liitened to. And 
 even this, under the pretence of an internal regulation, the 
 provifions of which are wholly foreign to all other nations. 
 
 " While thefe difpofitions (hall be perfifted in, nothing is 
 Jeft for the King, but to profecute a war equally juft and ne- 
 ceflary. 
 
 " Whenever his enemies fhall manifeft more pacific fenti- 
 ments, his Majefty will, at all times, 'be eager to concur in 
 them, by lending himfclf, in concert with his allies, to all 
 fuch meafures as {hall be calculated to re-eftablifli general tran- 
 quillity on conditions juft, honourable and permanent, either 
 by the eftablifhment of a general Congrefs, whfch has been fo 
 happily the means of reftoring peace to Europe, or by a preli- 
 minary difcufiion of the principles which nfay be propofed, on 
 either fide, as a foundation of a general pacification ; or, laftly, 
 by an impartial examination of any other way which may be 
 pointed but to him for arriving at the fame falutary end." 
 - Street, April 10, 1/96. 
 
 mankind.
 
 ( 47 ) 
 
 mankind. It is an authority that on a thoufand oc- 
 cafions they have aflerted in claim, and whenever 
 they are able, exerted in practice. The dereliction 
 of this whole fcheme of policy became, therefore, 
 an indifpenfible previous condition to all renewal 
 of treaty. The remark of the Britifh Cabinet on 
 this arrogant and tyrannical claim is natural and 
 unavoidable. Our Miniftry flate, " That while theje 
 dif pojit ions JJj all be perjifted in y nothing is left for the 
 King but to prosecute a war that is jujl andneceftary" 
 
 It was of courfe, that we mould wait until the 
 enemy (hewed fome fort of difpofition on their 
 part to fulfil this condition. It was hoped' in- 
 deed that our fuppliant ftrains might be fuffered 
 to fteal into the auguft ear in a more propitious 
 feafon. That feafon, however, invoked by fo many 
 vows, conjurations and prayers, did not come. 
 Every declaration of hoftility renovated, and every 
 act purfued with double animofity the over-run- 
 ning of Lombardy the fubjugation of Piedmont 
 the pofleflion of its impregnable fortreffes the 
 feizing on all the neutral ftates of Italy our expul- 
 lion from Leghorn inftances for ever renewed for 
 ourexpulfion from Genoa Spain rendered fubject 
 to them and holtile to us Portugal bent under the 
 yoke half the Empire over-run and ravaged, were 
 the only figns which this mild Republick thought 
 proper to manifeft of their pacific fentiments. 
 
 Every
 
 ( 43 ) 
 
 Every demon ftrat ion of an implacable rancour and 
 an untameable pride were the only encouragements 
 we received to the renewal of our fupplications. 
 Here therefore they and we were fixed. Nothing 
 was left to the Britiih Miniftry but " to profecnte 
 a war juft and neceflary" a war equally juft as 
 at the time of our engaging in it a war become 
 ten times more neceflary by every thing which 
 happened afterwards. This refolution was foon, 
 however, forgot. It felt the heat of the feafon and 
 melted away. New hopes were entertained from 
 fupplication. No expectations, indeed, were then 
 formed from renewing a direct application to the 
 French Regicides through the Agent General for 
 the humiliation of Sovereigns. At length a ftep 
 was taken in degradation which even went lower 
 than all the reft. Deficient in merits of our own, 
 a Mediator was to be fought and we looked for 
 that Mediator at Berlin ! The King of Pruflia's 
 merits in abandoning the general caufe might have 
 obtained for him fome fort of influence in favour 
 of thofe whom he had deferted but I have never 
 heard that his Pruffian Majefty had lately difco- 
 vered fo marked an affecYion for the Court of St, 
 James's, or for theCourt of Vienna, as to excite 
 much hope of his interpofmg a very powerful me- 
 diation to deliver them from the diftrefles into 
 which he had brought them. 
 
 If
 
 ( 49 ) 
 
 IF humiliation is the element in which we live, 
 if it is become not only our occafional policy but 
 our habit, no great objection can be made to the 
 .modes in which it may be diverfified; thoughj 1 
 confefs, I cannot be charmed with the idea of our 
 expofing our lazar fores at the door of every proud 
 fervitor of the French Republick, where the court- 
 dogs will not deign to lick them. We had, 
 if I am not miftaken, aminifter at that court, who 
 might try it's temper, and recede and advance as 
 he found backwardnefs or encouragement. But 
 to fend a gentleman there on no other errand than 
 this, and with no aflurance whatever that he mould 
 not find, what he did find, a repulfe, feems to me 
 to go far beyond all the demands of a humiliation 
 merely politick. I hope, it did not arife from a 
 predeliclion for that mode of <:onducT:. 
 
 The cup of bitternefs was not, however, drained 
 to the dregs. Baile and Berlin were not fufficient. 
 After fo many and fo diverfified repulfes, we were 
 refolved to make another trial, and to try another 
 Mediator, among the unhappy gentlemen in whofe 
 perfons Royalty is infulted and degraded at the 
 feat of plebeian pride, and upftart infolence. 
 There is a minifter from Denmark at Paris. 
 Without any previous encouragement to that; any 
 more than the other fteps, we fent through this 
 H turnpike
 
 ( 50 ) 
 
 turnpike to demand a paflport for a perfon who 
 on our part was to folicit peace in the metropolis, 
 at the footftool of Regicide itfelf. It was not to 
 be expected that any one of thofe degraded beings 
 could have influence enough to fettle any part of 
 the terms in favour of the candidates for further 
 degradation ; befides, fuch intervention would be 
 a direct breach in their fyilem, which did not per- 
 mit one fovereign power to utter a word in the 
 concerns of his equal. Another repulfe. We 
 were delired to apply directly in our perfons. 
 We fubmitted and made the application. 
 
 It might be thought that here, at length, we had 
 touched the bottom of humiliation ; our lead was 
 brought up covered with mud. But " in the 
 " lowed deep, a lower deep" was to open for us 
 (till more profound abyfles of difgrace and fhame. 
 However, in we leaped. We came forward in our 
 own name. The paflport, fuch a paflport and fafe 
 conduct as would be granted to thieves, who might 
 come in to betray their accomplices, and no better, 
 was granted to British fupplication. To leave no 
 doubt of it's fpirit, as foon as the rumour of this 
 act of condefcenfion could get abroad, it was for- 
 mally announced with an explanation from autho- 
 rity, containing an invective againit the Miniltry 
 of Great Britain, their habitual frauds, their pro- 
 verbial, pmick perfidy. No fuch State Paper, as a 
 
 preliminary
 
 C 51 ) 
 
 preliminary to a negotiation for peace has ever yet 
 appeared. Very few declarations of war have ever 
 (hewn fo much and fo unqualified animofity. I 
 place it below * as a diplomatick curiofity : and in 
 order to be the better underftood, in the few remarks 
 
 I have 
 
 * Official Note, extra fled from the Journal of tie Defenders of the 
 
 Country. 
 Executive Direflory. 
 
 " Different Journals have advanced that an Englifli Pleni- 
 potentiary had reached Paris, and had prefented himfelf to the 
 Executive Directory, but that his propofitions not having ap- 
 peared fatisfaftory, he had received orders inftantly to quit 
 France. 
 
 
 
 *' All thele aflertions are equally falfe. 
 
 " The notices given, in the Englifli Papers, of a Minuter 
 having been lent to Paris, there to treat of peace, bring to re- 
 collection the overtures of Mr. Wickham to the Ambaflador 
 of the Republick at Bade, and the rumours circulated relative 
 to the million of Mr. Hammond to the Court of Pruflia. The 
 injignificance, or rather thefuitle duplicity, the PUNICKfi'e of 
 Mr. Wickham's note, is not forgotten. According to the par- 
 tizans of the Englifli Miniftry, it was to Paris that Mr. Ham- 
 mond was to come to fpeak for peace : when his deftination 
 became publick, and it was known that he went to Fruffia, the 
 fame writer repeated that it was to accelerate a peace, and not- 
 withftanding the object, now well known, of this negociation, 
 was to engage Pruffia to break her treaties with the Republick, 
 and to return into the coalition The Court of Berlin, faithful 
 to its engagements, repulfed thefe perfidious propofitions. But 
 in converting this intrigue into a miffion for peace, the EngHfli 
 Miniftry joined to the hope of giving a new enemy to France, 
 that of j unifying the continuance of the war in the eyes of the Englijh 
 nation, and of throwing all the odium of it on the French Government. 
 H2 Su:-h
 
 I have to make upon a piece which indeed defies 
 all defcription r" None but itfelf can be it's pa- 
 rallel. " 
 
 I pafs by all the infolence and contumely of the 
 performance as it comes from them. The qtief- 
 tion is not now how we are to be affected with it 
 
 Such was alfo the aim of Mr. Wickham's note. Such is flill 
 that of the notices given at this time in (be Englijh papers. 
 
 " This aim will appear evident, if we reflect how difficult it 
 is, that the ambitious Government of England mould fincerely 
 wifh for a peace that would fnatch from it it's maritime preponde- 
 rancy, would rc-ejlablijh the freedom ofthefeas, icould give a new 
 impulfe to the Spanijh, Dutch , and French marines, and would carry 
 to the higheft degree of profperity the induftry and commerce 
 of thofe nations in which it has always found rivals, and which 
 it has confidered as enemies of it's commerce, when they were 
 tired of being it's dupes. 
 
 " But there will no linger be any credit given to the pacific in- 
 tentions of the Englijh Mini/fry, <wben it is known, that it's gold and 
 ifs intrigues, it's open practices, and it's injinuations, bejiege more than, 
 ever the Cabinet of Vienna, and are one of the principal objlacles to 
 the negotiation which that Cabinet would of itfelf be induced to enter 
 enfor peace. 
 
 " They will no longer be credited, finally, when the mo- 
 meat of the rumour of thefe overtures being circulated is confi- 
 dered. The Englijh nation fupports impatiently the continuance of- 
 the tuar, a reply mu/l le made to it's complaints, ifs reproaches : the 
 Parliament is about to re-open it's fittings, the mouths of the 
 orators who will declaim againft the war mufl be (hut, the de- 
 mand of new taxes muft be juftified ; and to obtain thefe re- 
 fults, it is neceflary to be enabled to advance, that the French 
 Government refufes every reafonable proportion of peace. 
 
 in
 
 ( 53 ) 
 
 in regard to our dignity. That is gone. I fhall 
 fay no rriore about it. Light lie the earth on the 
 attics of Englifli pride. I fhall only obferve upon 
 it politically, and as furnifhing a direction for our 
 own conduct in this low bufinefs. 
 
 The very idea of a negociation for peace, what- 
 ever the inward fentiments of the parties may be, 
 implies fome confidence in their faith, fome de- 
 gree of belief in -the profeflions which are made 
 concerning it. A temporary and occafional credit, 
 at leaft, is granted. Otherwife men ftumble qn 
 the very threshold. I therefore wifh to afk what 
 hope we can have of their good faith, who, as the 
 very bafis of the negociation, afiume the ill faith 
 and treachery of thofe they have to deal with? 
 The terms, as againft us, muft be fuch as imply a 
 full fecurity againft a treacherous conduct that is 
 what this Directory ftated in it's firft declaration, 
 to place us " in an utter impoflibility of execnt- 
 " ing our wretched projects.*' This is the omen, 
 and the fole omen, under which we have confente4 
 to open our treaty. 
 
 The fecond obfervation I have to make upon it, 
 (much connected undoubtedly with the firft,) is, 
 that they have informed you of the refult they 
 propofe from the kind of peace they mean to grant! 
 you ; that is to fay, the union they propofe among 
 
 nation.s
 
 ( 54 ) 
 
 nations with the view, of rivalling our trade and 
 defiroying our naval power : and this they flip- 
 pofe (and with good reafon too) muft be the 
 inevitable effect of their peace. It forms one of 
 their principal grounds for fufpecling our Mini- 
 flers could not be in good earned in their propo- 
 fition. They make no fcruple beforehand to tell 
 you the whole of what they intend ; and this is 
 what we call, in the modern ftyle, the acceptance 
 of a proportion for peace ! In old language it 
 would be called a moft haughty, offenfive, and in* 
 folent rejection of all treaty. 
 
 Thirdly, they tell you what they conceive to be 
 the perfidious policy which dictates your delufive 
 offer ; that is, the defign of cheating not only them, 
 but the people of England, againft whofe intereft 
 and inclination this war is fuppofed to be carried 
 on. 
 
 If we proceed in this bufinefs, under this preli- 
 minary declaration, it feems to me, that we admit, 
 (now for the third time) by fomething a great deal 
 ilronger than words, the truth of the charges of 
 every kind which they make upon the Britilh Mi- 
 niftry, and the grounds of -thofe foul imputations. 
 The language ufed by us, which in other circum- 
 ftances would not be exceptionable, in this cafe 
 rends very ftrongly to confirm and realize the fuf- 
 
 picion
 
 ( 55 ) 
 
 picion of our enemy. I mean the declaration, 
 that if we do not obtain fuch terms of peace as 
 fuits our opinion of what our interefts require, 
 then, and in that cafe, we (hall continue the war 
 with vigour. This offer fo reafoned plainly implies, 
 that without it, our leaders themfelves entertain 
 great doubts of the opinion and good affections of 
 the Britifti people ; othervvife there does not appear 
 any caufe, why we mould proceed under the fcan- 
 dalous conftruction of our enemy, upon the for- 
 mer offer made by Mr. Wickham, and on the 
 new offer made directly at Paris. It is not, there- 
 fore, from a fenfe of dignity, but from the danger 
 of radicating that falfe fentiment in the breads ot* 
 the enemy, that I think, under the aufpices of this 
 declaration, we cannot, with the lead hope of a 
 good event, or, indeed, with any regard to the 
 common fafety, proceed in the train of thisnego- 
 ciation. I wifh Miniftry would ferioufly confider 
 the importance of their feerning to confirm the 
 enemy in an opinion, that his frequent appeals to 
 the people againft their Government has not been 
 without it's effect. If it puts an end to this war, 
 it will render another impracticable. 
 
 Whoever goes to the dire&orial prefence under 
 this paffport, with this offenfive comment, and 
 foul explanation, goes, in the avowed fenfe of the 
 Court to which he is fent; as the inftrument of a 
 
 Government
 
 ( 56 ) 
 
 Government diflbciated from the interefts and vvifheS 
 of the Nation, for the purpofe of cheating both the 
 people of France and the people of England. He 
 goes out the declared emiflary of a faithlefs Minif- 
 try. He has perfidy for his credentials. He has na- 
 tional weaknefs for his full powers. I yet doubt 
 whether any one can be found to inveft himfelf 
 with that character. If there fhould, it would be 
 pleafant to read his inftructions on the anfwer 
 which he is to give to the Directory, in cafe they 
 fliould repeat to him the fubftance of the Mani- 
 fefto which he carries with him in his portfolio. 
 
 So much for thejfr/? Manifefto of the Regicide 
 Court which went along with the paflport. Left 
 this declaration fliould feem the effect of hafte, or 
 a mere fudden effufion of pride and infolence, on 
 full deliberation, about a week after comes out a 
 fecond. In this manifefto, which is dated the fifth of 
 October, one day before the fpeech from the Throne, 
 on the vigil of the feftive day of cordial unanimity 
 fo happily celebrated by all parties in the Britifli Par- 
 liament, the Regicides, our worthy friends, (I call 
 them by advance and by courtefy what by law I (hall 
 be obliged to call them hereafter) our worthy friends, 
 I fay, renew and enforce the former declaration 
 concerning our faith and fmcerity, which they 
 pinned to our paflport. On three other points 
 
 which
 
 { 57 ) 
 
 which run through all their declarations, they are 
 more explicit than ever. 
 
 Firft, they more directly undertake to be the 
 real reprefentatives of the people of this kingdom: 
 and on a fuppoiition in which they agree with our 
 parliamentary reformers, that the Houfe of Com- 
 mons is not that Reprefentative, the function be- 
 ing vacant, they, as our true conflitutional organ, 
 inform his Majefty and the world of the fenfe of the 
 nation. They tell us that " the Englifli people fee 
 " with regret hisMajefty'sGovernmentfquandering 
 c< away the funds which had been granted to him." 
 This aftonifhing afiumption of the publick voice of 
 England, is but. a flight foretafte of the ufurpation 
 which, on a peace, we may be allured they will 
 make of all the powers in all the parts of our vaf- 
 fal conftitution. " If it be thus in the green leaf, 
 " what will it be in the dry?" 
 
 Next they tell us as a condition to our treaty, 
 that " this Government muft abjure the unjuft ha- 
 * f tred it bears to them, and at laft open it's ears 
 (c to the voice of humanity." Truely this is even 
 from her an extraordinary demand. Hitherto- it 
 ieems we have put wax into our ears to (hut them 
 up againft the tender, foothing (trains, in the affvt- 
 tuofo of humanity, warbled from the throats of 
 Reubel, Carnot, Tallien, and the whole chorus of 
 I Confifcators,
 
 C 58 ) 
 
 Confifcators, domiciliary Vifitors, Committee-men 
 of Refearch, Jurors and Prefidents of Revolu- 
 tionary Tribunals, Regicides, Affaffins, Maffa- 
 crers, and Septembrizers. It is not difficult .to 
 difcern what fort of humanity our Government is 
 to learn from thefe fyren fingers. Our Govern-, 
 ment alfo I admit, with fome-reafon, as a flep to- 
 wards the propofed fraternity, is required to abjure 
 the unjuft hatred which it bears to this body of ho- 
 nour and virtue. I thank God I am neither a MU 
 nifter nor a leader of Oppofition. 1 proteft.J can- 
 not do what they defire, if I were under the guillo- 
 tine, or as they ingeniouily and pleafamly exprefs 
 *' it, looking out of the little national window." 
 Even at that opening I could receive none of their 
 light. I am fortified againft all fuch affections by 
 the declaration of the Government, which I muft 
 yet confider .as. lawful, made on the 29th of 
 October 1793*, and ftill ringing in my ears: 
 
 This 
 
 * " In their place has fucreeded a fyftem deftrucYive of all 
 " public :k order, maintained by profcriptions, exiles and confif- 
 *' cations without number : by arbitrary imprifonment; by maf ? 
 
 .*' facres which cannot be remembered without horror ; and at 
 *' length by the execrable murder of a juft and beneficent So- 
 " vereign, and of the illuftrious Princefs, who, with an un- 
 u fhaken firmnefs, has flinred all the misfortunes of her Royal 
 " Confort, his protiacled^utferings, his cruel captivity and his 
 
 ." ignominious death." " They ^the allies) have had to en- 
 " counter afts of aggreffion without pretext, open violations of 
 " ail treaties, unprovoked declarations of war; in a word, 
 
 " whatever
 
 ( 59 ) 
 
 This declaration was tranfmitted not only to all 
 our commanders by Tea and land, but to our Mi- 
 nifters in every Court of Europe. It is the moft 
 eloquent and highly finimed in the ftyle, the moft 
 
 judicious 
 
 " whatever corruption, intrigue or violence could effect for the 
 *' purpofe fo openly avowed, of fubverting all the inftitutions 
 " of focicty, and of extending over all the nations of Europe 
 " that confufion, which has produced the mifery of France." 
 " This ftate of things cannot exift in France without in- 
 " volving all the furrounding powers in one common danger, 
 " without giving them the right, without impofing it upjon them 
 *' as a duty, to Hop the progrcfs of an evil, which exifts only by 
 " the fucceflive violation of all law and all property, and which 
 " attacks the fundamental principles by which mankind is united 
 " in the bonds of civil fociety." *' The King would impofe 
 *' none other-than equitable and moderate conditions, not fuch 
 " as the expence, the rifques and the facrifices of the war might 
 "juftify; but fuch as his Majefty thinks himfelf under the in- 
 *' difpenfibie neceflity of requiring, with a view to thefe confi- 
 " derations, and ftill more to that of his own fecurity and of 
 " the future tranquillity of Europe. His Majefty delires nothing 
 4< more fincerely than thus to teiminate a war, which he in vain 
 " endeavoured to avoid, and all the calamities of which, as now ' 
 " experienced by France, are to be attributed only to the ambi- 
 " tion, the perfidy and the violence of thofe, whole crimes have 
 " involved their own country in mifery, and difgraced all civi- 
 " Jized nations." " The King promifes on his part the fufpen- 
 " fion of hoftilities, friendfhip, and (as far as the courfe of 
 " events will allow, of which the will of man cannot difpofe) 
 " fecurity and protection to all thofe who, by declaring for a 
 " monarchical form of Government, (hall fhake off the yoke of 
 " fanguinary anarchy ; of that anarchy which has broken all 
 " the moft facred bonds of fociety, diflblved all the relations 6f- 
 I a civil
 
 ( 60 ) 
 
 judicious in the choice of topicks, the moft or- 
 derly in the arrangement, and the moft rich in the 
 colouring, without employing the fmalleft degree 
 of exaggeration, of any ftate paper that has ever 
 yet appeared. An ancient writer, Plutarch, I 
 think it is, quotes fome verfes on the eloquence of 
 Pericles, who is called " the only orator that 
 " left flings in the minds of his hearers." Like 
 his, the eloquence of the declaration, not con- 
 tradicting, but enforcing fentiments of the truefl 
 humanity, has left ftings that have penetrated more 
 than fkin-deep into my mind ; and never can they 
 be extracted by all the furgery of murder; never 
 can the throbbings they have created, be afiuaged 
 by all the emol lient cataplafms of robbery and con- 
 fifcatioii. 
 
 The third point which .they have more clearly 
 exprefled than ever, is of equal importance with 
 
 " civil life, violated every right, confounded every duty ; which 
 " ufes the name of liberty to exercife the moft cruel tyranny, 
 " to annihilate all property, to feize on all pofleffions; which 
 " founds it's power on the pretended confent of the people, and 
 " itfelf carries fire and fword through extenfive provinces for 
 " having demanded their Jaws, their religion and their lawful 
 " Sovereign" 
 
 Declaration fent by his Majefty's command to the Com- 
 manders of his Majefty's fleets and armies employed 
 againft France, and to his Majefty's Minifters em- 
 ployed at foreign Courts. 
 iFhltcball, 08. 29, 17.^3. 
 
 the
 
 ( 6' ) 
 
 the reft; and with them furnifhes a complete vievr 
 of the Regicide fyftem. For they demand as a 
 condition, without which our ambafiador of obe- 
 dience cannot be received with any hope of fuc- 
 tefs, that he fhall be " provided with full powers 
 *' to negotiate a peace between the French Repub- 
 " lick and Great Britain, and to conclude it defi- 
 " nitivety between the TWO powers." With their> 
 fpear they draw a circle about us. They will hear 
 nothing of a joint treaty. We muft make a peace 
 feparately from our allies. We muft, as the very 
 firft and preliminary ftep, be guilty of that perfidy 
 towards our friends and aflbciates, with which they 
 reproach us in our tranfaclions with them our 
 enemies. We are called upon fcandalouily to 
 betray the fundamental fecurities to ourfelves and 
 to all nations. In my opinion, (it is perhaps but 
 a poor one) if we are meanly bold enough to fend 
 an ambatfador, fuch as this official note of the ene- 
 my requires, we cannot even difpatch our emifiary 
 without danger of being charged with a breach of 
 our alliance. Government now underftands the 
 full meaning of the paflport. 
 
 Strange revolutions have happened in the ways of 
 thinking and in the feelings of men: But, it re- 
 quires a very extraordinary coalition of par- 
 ties indeed, and a kind of unheard of unanimity 
 in public Councils, which can impofe this new- 
 
 difcovered
 
 discovered fytfem of negotiation, as found narional 
 policy on the underftai.dmg of a fpectator of this 
 wonde ful dene, who judges on the principles of 
 any thing he ever before faw, read, or heard of, 
 and above all, on the undemanding of a perfon 
 who has had in his eye the tranfadions of the laft 
 feven years. 
 
 I know it is fuppofed v that if good terms of 
 capitulation are not granted, after we have thus 
 ib repeatedly hung out the white fhg, the national 
 fpirit will revive with tenfold ardour. This is 
 an experiment cautioufly to be made.. Reculer 
 pour mieiix Jauter, according to the French by- 
 word, cannot be trufted to as a general rule of con- 
 duel. To diet a man into weaknefs and langour, 
 afterwards to give him the greater ftrength, has 
 more of the empirick than the rational phyfician. 
 It is true that fome perfons have been kicked into 
 courage; and this is no bad hint to give to thofe 
 who are too forward and liberal in bellowing in- 
 fuks and outrages on their paffive companions. 
 But fuch a courfe does not at firft view appear a 
 well-chofen difcipline to form men to a nice fenfe 
 of honour, or a quick refentment of injuries. A 
 long habit of humiliation does not feem a very 
 good preparative to manly and vigorous fenti- 
 ment. It may not leave, perhaps, enough of 
 energy in the mind fairly to dilcern what are good 
 
 terms
 
 terms or what are not. Men low and difpirited 
 may regard thofe terms as not at all amifs, which in 
 another ftate of mind they would think intoler- 
 able : ifthey grew peevifh in this ftate of mind, they 
 may be roufed, not againft the enemy whom they 
 have been taught to fear, but againft the Miniftry*, 
 who are more within their reach, and who have 
 refufed conditions that are not unfeafonable, from 
 power that they have been taught to confider as 
 irrefiftible. 
 
 v oa .'ir.v rrri'.T j : ,-:. ^.j : ::J:l : , :: :;;;:] ^^'j-A 
 If all that for fome months I have heard 
 have the leaft foundation, I hope it has not, the 
 Minifters are, perhaps, not quite fo much to be 
 blamed, as their condition is to be lamented. I 
 have been given to underftand, that thefe pro- 
 ceedings are not in their origin properly theirs. 
 It is faid that there is a fecret in the Houfe of 
 Commons. It is faid that Minifters act not accord- 
 ing to the votes, but according to the difpofitions, 
 of the majority. I hear that the minority has long 
 fince fpoken the general fenfe of the nation j and 
 .that to prevent thofe who compofe it from hav- 
 ing the open and avowed lead in that houfe, 
 or perhaps in both Houfes, it was neceflary to 
 pre-occupy their ground, and to take their pro- 
 pofitions out of their mouths, even with the ha- 
 
 * Ut lethargicus hie, cum fit pugil, et medicum urget. Ho a. 
 
 zard
 
 ( 64 ) 
 
 iard of being afterwards reproached with a com- 
 pliance which it was forefeen would be fruitlefs. 
 
 If the general difpofition of the people be, as I 
 hear it is, for an immediate peace with Regicide, 
 without fo much as confidering our publick and 
 folemn engagements to the party in France whofe 
 caufe we had efpoufed, or the engagements ex- 
 preffed in our general alliances, not only without 
 an enquiryinto the terms, but with a certain know- 
 ledge that none but the worft terms will be offered, 
 it is all over with us. It is ftraoge, but it may 
 be true, that as the danger from Jacobinifm is 
 increafed in my eyes and in yours, the fear of it is 
 leflened in the eyes of many people who formerly 
 regarded it with horror. It feems, they act un. 
 der the imprefiion of terrors of another fort, which 
 have frightened them out of their firft appre- 
 henfions. But let their fears or their hopes, or 
 their defires, be what they will, they (hould recol- 
 lect, that they who would make peace without a 
 previous knowledge of the terms, make a furren- 
 der. They are conquered. They do not treat; 
 they receive the law. Is this the difpofition of the 
 people of England ? Then the people of England 
 are contented to feek in the kindnefs of a foreign 
 fyftematick enemy combined with a dangerous 
 faction at home, a fecurity which they cannot find 
 
 in
 
 ( 65 ) 
 
 in their own patriotifm and their own courage. 
 They are willing to truft to the fympathy of Re- 
 gicides, the guarantee of the Biitim Monarchy. 
 They are content to reft their religion on the piety 
 cf atheifts by eftablifliment. They are fatisfied to 
 feek in the clemency of pracVifed murderers the fe- 
 curity of their lives. They are pleafed to confide 
 their property to the fafeguard of thofe who are 
 robbers by inclination, intereft, habit, and fyftem. 
 If this be our deliberate mind, truly we defeive to 
 lofe, what it is impoffible we mould long retain, 
 the name of a nation. 
 
 In matters of State, a conftitutional competence 
 to act,, is in many cafes the fmalleft part of the 
 queftion. Without difputing (God forbid I (hould 
 difpute) the fole competence of the King and the 
 Parliament, each in it's province, to decide on war 
 and peace, I venture to fay, no war can be long 
 carried on againft the will of the people. This war, 
 in particular, cannot be carried on unkJCs they are 
 enthufiadically in favour of it. Acquiefcence will 
 not do. There muft be zeal. Univerfal zeal in 
 fuch a caufe, and at fuch a time as this is, cannot 
 be looked for ; neither is it necellary. A zeal in, 
 the larger part carries the force of the whole. 
 Without this, no Government, certainly not oi:r 
 .Government, is capable of a great war. None of 
 the ancient regular Governments have wherewithal 
 K. to
 
 ( 66 ) 
 
 to fight abroad with a foreign foe, and at home to 
 overcome repining, reluctance, and chicane. It 
 muft be fome portentous thing, like Regicide 
 France, that can exhibit fuch a prodigy. Yet 
 even (he, the mother of monfters, more prolifick 
 than the country of old called Ferax monftroritm, 
 (hews fymptoms of being almoft effete already - 9 
 and fhe will be fo, unlefs the fallow of a peace 
 comes to recruit her fertility. But whatever may 
 be reprefented concerning the meannefs of the po- 
 pular fpirit, I, for one, do not think fo defperately 
 of the Britim nation. Our minds, as I faid, are 
 light, but they are not depraved. We are dread- 
 fully open to delufion and to dejection ; but we are 
 capable of being animated and undeceived. 
 
 It cannot be concealed. We are a divided peo- 
 ple. But in divilions, where a part is to be taken, 
 we are to make a mufter of our ftrength. I have 
 often endeavoured to compute and to clafs thofe 
 who, in any political view, are to be called the peo- 
 ple. Without doing fomething of this fort we 
 muft proceed abfurdly. We mould not be much 
 wifer, if we pretended to very great accuracy in 
 our efiirm.te : But I think, in the calculation I 
 have made, the error cannot be Very material. In 
 England and "Scotland, I compute that thofe of 
 adult age, not declining in life, of tolerable leifure 
 for fuch difcuflions, and of fome means of infor- 
 mation,
 
 ( 67 ) 
 
 mation, more or lefs, and who are above menial 
 dependence, (or what virtually is fuch) may amount 
 to about four hundred thoufand. There is fuch a 
 thing as a natural reprefentative of the people. 
 This body is that reprefentative; and on this body, 
 more than on the legal conftituent, the artificial re- 
 prefentative depends. This is the Britifh pub- 
 lick; and it is a publick very numerous. The 
 reft, when feeble, are the objects of protection; 
 when ftrong, the means of force. They who affect 
 to confider that part of us in any other light, in- 
 fult while they cajole us; they do not want us 
 for counfellors in deliberation, but to lift us as fol- 
 ders for battle, 
 
 Of thefe four hundred thoufand political citi- 
 zens, I look upon one fifth, or about eighty thou- 
 fand, to be pure Jacobins ; utterly incapable of 
 amendment ; objects of eternal vigilance ; and 
 when they break out, of legal conftraint. On thefe, 
 no reafon, no argument, no example, no vene- 
 rable authority, can have the flighteft influence. 
 They defire a change ; and they 'will have it if 
 they can. If they cannot have it by Englifh cabal, 
 they will make no fort of fcruple of having it by 
 the cabal of France, into which already they are 
 virtually incorporated. It is only their allured 
 and confident expectation of the advantages of 
 French fraternity and the approaching bleffings of 
 1C 2 Regicide
 
 ( 68 ) 
 
 Regicide iiitercourfe, that fkins over their mif- 
 chievous difpofitions with a momentary quiet. 
 
 This minority is great and formidable. I do 
 not know whether if I aimed ac the total over- 
 throw of a kingdom, I mould wifh to be encum- 
 bered with a larger body of partizans. They 
 are more eafily difciplined and directed than 
 if the number were greater. Thefe, by their 
 fpirit of intrigue, and by their refllefs agitating 
 activity, are of a force far fuperior to their num- 
 bers j and if times grew the leafl critical, have the 
 means of debauching or intimidating many of 
 thofe who are now found, as well as of adding to 
 their force large bodies of the more paffive part of 
 the nation. This minority is numerous enough to 
 make a mighty cry for peace, or for war, or for any 
 object they are led vehemently to deli re. By paf- 
 fing-from place to place with a velocity incredible, 
 and diverfifying their character and defcription, 
 they are capable of mimicking the general voice. 
 We muft not always judge of the generality of 
 the opinion by the noife of the acclamation. 
 
 The majority, the other four fifths, is perfectly 
 found; and of the beft poffible difpolition to re- 
 ligion, to government, to the trut and undivided 
 intereft of their country. Such men are naturally 
 difpofed to peace. They who are in poffeffion 
 
 of
 
 of all they with are languid and improvident. 
 With this fault, (and I admit it's exiftence in 
 all it's extent) they would not endure to hear 
 of a peace that led to the ruin of every thing for 
 which peace is dear to them. However, the defire 
 of peace is effentially the weak fide of that kind cf 
 men. All men that are ruined, are ruined on the fide 
 of their natural propenfities. There they are un- 
 guarded. Above all, good men do not fufpecl that 
 their dedruclion is attempted through their virtues. 
 This their enemies are perfectly aware of : And 
 accordingly, they, the mod turbulent of mankind, 
 who never made a fcruple to fliake the tranquil- 
 lity of their country to it's center, raife a continual 
 cry for peace with France. Peace with Regicide, 
 and war with the reft of the world, is trieir 
 motto. From the beginning, and even whilft the 
 French gave the blows, and we hardly oppofcd 
 the vis inertia to their efforts, from that day to 
 this hour, like importunate Guinea-fowls crying 
 one note day and night, they have called for 
 peace. 
 
 In this they are, as I confefs in all things they 
 are, perfectly confident. They who wifli to unite 
 themfelves to your enemies, naturally defire, that 
 you mould difarm yourfeif by a peace with thefe 
 enemies. But it paiies my conception, how they, 
 who wifh well to their country on it's antitnt fyt- 
 
 teiu
 
 ( 70 ) 
 
 tern of laws and manners, come not to be doubly 
 alarmed, when they find nothing but a clamor for 
 peace, in the mouths of the men on earth the leaft 
 difpofed to it in their natural or in their habitual 
 character. 
 
 I have a good opinion of the general abilities of 
 the Jacobins : not that I fuppofe them better born 
 than others ; but ilrong paffions awaken the facul- 
 ties. They fuffer not a particle pf the man to be loft. 
 The fpirit of enterprife gives to this defcription the 
 full ufe of all their native energies. If I have 
 reafon to conceive that my enemy, who, as fuch, 
 muft have an intereft in my deftruction, is alfo a 
 perfon of difcernment and fagacity, then I muft 
 be quite fure, that in a conteft, the object he vio- 
 lently purfues, is the very thing by which my ruin 
 is likely to be the moft perfectly accompli med. 
 Why do the Jacobins cry for peace ? Becaufe they 
 know, that this point gained, the reft will follow 
 of courfe. On our parr, why are all the rules of 
 prudence, as fure as the laws of material nature, to 
 be at this time reverfed ? How comes it, that now 
 for the firft time, men think it right to be governed 
 by the counfels of their enemies ? Ought they not 
 rather to tremble, when they are perfuaded to tra- 
 vel on the fame road ; and to tend to the fame 
 place of reft ? 
 
 The
 
 ( 71 ) 
 
 The minority I fpeak of, is not fufceptible of an 
 impreffion from the topics of argument, to be ufed 
 to the larger part of the community. I therefore 
 do not addrefs to them any part of what I have to 
 fay. The more forcibly I drive my arguments 
 againft their fyftem, fo as to make an impreffion 
 where I wifh to make it, the more flrongly I rivet 
 them in their fentiments. As for us, who compofe 
 the far larger, and what I call the far better part 
 of the people ; let rne fay, that we have not been 
 quite fairly dealt with when called to this deli- 
 beration. The Jacobin minority have been abun- 
 dantly fupplied with ftores and provifions of all 
 kinds towards their warfare. No fort of argumen- 
 tative materials, fuited to their purpofes, have beea 
 withheld. Falfe they are, unfound, fophiftical ; 
 but they are regular in their direction. They all 
 bear one way ; and they all go to the fupport of 
 the fubftantiai merits of their caufe. The others 
 have not had the queftion fo much as fairly ftated 
 to them. 
 
 There has not been in this century, any foreign 
 peace or war, in it's origin, the fruit of popular 
 deiire ; except the war that was made with Spain 
 in 1739. Sir Robert Wai pole was forced into 
 the war by the people, who were inflamed to 
 this mcafure by the moil leading politicians, 
 by the firft orators, and the greateft poets of 
 
 the
 
 ( 72 ) 
 
 the time. For that war, Pope fung his dying 
 notes. For that war, Johnfon, in more energetic 
 ftrsins, employed the voice of his early genius. 
 For that war, Glover diftinguifhed himfclf in the 
 way in which his mufe was the moil natural and 
 happy. The crowd readily followed the politi- 
 cians in the cry for a war, which threatened little 
 bloodfhcd, and which promifed victories that were 
 attended with fomething more folid than glory. A 
 war with Spain was a war of plunder. In the 
 prefent conflict with Regicide, Mr. Fitt has 
 not hitherto had, nor will perhaps for a few 
 days have, many prizes to hold out in the 
 lottery of war, to tempt the lower part of our 
 character. He can only maintain it by an ap- 
 peal to the higher; and to thofe, in whom that 
 higher part is the moft predominant, he muft look 
 the moft for his fupport. Whilft he holds out no 
 inducements to the wife, nor bribes to the avari- 
 cious, he may be forced by a vulgar cry into a 
 peace ten times more ruinous than the moft dif- 
 aftrous war. The weaker he is in the fund of mo- 
 tives -which apply to our avarice, to our lazinefr, 
 and to our latitude, if he means to cany the war to 
 any end at all, the ftronger he ought to be in his 
 addrefles to our magnanimity and to our reafon. 
 
 In ftating that Walpole was driven by a popular 
 clamour into a meafure not to be juftified, I do 
 
 not
 
 ( 73 ) 
 
 not mean wholly to excufe his conducl. My time 
 of obfervation did not exactly coincide with that 
 event ; but I read much of the controversies then 
 carried on. Several years after the contefts of par- 
 ties had ceafed, the people were amufed, and in a 
 degree warmed with them. The events of that 
 sera feemed then of magnitude, which the revolu- 
 tions of our time have reduced to parochial im- 
 portance ; and the debates, which then fhook the 
 nation, now appear of no higher moment than a 
 difcuffion in a veftry. When I was very young, 
 a general fafhion told me I was to admire fome of 
 the writings againft that Minifter ; a little more 
 maturity taught me as much to defpife them. I 
 obferved one fault in his general proceeding. He 
 never manfully put forward the entire ftrength of 
 his caufe. He temporifed ; he managed ; and 
 adopting very nearly the fentiments of his adverfa- 
 ries, he oppofed their inferences. This, for a po- 
 litical commander, is the choice of a weak poft. 
 His adverfaries had the better of the argument, as 
 he handled it, not as the reafon and juftice of his 
 caufe enabled him to manage it. I fay this, after 
 having feen, and with fome care examined, the ori- 
 ginal documents concerning certain important 
 tranfactions of thofe times. They perfectly fatis- 
 fied me of the extreme injuilice of that war, and 
 of the falfehood of the colours, which to his own 
 ruin, and guided fay a . rm'ftaken policy, he fuf- 
 " L fered .
 
 ( 74 ) 
 
 fercd to be daubed over that meafure. Some years 
 after it was my fortune to converfe with many of 
 the principal actors againft that Minifter., and 
 with thofe; who principally excited that clamour. 
 None of them, no not one, did in the leaft defend 
 the meafure, or attempt to juftify their conduct. 
 They condemned it as freely as they would have 
 done in commenting upon any proceeding in hif- 
 tory, in which they were totally unconcerned. 
 Thus it will be. They who ftir up the people to 
 improper defires, whether of peace or war, will be 
 condemned by themfelves. They who weakly yield 
 to them will be condemned by hiftory. 
 
 In my opinion, the prefeiit Miniftry are as far 
 from doing full juftice to their caufe in this war, as 
 Walpole was from doing juftice to the peace which 
 at that time he was willing to preferve. They 
 throw the light on one fide only of their .cafe ; 
 though it is impoffible they fliould not obferve, 
 that the other lide which is kept in the fhade, 
 has it's importance too. They muft know, that 
 France is formidable, not only as fhe is France, 
 but as fhe is Jacobin France. They knew from 
 the beginning that the Jacobin party was not 
 confined to that country. They knew, they 
 felt, the ftrong difpolition of. the fame faction 
 in both countries to communicate and to co- 
 operate. For fome time paft, thefe two points 
 
 have
 
 (*-.)' 
 
 have been kept, and even induftrioufly kept, out of 
 fight. . France is confidered as merely a foreign 
 Power ; and the feditious Englifh only as a dome- 
 tick faction. The merits of the war with the for- 
 mer have been argued folely on political grounds. 
 To prevent the mifchievous doctrines of the latter, 
 from corrupting our minds, matter and argument 
 have been (applied abundantly, and even to fur- 
 feit, on the excellency of our own government. 
 But nothing has been done to make us feel in 
 xvhat manner the fafety of that Government is 
 connected with the principle and with the ifTue of 
 this war. For any thing, which in the late dif- 
 cuffion has appeared, the war is entirely collateral 
 to the (late of Jacobinifm ; as truly a foreign war 
 to us and to all our home concerns, as the war 
 with .Spain in 1739, about Garda-Coftas, the 
 Madrid Convention, and the fable of Captain 
 Jenkins's ears, 
 
 Whenever the adverfe party has raifed a cry for 
 peace with the Regicide, the anfwer has been little 
 more than this, " that the Adminiftration wifhed tor 
 " liich a peace, full as much as the Oppofition ; but 
 *' that the time was not convenient for making it." 
 Whatever elfe has been faid was much in the fame 
 fpirit. Reafons of this kind never touched the -fub- 
 ftantial merits of the war. They were in the na - 
 lure of dilatory pleas, exceptions of form, pre-
 
 ( 76 ) 
 
 vious queftions. Accordingly all tjie arguments 
 againft a compliance with what was reprefented 
 as the popular defire, (urged on with all pofft- 
 ble vehemence and earn.eftnefs by the Jacobins) 
 have appeared flat and languid, feeble and eva- 
 iive. They appeared to aim only at gaining 
 time. They never entered into the peculiar 
 and distinctive character of the war. They fpoke 
 neither to the underftanding nor to the heart. 
 Cold as ice themfelves, they never could kindle in 
 our breads a fpark of that zeal, which is necefTary 
 to a conflict with an adverfe zeal ; much lefs were 
 they made to infufe into our minds, that ftubborn 
 perfevering fpirit, which alone is capable of bearing 
 up againft thofe viciffitudes of fortune, which will 
 probably occur, and thofe burthens which muft be 
 inevitably borne in a long war. I fpeak it empha- 
 tically, and with a defire that it fhould be marked, 
 in a long war ; becaufe, without fuch a \var, no ex- 
 perience has yet told us, that a dangerous power 
 has ever been reduced to meafure or to reafon. I 
 do not throw back my view to the Peloponnefian 
 war of twenty-feven years ; nor to two of the Pu- 
 nick wars, the firft of twenty-four, the fecond of 
 eighteen ; nor to the more recent war concluded 
 by the treaty of Weftphalia, which continued, I 
 think, for thirty. I go to what is but juft fallen 
 behind living memory, and immediately touches 
 our 'own country. Let the -.portion of our hiilo/y 
 
 from
 
 ( 77 ) 
 
 from the year l6SQ to 1713 be brought before us. 
 We fhall find, that in all that period of twenty- 
 four years, there were hardly five that could be called 
 a feafon of peace ; and the interval between the 
 two wars was in reality, nothing more than a very ac- 
 tive preparation for renovated hoflility. During that 
 period, every one of the propofitions of peace came 
 from the enemy : The firft, when they were ac~ 
 cepted, at the peace of Ryfwick ; The fecond, 
 where they were rejected at the congrefs at Ger- 
 truydenburgh ; The laft, when the war ended by 
 'the treaty of Utrecht. Even then, a very great 
 'part of the nation, and that which contained by 
 far the moil intelligent ftatefmen, was againft the 
 conclusion of the war. I do not enter into the 
 merits of that queftion as between the parties. 
 I only ftate the exiftence of that opinion as a fact, 
 from whence you may draw fuch an inference as 
 you think properly arifes from it. 
 
 It is for us at prefent to recollect what we 
 have been ; .anil to- confider what, if we pleafe, we 
 may be .flail/'." At -the period of thofe wars, our 
 principal ftrength was found in the refolution of 
 the people;: that 'in the refolution of a part only 
 and of the then whole, which bore no proportion to 
 our exifting magnitude. England -and Scotland 
 were not united at the beginning of that mighty 
 ftruggle. When, jn the courl'e of the conteu;, 
 
 they
 
 ( 78 ) 
 
 they were conjoined, it was in a raw, an ill-cc-* 
 rnented, an unproductive union. For the whole 
 duration of .he war, and long after, the names, and 
 other outward and vilible figns of approximation, 
 rather augmented than diminifhed our infular 
 feuds. They were rather the caufes of new clifcon- 
 tents and new troubles, than promoters of cordia- 
 lity and affection. The now fingle and potent 
 Great Britain was then not only two countries, 
 but, from the party heats in both, and the divi- 
 fions formed in each of them, each of the old king- 
 doms within itfelf in effect was made up of two 
 'hoftile nations. Ireland, now fo large a fource 
 of the common opulence and power, which wilely 
 managed might be made much more beneficial 
 and much more effective, was then the heavicft of 
 the burthens. An army not much lefs than forty 
 thoufand men, was drawn from the general effort, 
 to keep that kingdom in a poor, unfruitful, and re- 
 fourcekfs fubjectipn. 
 
 Such was the ftate of the empire. The ftate 
 of our finances was worfe, if poffible. Every 
 branch of the revenue became lefs productive after 
 the Revolution. Silver, not as now a fort of coun-r 
 ter, but the body of the current coin, was reduced 
 fo low, as notlo have above three parts in four of 
 thV value hrthe (hilling. It required a dead ex- 
 pence of three millions fterling to renew the coin-
 
 ( 79 ) 
 
 Age. Publick credit, that great but ambiguous 
 principle, which has fo often been predicted as the 
 caufe of our certain ruin, but which for a century 
 has been the conftant companion, and often th& 
 means, of our profperity and greatnefs, had it's ori- 
 gin, and was cradled, I may fay, in bankruptcy 
 and beggary. At this day we have feen parties 
 contending to be admitted, at a moderate premi- 
 um, to advance eighteen millions to the Exchequer. 
 For infinitely fmaller loans, the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer of that day, Montagu, the father of 
 publick credit, counter-fecuring the State by the 
 appearance of the city, with the Lord-Mayor of 
 London at his fide, was obliged, like an agent at an 
 election, to go cap in hand from fhop to (hop, to 
 borrow an hundred pound and even fmaller 
 fums. When made up in driblets as they could, 
 their belt fecurities were at an intereft of 1 2 per 
 cent. Even the paper of the Bank (now at 
 par with cafh, and even fometimes preferred to it) 
 was often at a difcount of twenty per cent. By 
 this the ftate of the reft may be judged. 
 
 As to our commerce, the imports and exports of 
 the nation, now fix and forty million, did not then 
 amount to ten. The inland trade, which is com- 
 monly paffed by in this fort of eftimatcs, but which, 
 in part growing out of the foreign, and connected 
 with it, is more advantageous, and more fubftan- 
 
 tially
 
 C 50 ) 
 
 tially nutritive to the State, is not only grown i n a 
 proportion of near five to one as the foreign, but 
 has been augmented, at leaft, in a tenfold pro- 
 portion. When I came to England, I remem- 
 ber but one river navigation, the rate of car- 
 riage on which was limited by an Acl: of Parlia- 
 ment. It was made in the reign of William the 
 Third ; I mean that of the Aire and Calder. The 
 rate was fettled at thirteen pence. So high a price 
 demonurated the feeblenefs of thefe beginnings 
 of our inland intercoufe. In my time, one of the 
 longeft and fharpeft contefts I remember in your 
 Houfe, and which rather refembled a violent con- 
 tention amongft national parties than a local dif- 
 pute, was, as well as I can recollecl, to hold the 
 price up to threepence. Even this$ which a very 
 fcanty juitice to the proprietors required, was clone 
 with infinite difficulty. As to private credit, there 
 were not, as I belt remember, twelve Bankers fhops 
 at that time out of London. In this their number, 
 when I firft faw the country, I cannot be quite ex- 
 a6t; but certainly thofe machines of domeftick 
 credit were then very few indeed. They are 
 now in alrnoft every market town : and this cir- 
 cumfiance (whether the thing be. carried to an ex- 
 ccfs or not) demonstrates the aftonifhing cn- 
 crcafe of private confidence, of general circula- 
 tion, and of internal commerce ; an encrcafe out 
 of all proportion to/the growth of the foreign trade. 
 
 Our
 
 Our naval ftrerigth in the time of King William's 
 war was nearly matched by that of France ; and 
 though conjoined with Holland, then a maritime 
 Power hardly inferior to our own, even with that 
 force we were not always victorious. Though 
 finally fuperior, the allied fleets experienced many 
 unpleafant reveries on their own element. In two 
 years three thoufand veflels were taken from the 
 Engliih trade. On the continent we loft almoft 
 every battle we fought. 
 
 In 1697, it is not quite an hundred years ago, 
 in thalrftate of things, amidft the general debaie- 
 inent of the coin, the fall of the ordinary reve- 
 venue, the failure of all the extraordinary fupplies, 
 the ruin of commerce and the almoft total extinc- 
 tion of an infant credit, the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer himfelf whom we have juft feen begging 
 from door to door came forward to move a refo- 
 lution, full of vigour, in which far from being dif- 
 couraged by the generally adverfe fortune, and 
 the long continuance of the war, the Commons 
 agreed to addrefs the Crown in the following 
 manly, fpirited, and truly animating ftyle. 
 
 " This is the EIGHTH year in which your Ma- 
 
 " jefty's moft dutiful and loyal fubjetfsthe Com- 
 
 " mons in Parliament aflembled, have affifted your 
 
 ' Majefty with large fupplies for carrying on a juft 
 
 M and
 
 ( 82 ) 
 
 ind necefiary war, in defence of our religion and 
 prefervation of our laws, and vindication of the 
 * rights and liberties of the people of England. 
 
 Afterwards they proceed in this manner t- 
 To (hew to your Majefty and all Chriftendom, 
 that the Commons of England will not 
 * amM or diverted from their firm refolutions o 
 obtaining by WAR, a fafe and honourable pe; 
 we do in the name of thofe we reprefent, renew 
 our affuranccs to fupport your Majefty and yoi 
 " Government againft all your enemies at hon 
 --and abroad; and that we will equally afiift 
 - you in carrying on the war againft France. 
 
 The amufcment and diverfion they fpeak of, 
 was the fuggeftion of a treaty &*& h'** 
 enemv, and announced from the Throne, 
 the people of England felt in the eigbk, not m the 
 fourth .year of the war. No fighing or panting ; 
 ternegociation; no motions from the Oppolitic 
 to force the Miniftry into a peace ; no meirnges 
 from Minilters to pally an*; deaden the relblution 
 of Parliament or the fpirit of the nation, 
 did not fo much as advife the'King to lilten to tfc 
 -propolltionsofthe enemy, nor to feck for peace 
 - hut throuirh the mediation of a vigorous wur. r J 
 arUlrefs was moved in an hot, a divided, a tafticus, 
 : a cl in a great part, difaifefted Houte of Commons 
 ami it was carried -nemmt contradicenie. ^^ '
 
 ( 83 ) 
 
 that firft war (which was ill finothercd by. 
 the treaty of Ryfwick) flcpt in the thin afhes of a 
 eemmg peace, a new conflagration was in it's im- 
 mediate caufes. A fefl, and a far greater war was 
 m preparation. A year had hardly dapfed fhen 
 arrangements were made for renewing the eonteft 
 with tenfold fury. The fieps which were taken' 
 that time, to compofe, to reconcile, to unite' 
 id to difcipline all Europe againfl the growth of 
 France, certainly furnifh to a ftatefman the fiucll 
 and mqft intercfting part in the hiiiory of that 
 .great period. It formed the mailer-piece of King 
 William's policy, dexterity, and perfcvcrancc. Fuil 
 of the idea of preferring, not only a local civil li- 
 berty united -with order, to our country, but to 
 embody it in the political liberty, the order, and 
 the independence of nations united under a natu- 
 ral head, the King called upon his Parliament to 
 put itfclf intoapoilure ,o frefw * England the 
 " weight and influence 'it at prcfmt had on the coim- 
 " cih and affairs ABROAD. It will be rcquifitc Eu- 
 " rope fliould fee you will -not be wanting to your- 
 " felves." 
 
 Baffled^ that Monarch was, and almoft heart- 
 
 oken at the difappointment he met with in the 
 
 mode he firft propofed for that great end, he held 
 
 on his courfe. He was faithful to his objecl - 
 
 1 m councils, as in arms, over and over again' 
 
 M 2 repulfed,
 
 ( 84 ) 
 
 over again he returned to the 
 All the- mortifications he had fuffered 
 , ^he laft Parliament, and the greater hehad to 
 
 * 
 
 V^o- The Cabinet met on the lubject m. 
 
 this nation. So far as rela es to 
 
 
 :^^*^~,* 
 
 ,teTond:hat W asdifcerned,ti.,,appcare3n 
 occafion of the late ekSions. Trns ,s the trut 
 of the fact upon which your Majefty wl " >j cle 
 mine what refolution ought to be taken. ^
 
 < 85 ) 
 
 His Majcfty did determine ; and did take and 
 purfue his refolution. In all the tottering imbecility 
 of a new Government, and with Parliament totally 
 unmanageable, he perfevered. He perfcvered to 
 expel the fears of his people, by his fortitude^-To 
 ftcady their ficklenefs^ by his conftancy To ex- 
 pand their narrow prudence, by his enlarged wif- 
 <lom To fink their factious temper in his public 
 fpirit. In fpite of his people he refolved to make 
 them great and glorious ; to make England, in- 
 clined to fhrink into her narrow felf, the Arbitrefs 
 of Europe, the tutelary Angel of the human race. 
 In fpite of the Miniflers, who daggered under the 
 weight that his mind impofed upon theirs, unfup- 
 ported as they felt themfelves by the popular fpi- 
 rit, he infufed into them his own foul; he renewed 
 in them their ancient heart ; he rallied them in 
 the fame caufe. 
 
 It required forne time to accomplifh this work. 
 The people were firft gained, and through them their 
 diftradled rcprefentatives. Under the influence of 
 King William Holland had relifted the allurements 
 of every fedu&ion, and had refilled the terrors of 
 every menace. With Hannibal at her gates, fhe 
 had nobly and magnanimously refufed all feparate 
 treaty, or any thing which might for a moment 
 appear to divide her affedb'cn or her intereft, or 
 even to diflinguifh her in identity from England. 
 
 Having
 
 ( so' ) 
 
 Having fettled the great point of the confolkhi- 
 tion (which he hoped would be eternal) of the 
 countries made for a common intereft, and com- 
 mon fentiment, the King, in his mcflage to both 
 Houfes, calls their attention to the affairs of 
 the States General. The Houfe of Lords was 
 perfectly found, and entirely impreflcd with the 
 wifdom and dignity of the. King's proceedings. 
 In anfwer to the jneflage, which you will obferve 
 was narrowed to a (ingle point, (the clanger of 
 the States General) after the ufual profefiions of 
 zeal for his fervice, the Lords opened themfelves 
 at large. They go far beyond the demands of 
 the mcflage. They exprefs thenifelves as follows : 
 " We take this occasion further to allure your 
 " Majefty, that we are fenfible ..of the great .ami 
 " imminent danger to winch the States General are 
 " expofed. And we perfectly agree with them in le- 
 " Viewing that their fafety and ours are fo injeparably 
 " united, that whatfoever is ruin t.o the one muft be 
 "fatal to the other. 
 
 " We humbly define your Majefty will be plcaf- 
 '' ed, not only to make good all the articles of any 
 ^former treaties to the Sates General, but that you 
 " will enter into a itri<St league, ofFenfive and de- 
 " fenfive, with them, for their common pref creation: 
 " and that you will invite into it all Princes and 
 
 " States
 
 ( 87 ) 
 
 " Slates who are concerned in the prefent vifibie durt- 
 " ger, arifing from the union of France and Spain. 
 
 " And we further defire your Majefty, that you 
 " will be pleafed to enter into fuch alliances with 
 " the Emperor, as your Majefty {hall think fit, 
 . " purfuant to the ends of the treaty of iSSQ; to- 
 " wards all which we aflure your Majefty of our 
 " hearty and fincere affiftance ; not doubting, but 
 " whenever your Majefty fhall be obliged to be 
 " engaged for the defence of your allies, and fe- 
 <( curing the liberty and quiet of Europe, Almighty 
 " God will protect your facred perfon in fo rightc- 
 "ousacaufe. And that the unanimity, wealth, 
 ^ and courage of your fubjecls will cany your Ma- 
 * f jcfty with honour and fuccefs through all the 
 " difficulties of a JUST WAR.'* 
 
 The Houfe of Commons was more referred ; the 
 late popular difpofition was ftill in a great degree 
 prevalent in the reprefcntative, after it had been 
 made to change in the conftituent body. The 
 principle of the Grand Alliance was not directly 
 recognized in the refolution of the Commons, nor 
 the war announced, though they were well aware 
 the alliance was formed for the war. However, 
 compelled by the returning fcnfc of the people, 
 they went fo far as to fix the three great immove- 
 able pillars of the fafety and greatnefs of England,
 
 C 88 ). 
 
 as they were then, as they are now, and as they 
 muft ever be to the end of time. They affertcd in 
 general terms the neceffity of fupporting Holland j 
 of keeping united with our allies ; and maintain- 
 ing the liberty of Europe; though they reftriaed 
 their vote to the fuccours ftipulated by adual 
 treaty. But now they were fairly embarked ; they 
 were obliged to go with the courfe of the veflel ; 
 and the whole nation, fplit before into an hundred 
 adverfe factions, with a King at it's head evidently 
 declining to his tomb, the whole nation, Lords, 
 Commons, and People, proceeded as one body, 
 informed by one foul. Under the Britifti union, 
 the union of Europe was confolidated ; and it long 
 held together with a degree of cohefion, firrnnefs, 
 and fidelity not known before or fmce in any po- 
 litical combination, of that extent. 
 
 Juft as the laft hand was given to this immenfe 
 and complicated machine, the matter workman 
 died : But the work was formed on true mecha- 
 nical principles ; and it was as truly wrought. It 
 went by the impulfe it had received from the firft 
 mover. The man was dead: But the grand 
 alliance furvived, in which King William lived 
 and reigned. That heartlefs and difpirited people, 
 whom Lord Somers had .reprefentcd, about two. 
 years before, as dead in energy and operation, 
 continued that war to which it was iuppoled they 
 
 were
 
 were unequal in mind, and in means, for near 
 
 thirteen years. 
 
 * ,:". i.. ;:.',! H; 'lii'7/ iS L"v.. : 
 
 For what have I entered into all this detail > 
 To what purpofe have I recalled your view to the 
 end of the lail century ? It has been done to {hew 
 that the Britifh Nation was then a great people- 
 to point out how and by what means they came 
 to be exalted above the vulgar level, and to take 
 that lead which they aflumed among mankind. 
 To qualify us for that pre-eminence, we had 
 then an high mind, and a conftancy unconquerable ; 
 we were then infpired with no flafhy paffions ; but 
 fuch as were durable as well as warm ; fuch as cor- 
 refponded to the great interefts we had at ftake. 
 This force of character was infpired, as all fuch fpi- 
 rit muft ever be, from above. Government gave 
 the impulfe. As well may we fancy, that, of itfelf 
 the fea will fwell, and that without winds the billows 
 "will infult the adverfe fhore, as that the grofs 
 rnafs of the people will be moved, and elevated, 
 and continue by a fteady and permanent' direc- 
 tion to bear upon one point, without the influence 
 of fuperior authority, or fuperior mind. 
 
 This impulfe ought, in my opinion, to have been 
 given in this war; and it ought to have been con- 
 tinued to it at every inflant. It is made, if eve? 
 war was made, to touch all the great fprings of 
 N a&ion
 
 ( SO ) 
 
 a<5Hon in the human Tbreaft. It ougM r 
 
 been a war of apology. The Minifter'had, i this 
 
 conflict,, wherewithal to glory, in fuccefs ; to be 
 
 confoJcd in adverfity ; to Bold high his principle 
 
 in all fortunes. If it were not given him to fup- 
 
 port the falling edifice, he ought to bury himfelf 
 
 under the niifis of the civilized world. All the 
 
 art of Greece, and all the pride and power of eaf- 
 
 tern. Monarch?, never heaped upon their afhes fo 
 
 "grand a monument. V ' 
 
 There were days when his great mind was up to 
 the crin*s of the world he is called to act in*. His 
 manly eloquence was equal to the elevated wifdom 
 of fuch fentiments. But the little have triumphed 
 over the great; an unnatural, (as it fhould feem) not 
 an unufual victory. I am fure you cannot forget 
 with how much uneafinefs we heard in converfation, 
 the language of more than one gentleman at the 
 opening of this conteft, " that he was willing to 
 " try the war for a year or two, and if it did not 
 " fucceed, then to vote for peace/' As if war was 
 a matter of experiment! As if you could take it 
 up or lay it 'down as an idle frolick ! As if the 
 dire goddefs that prefides over it, with her mur- 
 derous fpear in her hand, and her gorgon at her 
 breaft, was a coquette to. be flirted with! We 
 ought with reverence to approach that tremendous 
 
 * See the Declaration, 
 
 divioity,
 
 ( 91 ) 
 
 divinity, that loves courage, but commands coun- 
 fel. War never leaves, where it found a nation. 
 It is never to be entered into without a mature 
 deliberation; not a deliberation lengthened out 
 into a perplexing indecifion, but a deliberation 
 leading to a fure and fixed judgment. When fo 
 taken up it is not to be abandoned without reafon 
 as valid, as fully, and as extensively confidered. 
 Peace may be made as unadvifedly as war. No- 
 thing is fo rafh as fear ; and the counfels of pufil- 
 lanimity very rarely put off, whilft they are always 
 fure to aggravate, the evils from which they would 
 fly. 
 
 In that great war carried on againft Louis the 
 XlVth, for near eighteen years, Government fpared 
 no pains to fatisfy the nation, that though they 
 were to be animated by a deiire of glory, glory 
 was not their ultimate object : but that every thing 
 dear to them, in religion, in law, in liberty, every 
 thing which as freemen, as Englifhmen, and as ci- 
 tizens of the great commonwealth of Chriftendom, 
 they had at heart, was then at {lake. This was to 
 know the true art of gaining the affe,tions and 
 confidence of an high-minded people; this was 
 to underftand human nature. A danger tp avert 
 a danger a prefent inconvenience and fuffer- 
 ing to prevent a forefeen future, and a woife 
 calamity thefe are the motives that belong to 
 N 2 an
 
 
 an animal, who, in his conftitution, is at once ad- 
 venturous and provident ; circumfpect and daring ; 
 whom his Creator has made, as the Poet fays, " of 
 large difcourfe, looking before and after." But 
 never can a vehement and fuftained fpirit of forti- 
 tude be kindled in a people by a war of calculation. 
 It has nothing that can keep the mind erect under 
 the gufts of adverfity. Eyen where men are wil- 
 ling, as fometimes they are, to barter their blood for 
 lucre, to hazard their fafety for the gratification of 
 their avarice, the paflion, which animates them t 
 that fort of conflict, like all the fhort-fightcd paf- 
 fions, muft fee it's objects diftinct and near at hand. 
 The paiiions of the lower order are hungry and im- 
 patient. Speculative plunder; contingent fpoil ; fu- 
 ture, long adjourned, uncertain booty ; pillage which 
 muft enrich a late pofterity, and which poffibly may 
 not reach to pofterity at all ; thefe, for any length of 
 time, will never fupport a mercenary war. The 
 people are in the right. The calculation of profit 
 in all fuch wars is falfe. On balancing the ac- 
 count of fuch wars, ten thoufand hoglheads of 
 fugar are purchafed at ten thoufand times their 
 price. The blood of man fhould never be ftied but 
 to redeem the blood of man. It is well fried for 
 our family, for our friends, for our God, for our 
 country, for our kind. The reft is vanity ; the 
 reft is crime, 
 
 In
 
 ( 93 ) 
 
 In the war of the Grand Alliance, moft of thefe 
 confiderations voluntarily and naturally had their 
 part. Some were preflTed into the fervice. The 
 political intere:* eafily went in the track, of the 
 natural fentiment. In the reverfe courfe the car- 
 riage does not follow freely. I am fure the na- 
 tural feeling, as I have juft faid, is a far more pre- 
 dominant ingredient in this war, than in that of any 
 other that ever was waged by this kingdom. 
 
 If the war made to prevent the union of two 
 crowns upon one head was a jufl war, this, which 
 is made to prevent the tearing all crowns from all 
 heads which ought to wear them, and with the 
 crowns to fmite off the facred heads themfelves, 
 this is a juft war, 
 
 If a war to prevent Louis the XlVth from im- 
 paling his religion was juft, a war to prevent the 
 murderers of Louis theXVIth from impofing their 
 irreligion upon us is juft ; a war to prevent the ope- 
 ration of a fyftem, which makes life without digni- 
 ty, and death without hope, is a juft war. 
 
 If to preferve political independence and ci- 
 vil freedom to nations, was a juft ground of war; 
 a war to preferve national independence, property, 
 liberty, life, and honour, from certain univerfal 
 jjavock, is a war juft, neceilary, manly, pious; 
 
 and
 
 c Q* y 
 
 and we are bound to perfevere in it by every prin- 
 ciple, divine and human, as long as the fyftem 
 which menaces them all, and all equally, has an 
 exiftence in the world. 
 
 You, who have looked at this matter with as fair 
 and impartial an eye as can be united with a feel- 
 ing heart, you will not think it an hardy aftertion, 
 when I affirm, that it were far better to be con- 
 quered by any other nation, than to have this fac- 
 tion for a neighbour. Before I felt myfelf autho- 
 rifed to fay this, I confidered the (late of all the 
 countries in Europe for thefe laft three hundred 
 years, which have been obliged to fubmit to a fo- 
 reign law. In moft of thofe I found the condition 
 of the annexed countries even better, certainly 
 not worfe, than the lot of thofe which were the 
 patrimony of the conquerour. They wanted 
 fome bleflings but they were free from many 
 very great evils. They were rich and tranquil. 
 Such was Artois, Flanders, Lorrain, Alfatia, un- 
 der the old Government of France. Such was 
 Silelia under the King of Pruffia. They who are 
 to live in the vicinity of this new fabrick, are to pre- 
 pare to live in perpetual confpiracies and feditions ; 
 and to end at laft, in being conquered, if not to 
 her dominion, to her refemblance. But when we 
 talk of conquefl by other nations, it is only to put 
 a cafe. This is the only power in Europe by which 
 
 it
 
 it is poffible we fliould be' conquered. To live 
 under the continual dread of fuch immeafurable 
 evils is itfelf a grievous calamity. To live without 
 the dread of them is to turn the danger into the 
 difafter. The influence of fuch a France is equal 
 'to a war; it's example, more wafting than an hof- 
 tile irruption. The hostility with any other power 
 is feparable and accidental; this power, by the very 
 condition of it's exiftence, by it's very effential 
 conftitution, is in a ftate of hoflility with us, and 
 with all civilized people.* 
 
 A Government of the nature of that fet up at 
 ur very dcor has never been hitherto feen, or even 
 imagined, in Europe. What our relation to it will 
 be cannot be judged by other relations. It is a 
 ferious thing to have a connexion with a people, 
 who live only under poiitive, arbitrary, and change- 
 able inftitutions ; and thofe not perfected nor fup- 
 plied, nor explained, by any common acknowledged 
 rule of moral fcience. I remember that in one of 
 my laft converfations with the late Lord Camden, 
 we were ftruck much in the fame manner with the 
 abolition in France of the law, as a fcience of 
 methodized and artificial equity. France, lince 
 her Revolution, is under the fway of a feel, 
 whofe leaders have deliberately, at one ftroke, de- 
 molifhed the whole body of that jurifprudence 
 which France had pretty nearly in common with 
 
 * See declaration, Whitehall, October 29, 1793. 
 
 other
 
 ( 05 ) 
 
 other civilized countries. In that jurifprudence 
 were contained the elements and principles of the 
 law of nations, the great ligament of mankind. 
 With the law they have of courfe deftroyed all 
 feminarics in which jurifprudence was taught, as 
 well as all the corporations eiiablifhed for it's con- 
 fervation. I have not heard of any country, whe- 
 ther in Europe or Afia, or even in Africa on this 
 fide of Mount Atlas, which is wholly without fome 
 fuch colleges and fuch corporations, except France. 
 No man, in a publick or private concern, can di- 
 vine by what rule or principle her judgments are to 
 be directed ; nor is there to be found a profeflbr 
 in any Univerdty, or a practitioner in any Court, 
 who will hazard an opinion of what is or is not 
 law in France, in any cafe whatever. They have 
 not only annulled all their old treaties ; but they 
 have renounced the law of nations from whence 
 treaties have their force. With a fixed defign 
 they have outlawed thcmfelves, and to their power 
 outlawed all other nations. 
 
 Initead of the rdigion and the law by which 
 they were in a great politick communion with 
 the Chriflian world, they have conftrucled their 
 Republick on three bafes, all fundamentally oppo- 
 fite to thofe on which the communities of Europe 
 are built. It's foundation is laid in Regicide; in 
 Jacobinifm ; and in A thcifm ; and it hag joined to 
 
 thofc
 
 (. 97 ) 
 
 thofe principles, a body of fyftematick manners 
 which fecures their operation. 
 
 ;.-:% : --^hc x-tiir.-'fiyrlwV;-. -sr ,.r^: HTif: Mt,/.'; 
 
 If I am alked how I would be undefftood in the 
 life of thefe terms, Regicide, Jacobinifm, Atheifm, 
 and a fyflem of correfpondent manners and their 
 eilablifhment, I will tell you. 
 
 I call a commonwealth Regicide, which lays it 
 down as a fixed Taw of nature, and a fundamen- 
 tal right of man, that all government, not being 
 a democracy, is an ufurpation*. That all Kings, as 
 fuch, are ufurpers ; and for being Kings, may 
 and ought to be put to death, with their wives, fa- 
 milies, and adherents. The commonwealth which 
 acts uniformly upon thofe principles; arid which 
 after abolifhing every feiiival of religion, choofes the 
 moft flagrant act of a murderous Regicide treafon 
 for a feaft of eternal commemoration, and ,which 
 forces all her people to obferve it This I call Re- 
 guide by eftabliftnmnt* 
 
 * Nothing could be more folemn than their promulgation ofc 
 this principle as a preamble to the deflru&ive code of their fa- 
 mous articles for the decompofition of fociety into what- 
 ever country they fhould enter. " La Convention Nati unale, aprcs 
 avoir entendu le rapport de fes Comittes dc Finances, de la 
 guerre, & diplomatiques reunis, fidelle au principc d: fouve- 
 rainte de peuples qui ne lui per met fas de reconnoitre aucune inJUtufidn 
 quiyporte attcintt," &c. &c. De,cret fur ie Rapport de Cair.boa. 
 Dec. 78, 1792, and fee the fubfequent prodamation. 
 
 O Jacobinilin
 
 
 Jacobinifm is the revolt of the entcrprifmg ta- 
 lents of a country againil it's property. When 
 private men form themfelves into aflbciations for 
 the purpofe of deftroying the pre-exiiling laws and 
 inftitutions of their country ; when they fecurc to 
 themfelves an army by dividing amongft the people 
 of no property, the eftates of the ancient and law- 
 ful proprietors ; when a ftate recognizes thofe acls ; 
 when it does not make confifcations for crimes,, 
 but makes crimes for confifcations; when it has 
 it's principal ftrength, and all it's refources in fuch 
 a violation of property; when it Hands chiefly 
 upon fuch a violation ; maflacring by judgments, 
 or otherwife, thofe who make any ilruggle for 
 their old legal government, and their legal, heredi- 
 tary, or .acquired poflcffions I call this Jacobinifm 
 by Ejlabliflment. 
 
 I call it Atheifm by Eflabliflment, when any State, 
 as fuch, fhall not acknowledge the exiftence of 
 God as a moral Governor of the World ; when it 
 fliall oiler to Him no religious or moral wodlrip ; 
 when it fhall abolifh the Chriftian religion by a 
 regular decree; when it fliall perfecute with a 
 cold, unrelenting, ftcady cruelty, by every mode of 
 confifcation, imprifonment, exile, and death, all it's 
 minifters ; when it fliall generally (hut up, or pull 
 down, churches; when the few buildings which re- 
 main of this kind fliall be opened only for the. purpofe 
 
 of
 
 ( 99 ) 
 
 of making a profane apotheofis of monfters, whofc 
 vices and crimes have no parallel amongft men, and 
 whom all other men confider as objects of general 
 deteltation, and the fevereft animadvcriion of law. 
 When,, in the place of that religion of focial bene- 
 volence, and of individual felf-dcnial, in mockery 
 of all religion, they inltitute impious, blafphemous, 
 indecent theatric rite?, in honour of their vi- 
 tiated, perverted reafofl, and creel altars to the per- 
 fonification of their own corrupted and bloody Re- 
 publick; when fchools and ferninaries are found- 
 ed at publick expence to poifon mankind, from ge*- 
 neration to generation., with the horrible maxims of 
 this impiety; when wearied out with incctiant 
 martyrdom, and the cries of a people hungering 
 and thiriring for religion, they permit it, only as 
 a tolerated evil I call this Atheijm by Eftablijh- 
 ment. 
 
 When to thefe eftabliihments of Regicide, of 
 Jacobinifm, and of Atheifm, you add the corre- 
 fpondent Jfllem of manners, n6 doubt can be left 
 on the mind of a thinking man, concerning their 
 determined hoftility to the human race. Manners 
 are of more importance than laws. Upon them, in 
 a great rneafure the laws depend. The law touches 
 us but here and there, arid now and then. Manners 
 are what vex or footh, corrupt or purify, exalt or de- 
 bafe, barbarize or refine us, by a conftant,, Ready, 
 D '2 uniform,
 
 ( 100 ) 
 
 uniform, infenfible operation, like that of the air 
 we breathe in. They give their whole form and 
 colour to our lives. According to their quality, 
 they aid morals, they fupply them, or they totally 
 deflroy them. Of this the new French Legiflators 
 were aware ; therefore, with the fame method, and 
 under the fame authority, they fettled a f)iiem 
 of manners, the moil licentious, proftitute, and 
 abandoned that ever has been known, and at the 
 fame time the moft coarfe, rude; favage, and fe- 
 rocious. Nothing in the Revolution, no, not to 
 a phrafe or a gefture, not to the fafhion of a hat 
 or a fhoe, was left to accident. All has been the 
 refult of defign; all has been 'matter of infti- 
 tution. No mechanical means could be devifcd in 
 favour of this incredible fyftem of wickcdnefs and 
 vice, that has not been employed. The nobleil 
 paffions, the love of glory, the love of country, have 
 been debauched into means of it's prcfervation and 
 it's propagation. All forts of fhews and exhibitions 
 calculated to inflame and vitiate the imagination, 
 and pervert the moral fenfe, have been con- 
 trived. They have fometimes brought forth 
 five or fix hundred drunken women, calling at 
 the bar of the AflembJy.for the blood of their own 
 children, as being royalifts or conftitutjonaliils. 
 Sometimes they have got a body of wretches, 
 calling thcmfelves fathers, to demand the murder 
 of their fons ; boafting that Rome had .but one 
 Brutus, but that they could fhcw five hundred. 
 
 There
 
 ( 101 } 
 
 There were mitances, in which they inverted, and 
 retaliated the impiety, and produced fons,who cal- 
 Jed for the execution of their parents. The foun- 
 dation of their Republick is laid in moral para- 
 doxes. Their patriotifm is always prodigy. All 
 thofe inftances to be found in hiftory, whether real 
 ' or fabulous, of a doubtful publick fpirit, at which 
 morality is perplexed, reafon is itaggered, and from 
 which affrighted nature recoils, are their chofcn, 
 and almoft fole examples for the inftruclion of their 
 youth. 
 
 The whole drift of their inftitution is contrary 
 to that of the wife Legiflators of all countries, who 
 aimed at improving inftincls into morals, and 
 at grafting the virtues on the flock of the natural 
 affections. They, on the contrary, have omitted no 
 pains to eradicate every benevolent and noble pro- 
 penfity in the mind of men. In their culture it is a 
 rule al ways to graft virtueson vices. They think every 
 thing unworthy of the name of publick virtue, un- 
 Jefs it indicates violence on the private. All their 
 new inftitutions, (and with them every thing is 
 pew) ftrike at the root of our focial nature. . Other 
 Ixigiilators, knowing that marriage is 'the origin of 
 all relations, and confequcntly the firft element of 
 all duties, have endeavoured, by every art, to make 
 it facrcd. The Cbriftian Religion, by confining it 
 tp the pairs, and by rendering that relation indiilb- 
 
 luble
 
 ( 102 ) 
 
 luble, has, by thefe two things, done more towards 
 the peace, happinefs, fettlement, and civilization 
 of the world, than by any other part in this whole 
 fcheme of Divine Wifdom. The direct contrary 
 courfe has been taken in the Synagogue of Anti - 
 ehiift, I mean in that forge and manufactory of all 
 evil, the feet which predominated in the Confti- 
 tuent Aflembly of 1789. Thofe monfters cm- 
 ployed the fame, or greater induftry, to defccrate 
 and degrade that State, which other Lcgiflators 
 have ufed to render it holy and honourable. By a 
 ftrangc, uncalled for declaration, they pronounced, 
 that marriage was no better than a common, civil 
 contract. It was one of their ordinary tricks, to 
 put their fentimcnts into the mouths of certain 
 pcrfonated characters, which they theatrically ex- 
 hibited at the bar of what ought to be a ferious 
 Aflembly. One of thefe was brought out in the 
 figure of a proftitutc, whom they called by the 
 affected name of " a mother without being a 
 wife." This creature they made to call for a 
 repeal of the incapacities, which in civilized States 
 are put upon baftards. The proflitutes of the A 
 fembly gave to this their puppet the fanction of 
 their greater impudence. In confequence of the 
 principles laid down, and the manners authorifed, 
 baftards were not long after put on the footing of the 
 ilme of lawful unions. Proceeding in the fpirit of 
 the firft authors of their confiitution, fuccceding af- 
 
 femblJGS
 
 ( 1-03 ) 
 
 femblies went the full length of the principle, and 
 gave a licence to divorce at the mere pleafure ot 
 either party, and at a month's notice. With them 
 the matrimonial connexion is brought into fo de- 
 graded a ftate of concubinage, that, I believe, none 
 of the wretches in London, who keep warehoufes 
 of infamy, would give out one of their victims to 
 private cuflody on fo (hort and infblent a tenure. 
 There was indeed a kind of profligate equity in 
 thus giving to women the fame licentious power. 
 The reafon they affigned was as infamous as the acl ; 
 declaring that women had been too long under the 
 tyranny of parents and of hufbands. It is not ne- 
 ceflary to obfervc upon the horrible confequences 
 of taking one half of the fpecies wholly out of the 
 guardianiliip and protedlion of the other. 
 
 The practice of divorce, though in fome coun- 
 tries permitted, has been difcouraged in all. In the 
 Eaft, polygamy and divorce are in difcrcdit ; and 
 the manners correct the laws. In Rome, whilll 
 Rome was in it's integrity, the few caufes al- 
 lowed for divorce amounted in erFecl to a prohi- 
 bition. They were only three. The arbitrary wn's 
 totally excluded ; and accordingly fome hundred* 
 of years pafled, without a fmgle example of 
 that kind. When manners were corrupted, the 
 laws were relaxed ; as the latter always follow the. _ 
 former, when they are not able to regulate them,
 
 * io vanquish them. Of this circumftance the Le- 
 giflators of vice and crime were pleafccl to take 
 notice, as an inducement to adopt their regulation ; 
 holding out an hope, that the permiffion would as 
 sarely be made ufe of. They knew the contrary to be- 
 true ; and they had taken good care, that the laws 
 ihould be well feconded by the manners. Their law 
 of divorce, like all their laws, had not for it's object 
 the relief of domeftick unealinefs, but the total 
 conniption of all morals, the total difconnection of 
 fbcial life. 
 
 It is a matter of curiolity to obferve the operation 
 of this encouragement to diforder. I have before me 
 the Paris paper, correfpondent to the ufual regiftef 
 of births, marriages, and deaths. Divorce, hap- 
 pily, is no regular head of regiftry amongft civi- 
 lized nations. With the Jacobins it is remarkable,, 
 that divorce is not only a regular head, but it has | 
 the poft of honour. It occupies the firft place in' 
 the lift. In the three firft months of the year 1 793, 
 the number of divorces in that city amounted to 
 56'2. The marriages were 1 785 ; fo that the propor- 
 tion of divorces to marriages was not much lefs than 
 one to three ; a thing unexampled, I believe, 
 among mankind. I caufed an enquiry to be 
 made at Doctor's Commons, concerning the num- 
 ber of divorces ; and found, that all the divorces,, 
 (which,, except by fpecial Act of Parliament, art 
 
 reparations*
 
 reparations, and not proper divorces) did not 
 amount in all thofe Courts, and in an hundred years, 
 to much more than one fifth of thofe that pafled, in 
 the (Ingle city of Paris, in three months. I followed 
 up the enquiry relative to that city through feveral 
 of the fubfequent months until I was tired, and 
 found the proportions ftill the fame. Since then I 
 have heard that they have declared for a revifal of 
 thefe laws : but I know of nothing done. It ap- 
 pears as if the contract that renovates the world 
 was under no law at all. From this we may take 
 our eftimate of the havock that has been made 
 through all the relations of life. With the Ja-/ 
 cobins of France, vague intercourfe is without 1 
 reproach ; marriage is reduced to the vileft con- 
 cubinage ; children are encouraged to cut the 
 throats of their parents ; mothers are taught that 
 tendernefs is no part of their character ; and to 
 demonstrate their attachment to their party, that 
 they ought to make no fcruple to rake with their 
 bloody hands in the bowels of thofe who came 
 from their own. 
 
 To all this let us join the practice of canniba- 
 Ufm, with which, in the proper terms, and with 
 the greateft truth, their feveral factions accufej 
 each other. By cannibalifin, I mean their devour- j 
 ing, as a nutriment of their ferocity, fome part of : 
 the bodies of thofe they have murdered ; their 
 P drinking
 
 drinking the blood of their victims, and forcing 
 the victims thcmfelves to drink the blood of their 
 kindred Slaughtered before their faces. By canni- 
 balifm, I mean alfo to fignify all their namelefs, un L 
 manly, and abominable infults on the bodies of 
 thofc they (laughter*. 
 '<'* '' 
 
 As to thofe whom they fuffer to die a natural 
 death, they do not permit them to enjoy the laft con- 
 folations of mankind, or thofe rights of fepulture, 
 which indicate hope, and which mecr nature has 
 taught, to mankind in all countries, to foothe the 
 afflictions, and to covet the infirmity of mortal 
 condition. They disgrace men in the entry into 
 life ; they vitiate and errflavc them through the 
 whole courfe of u ; arid they deprive them of all 
 comfort at the conclufion of their dishonoured and 
 depraved existence. Endeavouring to perfuade the 
 people that they are no better than beads, the 
 whole body of their inliitiition tends to make 
 them beafrs of prey, furious and favage. For this 
 purpofe the a olive part of them is difciplin'ed int(* 
 a ferocity which has no parallel. To this ferocity 
 there is. joined not one of the rude, unfaihionetl 
 virtues, which accompany the vices, where the 
 whole are left to grow up together in the ranknefs 
 of uncultivated nature. But nothing is left to na- 
 ture in their fvftews. 
 
 The
 
 ( 107 ) 
 
 The fame difcipline which hardens their hearts 
 relaxes their morals. Whilit courts of jufticc 
 were thruft out by revolutionary tribunals, and 
 filent churches were only the funeral monuments 
 of departed religion, there were no fewer than 
 nineteen or twenty theatres, great and fmall, mod 
 of them kept open at the publick cxpence, and all 
 of them crowded every night. Among the gaunt, 
 hagard forms .of famine and nakednefs, ajmidft the 
 yells of murder, the tears ,of affliction, and the 
 cries of defpair, the ifong, the dance, the xnimick 
 fcene, the buffoon laughter, went on as regularly 
 as in the gay hour of feftive peace. I have it from 
 good authority, that under the fcaffold of judicial 
 murder, and the gaping planks that poured down 
 blood on the fpeclators, the fpacc was hired out for 
 a mew of dancing dogs. I think, without concert, 
 we have made the very fame remark on reading 
 jfoine of their pieces, which being written for other 
 purpofcs, let us into A view of their Ibcial life. 
 It ftruck us that the habits of Paris had no refem- 
 blance to the finilhed virtues, pr to the polimed 
 vice, and elegant, though not blajpelefs luxury, of 
 the capital of a great empire.. Their fociety was 
 more like that of a den Qf outlaws upon a doubt- 
 ful frontier ; of a lewd tavern for the revels and 
 debauches of banditti, allaffins, brayos, Smugglers, I 
 and their more defpcratc paramours, mixed with j 
 bombaftjck players, the rcfufe and rejected ofral of . 
 ^rolling theatres, puffing out ill-forted verles J 
 P 2 about 7
 
 ( 108 ) 
 
 about virtue, mixed with the licentious and blaf- ;' 
 phemous fongs, proper to the brutal and hardened 
 courfe of life belonging to that fort of wretches. 
 This fyftem of manners in itfelf is at war with all 
 orderly and moral fociety, and is in it's neighbour- 
 hood unfafe. If great bodies of that kind were 
 any where eftablifhed in a bordering territory, we 
 fhould have a right to demand of their Govern- 
 ments the fuppreffion of fuch a nuifance. What 
 are we to do if the Government and the whole 
 community is of the fame description ? Yet that 
 Government has thought proper to invite ours to 
 lay by its unjufl hatred, and to liften to the voice 
 of humanity as taught by their example. 
 
 The operation of dangerous and delufive firft 
 principles obliges us to have recourfe to the true 
 ones. In the intercourfe between nations, we are 
 apt to rely too much on the inftrumental part. 
 We lay too much weight upon the formality of 
 treaties and compacts. We do not acl: much more 
 wifely when we truft to the interefts of men as 
 guarantees of their engagements. The interefts 
 frequently tear to pieces the engagements ; and 
 the paffions trample upon both. Entirely to truft 
 to either, is to difregard our own fafety, or not to 
 know mankind. Men are not tied to one an- 
 other by papers and feals. They are led to aflb- 
 ciate by refemblances, by conformities, by fym- 
 pathies. It is with nations as with individuals. 
 
 Nothing
 
 ( 169 ) 
 
 Nothing is fo ftrong a tic of amity between na- 
 'tion and nation as correfpondence in laws, cuftoms, 
 manners, and habits of life. They have more than 
 the force of treaties in themfelves. They are obli- 
 gations written in the heart. They approximate 
 men to men, without their knowledge, and fome- 
 times againft their intentions. The fecret, unfeen, 
 but irrefragable bond of habitual intercourfe, holds 
 them, together, even when their perverfe and liti- 
 gious nature fets them to equivocate, fcuffle, and 
 fight about the terms of their written obligations. 
 
 As to war, if it be the means of wrong and vio- 
 lence, it is the folc means of juftice amongil nations. 
 Nothing can banifh it from the world. They who 
 fay otherwife, intending to impofe upon us, do 
 not impofe upon themfelves. But it is one of the 
 greateft objects of human wifdom to mitigate thofe 
 evils which we are unable to remove. The confor- 
 mity and analogy of which I fpeak, incapable, like 
 every thing elfe, of preferving perfect truft and 
 tranquillity among men, has a ftrong tendency 
 to facilitate accommodation, and to produce a ge- 
 nerous oblivion of the rancour of their quarrels. 
 With this iimilitude, peace is more of peace, and 
 war is lefs of war. I will go further. There have 
 been periods of time in which communities, appa- 
 rently in peace with each other, have been more 
 perfectly feparated than, in later times, many na- 
 tions
 
 tions in Europe have been in the courfc of long 1 
 and bloody wars. The caufe muft be fought in the 
 Similitude throughout Europe of religion, laws, and 
 manners. At bottom, thefe are all the fame. The 
 writers on public law have often called this aggre- 
 gate of nations a Commonwealth. They had rea- 
 ibn. It is virtually one great ftatc having the fame 
 ban's of general law ; with fome diveriity of pro- 
 vincial cuftoms and local eflablifhments. The na- 
 tions of Europe have had the very fame chriftian 
 religion, agreeing in the fundamental parts, vary- 
 ing a little in the ceremonies and in the fubordi- 
 nate doctrines. The whole of the polity and 
 ceconomy of every country in Europe has been 
 derived from the fame fources. It was drawn from 
 the old Germanic or Gothic cuftuinary; from the 
 feudal infiitutions which muft be coniidercd as an 
 emanation from that cuftumary ; and the whole has 
 been improved and digcfted into fyftcm and dif- 
 eipline by the Roman law. From hence arolc 
 the feveral orders, with or without a Monarch, 
 (which are called Statee) in every European coun- 
 try ; the ftrong traces of which, where Monarchy 
 predominated, were never wholly extinguilhed or 
 merged in defpotifm. In the few places where 
 Monarchy was caft offj the fpirit of European 
 Monarchy was ftill left. Thofe countriesftill con- 
 tinued countries of States; that is, of clafles, orders, 
 and diftinclions, fuch as had before fubiifted, or 
 
 nearly
 
 ( 111 ) 
 
 nearly fo. Indeed the force and form of the inflfc 
 tution called States, continued in greater perfection 
 in thofe republican communities than under Mo- 
 narchies. From all thofe fcourccs arofe a fyftem of 
 manners and of education which was nearly fimilar 
 in all this quarter of the globe; and which foftened, 
 blended, and harmonized the colours of the whole. 
 There was little difference in the form of the 
 Univerfities for the education of their youth, whe- 
 ther with regard to faculties, to fciences, or to the 
 more liberal and elegant kinds of erudition. From 
 this refemblance in the modes of intercourfe, and in 
 the whole form and fafhion of life, no citizen of Eu- 
 rope could be altogether an exile in any part of it. 
 There was nothing more than a pleaiing variety to 
 recreate and inftruA the mind ; to enrich the ima- 
 gina tion ; and to meliorate the heart. When a man 
 travelled or refided for health, pleafure, bufmefs 
 or neceffity, from his own country, he never 
 felt himfclf quite abroad. 
 
 The whole body of this new fcheme of manners 
 in fupport of the new fcheme of politicks, I con- 
 lider as a ftrong and decifive proof of determined 
 ambition and fyftematick hoilility. I defy the 
 moil refining ingenuity to invent any other caufc 
 for the total departure of the Jacobin Republick 
 from every one of the ideas and ufages, religious, 
 
 legal,
 
 ( "2 ) 
 
 legal, moral, or focial, of this civilized world, and 
 for her tearing herfelf from its communion with fuch 
 iludied violence, but from a formed refolution of 
 keeping no terms with that world. It has not been, 
 as has been falfely and infidioufly reprefented, that 
 thefe mifcreants had only broke with their old Go- 
 vernment. They made a fchifm with the whole 
 univerfe ; and that fchifm extended to almoil every 
 thing great and fmall. For one, I wiih, fince it 
 is gone thus far, that the breach had been fo com- 
 pleat, as to make all intercourfe impracticable ; 
 but partly by accident, partly by delign, partly 
 from the refinance of the matter, enough is left to 
 preferve intercourfe, whilft amity is deftroyed or 
 corrupted in it's principle. - 
 
 -CflfH ifj Horuo o ! ; f frltr t i rh *. i. ': ihi f ; :*> * ' 
 
 This violent breach of the community of Eu- 
 rope, we muft conclude to have been made, (even 
 if they had not exprefsly declared it over and over 
 again) either to force mankind into an adoption 
 of their fyftem, or to live in perpetual enmity with 
 a community the mofl potent we have ever known. 
 Can any perfon imagine, that in offering to man- 
 kind this defperate alternative, there is no indica- 
 
 . tion of a hoilile mind, becaufe men in poflHfion 
 of the ruling authority are fuppofed to have a 
 right to a6l without coercion in their own ter- 
 ritories? As to the right of men to acl any 
 where according to their pleafure, without any 
 moral tie, no fuch right cxifts. Men are never in 
 
 a flate
 
 ( "3 ) 
 
 a {late of total independence of each other. It is 
 not the condition of our nature : nor is it conceiv- 
 able how any man can purfue a conliderable courfe 
 of action without it's having fome effect upon 
 others; or, of courfe, without producing fome de- 
 gree of refponlibility for his conduct. The fitu- 
 ations in which men relatively Hand produce the 
 rules and principles of that refponfibility, and 
 afford directions to prudence in exacting it. 
 
 Diftance of place does not extinguifh the duties 
 or the rights of men ; but it often renders their 
 exercife impracticable. The fame circumftance of 
 diilance renders the noxious effects of an evil fyf- 
 tem in any community lefs pernicious. But there 
 are fituations where this difficulty does not occur; 
 and in which, therefore, thefe duties are obligatory, 
 and thefc rights are to be aflerted. It has ever 
 been the method of publick jurifts to draw a great 
 part of the analogies on which they form the law of 
 nations, from the principles of law which prevail 
 in civil community. Civil laws are not all of 
 them merely pofitive. Thofe which are rather con- 
 clufions of legal reafon, than matters of flatutable 
 provifion, belong to univerfal equity, and are uni- 
 verfally applicable. Ahnoft the whole prcetorian 
 law is fuch. There is a Law of Neighbourhood 
 which does not leave a man perfect mafter on his 
 own ground. When a neighbour fees a new creation 9 
 Q ia
 
 in the riature of a nuifance, fct up at his door, he 
 has i right to rcprefent it to the judge; who, on his 
 part, has a right to order the work to be itaid ; or if 
 eftabiifhed, to be removed. On this head, the parent 
 law is exprefs and clear; and has made many wile 
 provifions, which, without deitroying r regulate and 
 retrain the right of wanerflrip, by the right of vi-. 
 clnage. No innovation is permitted that may re- 
 dound, even l<?conclarily y .to the prejudice of a 
 neighbour. The whole doctrine of that important 
 head of praetorian law, " De ncvi operis nwiciatione" 
 is founded on the principle, \\rdtnonew ufeftiould 
 be made of a man's private liberty of operating 
 upon his private property, from whence a detriment 
 may be juftly apprehended by his neighbour. 
 3Chis law of denunciation is profpeclive. It is 
 to anticipate what is called dammim iufeclum, or 
 dammim nondum fefium, that is a damage juftly 
 apprehended but not actually done. Even before 
 it is clearly known, whether the innovation be da- 
 mageable or riot, the judge is competent to ii'fue a- 
 ^.prohibition to innovate, until the point can be de- 
 termined. This prompt interference is grounded 
 on principles favourable to both parties. It is prc*- 
 -vcntive of mifchief difficult to be repaired, and of 
 ill blood difficult to be foftened. The rule of 
 law, therefore, which comes before the evil, is 
 amongft the very beft parts of equity, and justifies 
 the promptnefs of the remedy ; becaufe, as it is well 
 
 obfervcd,
 
 .0bferved, Res damni infefti celeritafem ' defiderat & 
 periculofa eft dilatio. This right of denunciation 
 does not hold, when things continue, however in- 
 conveniently to the neighbourhood, according to 
 the antient mode. For there is a fort of prefump- 
 lion againft novelty* drawn out of a deep coniide- 
 ration of human nature and human -affairs; and 
 the maxim of jurifprudence is well laid down, 
 Vetujlas pro lege fewper babetw. 
 
 Such is the law of civil vicinity. No\v where 
 there is no conftituted judge, as between indepen- 
 dent Hates there is not, the vicinage itfelf is the 
 natural judge. It is, preventively, the allertor of it's 
 own rights ; or remedially, their avenger. Neigh- 
 bours are prefumed to take cognizance of each 
 other's acts. " Vicinl y vicinonim faEla prefiimuntur 
 fare" This .principle, which, lile the re.il, is as true 
 of nations, as of individual men, has beftowed on the 
 grand vicinage of Europe, a duty to know, and a 
 right to prevent, any capital innovation which may 
 amount to the crcclion of a dangerous nnilancc.* 
 Of the importance of that innovation., and the 
 
 * " This fhte of things cannot exift in France without in- 
 " -volving all the furrounding powers in one common danger, 
 44 without givhig them the right, without impofing it on them 
 *' as a dutv, to ilop the progrefs of an evil which attacks the fun- 
 " damental principles by which mankind is united in civil fo- 
 *' ciety." Declaration, 29^ Ocl. 1793. 
 
 Q '1 milchicf
 
 mifchief of that nuifance, they are, to be furr, 
 bound to judge not litigioufly : but it is in their 
 competence to judge. They have uniformly 
 a6led on this right. What in civil fociety is a 
 ground of action, in politick fociety is a ground of 
 war. But the exercife of that competent jurifdic- 
 tion is a matter of moral prudence. As fuits in 
 civil fociety, fo war in the political muft ever be a 
 matter of great deliberation. It is not this or 
 that particular proceeding, picked out here and 
 there, as a fubject of quarrel, that will do. 
 There muft be an aggregate of mifchief. There 
 rouft be marks of deliberation ; there muft be 
 traces of defign ; there muft be indications of 
 malice ; there muft be tokens of ambition. There 
 muft be force in the body where they exift ; there 
 muft be energy in the mind. When all thefe cir- 
 cumftances combine, or the important parts of 
 them, the duty of the vicinity calls for the exercife 
 of it's competence ; and the rules of prudence do 
 not reitrain, but demand it. 
 
 In dcfcribing the nuifance erected by fo peftilen- 
 tial a manufactory, by the conftruction of fo infa- 
 mous a brothel, by digging a night cellar for fuch 
 thieve?, murderers, and houfc-breakers, as never in- 
 fcftccl the world, I am fo far from aggravating, that 
 I have fallen infinitely fhort of the evil. No man 
 who has attended to the particulars of what has 
 
 been
 
 been done in France, and combined them -with 
 the principles there afferted, can poffibly doubt it. 
 When I compare with this great caufe of nations, 
 the trifling points of honour, the fHll more con- 
 temptible points of intereft, the light ceremonies^ 
 the underinable punctilios, the difputes about pre- 
 cedency, the lowering or the hoiiting of a fail, the 
 dealing in a hundred or two of wild cat-ikins on 
 the other fide of the Globe, which have often 
 kindled up the flames of war between nations, I 
 (land afkmiihed at thofe perfons, who do not feel 
 a refentment, not more natural than politick, at 
 the atrocious infults that this monftrous com- 
 pound offers to the dignity of every nation, and 
 who are not alarmed with what it threatens to their 
 fafety, 
 
 I have therefore been decidedly of opinion, with 
 our declaration at Whitehall, in the beginning of this 
 war, that the vicinage of Europe had not only aright, 
 but an indifpenfible duty, and an exigent intercft, 
 to denunciate this new work before it had produced 
 the danger we have fo ibrely felt, and which we 
 fhall long feel. The example of what is done by 
 France is too important not to have a vail and 
 extenfive influence; and that example backed with 
 it's power, muft bear with great force on thofc 
 who are near it ; efpccially on thofe who ihall re- 
 cognize the pretended Republick on the principle
 
 upon which it now ftands. It is not an old ftnic- 
 ture which you have found as it is, and are not 
 to difpute of the original end and defign with 
 which it had been ib falliioned. It is a recent 
 wrong, and can plead no prelcription. It violates 
 the rights upon which not only the community of 
 France, but thofe on which all communities are 
 founded. The principles on which they proceed 
 are general principles, and are as true in England 
 as in any other country. They who (though 
 with the pureft intentions) recognize the autho- 
 rity of thefe Regicides and robbers upon prin- 
 ciple, juftify their acls, and eftablifh them as pre- 
 cedents. It is- a queftion not between France and 
 England. It is a queftion between property and 
 force. The property claims ; and it's claim has 
 been allowed. The property of the nation is the 
 nation. They who maflacre, plunder, and expel 
 the body of the proprietary, are murderers and rob- 
 bers. The State, in it's efTence, muft be moral 
 and juft : and it may be fo,, though a tyrant or 
 iifurper mould be accidentally at the head of it* 
 This is a thing to be lamented: but this not- 
 withfianding, the body of the commonwealth 
 may remain in all it's integrity and be perfectly 
 found in it's compofition. The prefent cafe is 
 different. It is not a revolution in government. 
 It is not the victory of party over party. It is a de- 
 ftru&ion and decompofition of the whole fociety ; 
 
 which
 
 which never can be made of right by any faclfon, 
 however powerful, nor without terrible conlequences 
 to all about it, both in the act and in the example. 
 This pretended Republick is founded in crimes, and 
 exifts by wrong and robbery ; and wrong and rob- 
 ben*, far from a title to any thing, is war with 
 mankind. To be at peace with robbery is to be 
 an accomplice with it. 
 
 -;<?( ">o :;sy J )-'i;>\ - t \ "' r r i oM - 
 Mere locality does not coriftitute a body po- 
 litick. Had Cade and his gang got pofleflion of 
 London, they would not have been the Lord- 
 Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council. The 
 body politick of France exifled in: the maje'fty 
 of it's throne ; in the dignity of it's nobility ; 
 in the honour of it's gentry ; in the fanclity of it's 
 clergy ; in the reverence of it's magiftracy ; in 
 the weight and conlideration due to it's landed 
 property in, the feveral bajlliages ; in the refpeci 
 .due to it's .movcable fubftance reprefented by 
 the corporations of the kingdom. All thefe par- 
 ticular molecule united, form the great maft 
 of what is truly the body "politick in all coun- 
 tries. They are fo many depofits and recep- 
 tacles of jultice ; bccaufe . they can only cxilt 
 by jufticc. Nation is a moral ellence, not a geo- 
 graphical arrangement, or a denomination of 
 the nomenclator. France, though out of her 
 territorial pofFeiiion, exifts ; becaufe the fole 
 
 pofHble
 
 ( 120 ) 
 
 poffible claimant, I mean the proprietary, and 
 the government to which the proprietary ac! 
 fieres, exifts and claims. God forbid, that if yotf 
 wre expelled from your houfe by ruffians and 
 aflafHns, that I (hould call the material walls, 
 
 doors and windows of , the ancient and 
 
 honourable family of . Am I to transfer to 
 
 the intruders, who not content to turn you out 
 naked to the world, would rob you of your very 
 name, all the efteem and rcfpecl: I owe to you ? 
 The Regicides in France are not France. France 
 is out of her bounds, but the kingdom is the fame. 
 
 To illuftrate my opinions on this fubjccl, let us 
 fuppofc a cafe, which, after what has happened, we 
 cannot think, absolutely impoffible, though the 
 augury is to be abominated, and .the event depre- 
 cated with our moft ardent prayers. Let us fup- 
 pofe then, that our gracious Sovereign was facri- 
 legioufly murdered ; his exemplary Queen, at the 
 head of the matronagc of this land, murdered 
 in the fame manner : That thofe PrincefTcs whofe 
 beauty and modeft elegance are the ornaments of 
 the country, and who are the leaders and patterns 
 of the ingenuous youth of their fex, were put 
 to a cruel and ignominious death, with hundreds 
 of others, mothers and daughters, ladies of the 
 firft diftinclion ; that the Prince of Wales and 
 the Duke of York, princes the hope and pride of the 
 
 nation,
 
 nation, with all their brethren, wero forced to fly 
 from the knives of aflaffins that the whole body 
 of our excellent Clergy we're either maflacred 
 or robbed of all, and tranfported the Chriftian 
 Religion, in all it's denominations, forbidden and 
 perfecuted; the law totally, fundamentally, and in 
 all it's parts dcftroyed the judges put to death by 
 revolutionary tribunalsthe Peers and Commons 
 robbed to the laft acre of their eftates ; maflacred if 
 they flaid, or obliged to feek life in flight, in exile 
 and in beggary that the whole landed property 
 Ihould fhare the very fame fate that every mili- 
 tary and naval officer of honour and rank, almolt 
 to a man, fhould be placed in the fame defcrip- 
 tion of confifcation and exile that the principal 
 merchants and bankers fhould be drawn out, as 
 from an hen-coop, for Slaughter that the citizens 
 of our greateft and mod flourifhing cities, when 
 the hand and the machinery of the hangman were 
 not found fufficient, fhould have been collected in 
 thepublick fquares, and maffacred by thOufandswith 
 cannon ; if three hundred thoufand others fhould 
 have been doomed to a fituation worfe than death in 
 noifomeand peftilential prifons; in fuch a cafe, is 
 it in the faction of robbers I am to look for my coun- 
 try? Would this be the England that you and I, and 
 even ftrangers, admired, honoured, loved, and che- 
 rifhed ? Would not the exiles of Englartd alone be 
 my Government and my fellow citizens ? Would 
 R not
 
 not their places of refuge be my temporary country ? 
 Would not all my duties and all my affections be 
 there and there only ? Should I confider myfelf as a 
 traitor to my country, and deferving of death,, if I 
 knocked at the door and heart of every Potentate 
 in Chriftendom to fuccour my friends, and to 
 avenge them on their enemies ? Could I, in any 
 way, {hew myfelf more a Patriot ? What fhould 
 I think of thole Potentates who infulted their 
 fuffering brethren ; who treated them as vagrants, 
 or at leaft as mendicants ; and could find no 
 allies, no friends, but in Regicide murderers 
 and robbers? What ought I to think and feel, 
 if being geographers inftead of Kings, they re- 
 cognized the defolated cities, the wafted fields, 
 and the rivers polluted with blood, of this geo- 
 metrical meafurement, as the honourable member 
 of Europe, called England ? In that condition 
 what fhould we think of Sweden, Denmark, or 
 Holland, or whatever Power afforded us a churlifh 
 and treacherous hofpitality, if they fhould invite 
 us' to join the ftandard of 'our King, our Laws, 
 and our Religion, if they fhould give us a direct 
 promifc of protection, if after all this, taking ad- 
 vantage of our deplorable fituation, which left us 
 no choice, they were to treat us as the loweft and 
 vileit of all mercenaries ? If they were to fend us 
 far from the aid of our King, and our fuffering 
 Country, to fquander us away in the molt peftilen- 
 
 tial
 
 tkl climates for a venal enlargement of -their own 
 territories, for the purpofe of trucking them, when 
 obtained, with thofe very robbers and murderers 
 they had called upon us to oppofe with our blood ? 
 What would be our fentiments, if in that mifera- 
 ble fervicc we were not to be confidered cither as 
 Englim, <5r as Swedes, Dutch, Danes, but as out- 
 cafts of the human race ? Whilft we were fighting 
 thofe battles of their intereft, and as tjicir Ibldiers, 
 how fhould we feel if we were to be excluded 
 from all their cartels ? How mud we feel, if the 
 pride and flower of the Engliili Nobility and 
 Gentry, who might efcape the peftileniinl clime, 
 and the devouring fwprd, fhould, if taken pri- 
 foners, be delivered over as rebel fubjcc't;?, to be 
 condemned as rebels, as traitors, as the vileft of 
 all criminals, by tribunals formed pf Maroon ne- 
 groe (laves, covered over with the blood of their 
 mafters, who wpre made free and organifed into 
 judges, for their robberies and murders? "What fhould 
 we feel underthis inhuman, infuiting, and barbarous 
 protedtion of Mufcovites, Swedes or Hollanders ? 
 Should we not obteft Heaven, and whatever juftice 
 there is yet on Earth ? Oppreffion makes wife men 
 mad ; but the diftemper is ftill the madncfs of the 
 wife, which is better than the fobriety of fools. 
 Their cry is the voice of (acred iniiery, exalted, not 
 into wild raving, but into the fanciified pliiemy 
 of prophecy and infpiration in that bitternefs of 
 R2 foul,
 
 ibul, in that indignation of fuffering virtue, in 
 that exaltation of defpair, would not perfecuted 
 English Loyalty cry out, with an awful warning 
 voice, and denounce the deftruction that waits on 
 Monarchs, who confider fidelity to them as the 
 moft degrading of all vices ; who fuffer it to be 
 punifhed as the moft abominable of all crimes ; 
 and who have no refpect but for rebels, traitors, 
 Regicides, and furious negro Haves, whofe crimes 
 have broke their chains? Would not this warm 
 language of high indignation have more of found 
 reafon in it, more of real affection, more of true 
 attachment, than all the lullabies of flatterers, who 
 would hufh Monarchs to fleep in the arms of death ? 
 Let them be well convinced, that if ever this ex- 
 ample fhould prevail in it's whole extent, it will 
 have it's full operation. Whilft Kings ftand firm on 
 their bafe, though under that bafe there is a fure- 
 wrought mine, there will not be wanting to their 
 levees a fingle perfon of thofe who are attach- 
 ed to their fortune, and not to their pcrfons or 
 caufe : But hereafter none will fupport a tottering 
 throne. Some will fly for fear of being crufhcd 
 under the ruin; fome will join in making it. They 
 will feek in the dcftruclion of Royalty, fame, and 
 power, and wealth, and the homage of Kings, 
 with Reubel, with Carnof, with Revel/iere, and with 
 the Merlins and the TaUiens, rather than fuffer 
 exile and beggary with the Condfs, or the Brogfios, 
 
 the
 
 ( 125 ) 
 
 the Caftries, the D'Avrah, the Serreiits, the Ca- 
 zales, and the long line of loyal, fuffering Patriot 
 Nobility, or to be butchered with the oracles and 
 the victims of the laws, the D'Orme/lons, the tCEf- 
 premenilsy and the -Male/heroes. This example we 
 fhall give, if inftead of adhering to our fellows in a 
 caufe which is an honour to us all, we abandon the 
 lawful Government and lawful corporate body of 
 France, to hunt for a fhamcful and ruinous frater- 
 nity, with this odious ufurpation that disgraces ci- 
 vilized fociety and the human race, 
 
 And is then example nothing? It is every thing. 
 Example is the fchool of mankind, and they will 
 learn at no other. This war is a war againfl that 
 example. It is not a war for Louis the Eighteenth, 
 or even for the property, virtue, fidelity of France, 
 It is a war for George the Third, for Francis the 
 Second, and for all the dignity, property;, honour, 
 virtue, and religion of England, of Germany, and 
 of all nations. 
 
 I know that all I have faid of the fyftcmatick 
 unfociability of this new-invented fpccies of repub- 
 lick, and the impoffibility of preferving peace, is an- 
 fwered by averting that the fcheme of manners, mo- 
 rals, and even of maxims and principles of ftatc, is 
 of no weight in a quefHon of peace or war between 
 communities. This doctrine is fupported by ex^ 
 
 ample.
 
 (>' 126 ) 
 
 ample. The cafe of Algiers is cited, with an hint, 
 as if it were the ftronger cafe. I fhould take no 
 notice of this fort of inducement, if I had found 
 it only where firft it was. I do not want refpect 
 for thofe from whom I firft heard it but having 
 no controverfy at prcfent with them, I only think 
 4t not amifs to re& on it a little, as I find it adopt- 
 ed with much more of the fame kind, by feveral of 
 thofe on whom fuch reafoning had formerly made 
 no apparent impreflion. If it had no force to pre- 
 vent us from fubmitting to this neceflary war, it 
 furnifhes no better ground for our making an un- 
 necefiary and ruinous peace. 
 
 This analogical argument drawn from the 
 cafe of Algiers would lead us a good way. The 
 facl is, we ourfelves with a little cover, others 
 more directly, pay a tribute to the Republick of 
 Algiers. Is it meant to reconcile us to the pay- 
 ment of a tribute to the French Republick ? That 
 this, with other things more ruinous, will be de~ 
 manded hereafter, I little doubt ; but for the prc- 
 fent, this will not be avowed though our minds 
 are to be gradually prepared for it. In truth, the 
 arguments from this cafe are worth little, even to, 
 thofe who approve the buying an Algerine for- 
 bearance of piracy. There are many things which 
 men do not approve, that they mufl do to avoid 
 a greater evil. To argue from thence, that they 
 
 are
 
 are to act in the fame manner in all cafes, is 
 turning neceffity into a law. Upon what is mat- 
 ter of prudence, the argument concludes the con- 
 trary way. Becaufe we have done one humiliat- 
 ing act, we ought, with infinite 'caution, to admit 
 more acts of the fame nature, left humiliation 
 ilioukl become our habitual State. Matters of pru- 
 dence are under the dominion of circumstances, 
 and not of logical analogies. It is jfo abfurd to take 
 it otherwife. 
 
 A 
 
 I, for one, do more than doubt the policy of 
 this kind of convention with Algiers. On thofe 
 who think as I do, the argument ad hominem can 
 make no fort of impreiiion. I know fomething of 
 the Constitution and composition of this very extra- 
 ordinary Republick. It has a Constitution, I admit, 
 fimibr to the prefent tumultuous military tyranny 
 of France, by which an handful of obfcure ruffians 
 domineer over a fertile country, and a brave people. 
 For the composition, too, I admit, the Algerine 
 community refembles that of France; being form- 
 ed out of the very fcum, fcandal, difgrace, and peSt 
 of the Turkish ASia. The grand Seignor, to dilbur- 
 then the country,, fuffers the Dey to recruit, in his 
 dominions, the corps of Janizaries, or Alaphs, which 
 form the Directory and Council of Elders of the 
 African Republick one and indivisible. . But 
 notwithstanding this refemblance, which I allow, I 
 
 never
 
 ( 128.) 
 
 never fhall fo far injure the Janifariari Rq>ub- 
 lick of Algiers, as to put it in comparifon for every 
 fort of crime, turpitude, and OppreJIion with the 
 Jacobin Republick of Paris. There is no queftion 
 with me to which of the two I fhouid choofe to 
 be a neighbour or a fubjeCt. But fituated as I am, 
 I am in no danger of becoming !%&.Igiers either the 
 one or the other. It is not fo in my relation to the 
 athciliical fanaticks of France. I am their neigh- 
 bour; I may become their fubject. Have the Gen- 
 tlemen who borrowed this happy parallel, no 
 idea of the different conduct to be held with 
 regard to the very fame evil at an immenfe dif- 
 tance, and when it is at your door ? when it's power 
 is enormous, as when it is comparatively as feeble as 
 it's diftance is remote ? when there is a barrier of 
 language and ufagc?, which prevents corruption 
 through certain old correfpondences and habi- 
 tudes, from the contagion of the horrible novel-, 
 ties that are introduced into every thing elfe ? 
 I can contemplate, without dread, a royal or a 
 national tyger on the borders of Pegu. I can 
 look at him, with an eafy curiofity, as prifoner 
 within bars in the menagerie of the Tower. But 
 if, by Habeas Corpus, or othcrwife, he was to 
 come into the Lobby of the Houfe of Commons 
 whilft your door was open, any of you would be 
 more ftout than wife, who would not gladly make 
 your efcape out of the back windows. I certainly 
 
 fhouid
 
 t 12 9 ) 
 
 fhould dread more from a wild cat in my bed- 
 chamber, than from all the lions that roar in the 
 deferts behind Algiers. But in this parallel it is 
 the cat that is at a diftance, and the lions and ty- 
 gers that are. in our anti-chambers and our lobbies. 
 Algiers is nol near ; Algiers is not powerful ; Al- 
 giers is not our neighbour; Algiers -is not infec- 
 tious. Algiers, whatever it may be ? is an old crea- 
 tion ; and we have good data to calculate all the 
 mifchief to be apprehended from it. When I find 
 Algiers transferred to Calais, I will tell you what I 
 think of that point. In the mean time, the cafe 
 quoted from the Algerine reports, will not apply 
 as authority. We ftiall put it out of court; and 
 fo far as that goes, let th'e counfel for the Jacobin 
 peace take nothing by their motion. 
 
 When we voted, as you and I did, with many 
 more whom you and I refpect and love, to refift 
 this enemy, wewere providing for dangers that were 
 direct, home, preffing, and not remote, contingent, 
 uncertain, and formed upon loofe analogies. We 
 judged ofthe danger with which wewere menaccdby 
 Jacobin F.ance, from the wholetenor of it'sconduct ; 
 not from one or two doubtful or detached acts or 
 cxpreffions. I not only concurred in the idea of 
 combining with Europe in this war; but to the 
 beft of my power ever ftimulated Miniilers to that 
 conjunction .of interefts and of efforts. I joined 
 ,S with
 
 ( 130 ) 
 
 with them with all my foul, on the principles con- 
 tained in that manly and mafterly ftate-paper, 
 which I have two or three times referred to,* and 
 may ftill more frequently hereafter* The diploma- 
 tick collection never was more enriched than with 
 this piece. The hiftorick facts juftify every flroke 
 of the mailer. " Thus painters write their names 
 at Co." 
 
 Various perfons may concur in the fame mea- 
 fure on various grounds. They may be various, 
 without being contrary to, or exclufive of each 
 other. I thought the infolent, unprovoked ag- 
 greffion of the Regicide, upon our Ally of Hol- 
 land, a good ground of war. I think his manifeft 
 attempt to overturn the balance of Europe, a 
 good ground of war. As a good ground of war, 
 I conlider his declaration of war on his Majefty 
 and his kingdom. But though I have taken all 
 thefe to my aid, I confider them as nothing 
 more than as a fort of evidence to indicate the 
 treafonable inind within. Long before their acts 
 of aggreflion, and their declaration of war, the 
 faction in France had alHimed a form, had adopt- 
 ed a body of principles and maxims, and had regu- 
 larly and fyflematically acted on them, by which 
 flie virtually had put herfelf in a pofture, which 
 was in itfelf a declaration of war againft mankind. 
 
 * Declaration, Whitehall, Ot 29, 1 793.
 
 It is faid by the Directory in their feveral ma- 
 nifeftoes, that we of the people are tumultuous for 
 peace ; and that Minifters pretend negociation to 
 amufe us. This they have learned from the lan- 
 guage of many amongft ourfelves, whofe converfa- 
 tions have been one main caufe of whatever extent 
 the opinion for peace with Regicide may be. But 
 I who think the Minifters unfortunately to be but 
 too ferious in their proceedings, find myfelf obliged 
 to fay a little more on this fubjecl; of the popular 
 opinion. 
 
 Before our opinions are quoted againft ourfelves, 
 it is proper that/ from our ferious deliberation, they 
 may be worth quoting. It is without reafon we 
 praife the wifdom of our Conftitution, in putting un- 
 der the diferetion of the Crown, the awful truft of 
 war and peace, if the Minifters of the Crown 
 virtually return it again into our hands. The truft 
 was placed there ' as a facred depofit, to fecure us 
 againft popular rafhnefs in plunging into wars, 
 and againft the effects of popular difmay, dif- 
 guft, or laffitude in getting out of them as im- 
 prudently as we might firft engage in them. To 
 have no other meafure in judging of thofe great ob- 
 jecls than our momentary opinions and defires, is 
 to throw us back upon that very democracy which, 
 jn this part, our Conftitution was formed to avoid. 
 
 S2 It
 
 ;f 132 ) 
 
 It is no excufe at all for a minifte% who 
 at our defire, takes a meafure contrary to our 
 fefety, that it is our own act. He who does not 
 fiay the hand of fuicide, is guilty of murder. 
 On our part I fay, that to be iniiructed, is not 
 to be degraded or enilaved. Information is an 
 advantage to us ; and we have a right to de- 
 mand it. Her that is bound to act in the dark 
 cannot be faid to act freely. When it appears evi- 
 dent to our governors that our denies and our in- 
 terefls are at variance, they ought not to gratify the 
 former at the expence of the latter. Statefmen 
 are placed on an eminence, that they may have a 
 larger horizon than we can poffibly command. 
 They have a whole before them, which we can 
 contemplate only in the parts, and even without 
 the neceflary relations. Minifters are not only our 
 natural rulers but our natural guides. Reaibn 
 clearly and manfully delivered, has in itfelf a 
 mighty force : but reafon in the mouth of legal 
 authority, is, I may fairly fay, irrcfiftible. 
 
 I admit that reafon of ftate will not, in many cir- 
 cumflances permit the difclofure of the true ground 
 of a public proceeding. In that cafe filence is 
 manly and it is wife. It is fair to call for truft 
 when the principle of reafon itfelf fufpends it's 
 public ufe. I take the diftinclion to be this. The 
 ground of a particular meafure^ making a part of
 
 ( 133 ) 
 
 a plan, it is rarely proper to divulge. All the 
 broader grounds of policy on which the general 
 plan is to be adopted, ought as rarely to be con- 
 cealed. They who have not the whole caufc be- 
 fore them, call them politicians, call them people, 
 call them what you will, are no judges. The dif- 
 ficulties of the cafe, as well as it's fair fide, ought to 
 be prefented. This ought to be done : and it is 
 all that can be done. When we have our true ii- 
 tuation diftincHy prefented to us, if then we refolve 
 with a blind and headlong violence, to refill thd 
 admonitions of our friends, and to call ourfelves 
 into the hands of our potent and irreconcileabla 
 foes, then, and not till then, the miniiters ftand 
 Acquitted before God and man, for whatever may- 
 come. 
 
 Lamenting as I do, that the matter has not hail 
 fo full and free a difcuffion as it requires, I mean 
 to omit none of the points which feem-to me 
 neceflary for confideration, previous to an ar- 
 rangement which is for ever to decide the form 
 and the fate of Europe. In the courfe, there- 
 fore, of what I fiiall have the honour to addrefs to 
 you, I propofe the following queftions to your fe- 
 rious thoughts, i . Whether the prefent fyitein, 
 which ftands for a Government in France, be fuch 
 as in peace and war affecls the neighbouring States 
 in a manner different from the internal Govern- 
 ment
 
 ( 134 ) 
 
 ment that formerly prevailed in that country? 
 2. Whether that fyftem, fuppofing it's views hoftile 
 to other nations, poflefles any means of being 
 hurtful to them peculiar to itfelf ? 3. Whether 
 there has been lately fuch a change in France, 
 as to alter the nature of it's fyftem, or it's efFecl 
 upon other Powers ? 4. Whether any publick de- 
 clarations or engagements exift, on the part of the 
 allied Powers, which ftand in the way of a treaty 
 of peace, which fuppofes the right and confirms 
 the power of the Regicide faction in France ? 
 5. What the ftate of the other Powers of Europe 
 will be with refpe6t to each other, and their colonies, 
 on the conclulion of a Regicide Peace ? 6. Whe- 
 ther we are driven to the abfolute neceffity of 
 making that kind of peace ? 
 
 Thefe heads of enquiry will enable us to make 
 the application of the feveral matters of fact and 
 topicks of argument, that occur in this vaft dif- 
 cufiion, to certain fixed principles. I do not 
 mean to confine myfelf to the order in which they 
 ftand. I mail difcufs them in fuch a manner as 
 ihall appear to me the beft adapted for fhewing 
 their mutual bearings and relations. Here' then I 
 clofe the public matter of my Letter ; but before 
 I have clone, let me fay one word in apology for 
 myfelf.
 
 ( 135 ) 
 
 In wiihing this nominal peace not to be precipi- 
 tated, I am fure no man living is lefs difpofed to 
 blame the prefent Miniflry than I am. Some of 
 my oldeft friends., (and I wifh I could fay it of 
 more of them) make a part in that Miniftry. 
 There are fbme indeed, "whom my dim eyes in vain 
 explore." In my mind, a greater calamity could 
 not have fallen on the publick than the exclulion 
 of one of them. But I drive away that, with other 
 melancholy thoughts. A great deal ought to be faid 
 upon that fubjecl or nothing. As to the diftinguifhed 
 perfons to whom my friends who remain, are joined, 
 if benefits, nobly and generoufly conferred, ought 
 to procure good wifhes, they are intitled to my 
 beft vows ; and they have them all. They have 
 adminiflered to me the. only confolation I am 
 capable of receiving, which is to know that no 
 individual will fuffer by my thirty years fervice 
 to the publick.- If things fhould give us the com- 
 parative happinefs of a ftruggle, I fhall be found, 
 I was going to fey fighting, (that would - be 
 foolifti) but dying by the fide of Mr. Pitt. I muft 
 add, that if any thing defenfive in our domeftick 
 fyftem can poffibly fave us from the difafters of a 
 Regicide peace, he is the man to fave us. If the 
 finances in fuch a cafe can be repaired, he is 
 the man to repair them. If I fhould lament any 
 of his acls, it is only when they appear to me 
 to have no refemblance to acts of his. But 
 
 let
 
 let him not have a confidence in himfelf, which 
 no human abilities can warrant. His abilities arc 
 fully equal (i|iid that is to lay much for any man) 
 to thofe that are oppofed to him. But if we 
 look to him as our fccurity againft the confe- 
 quences of a Regicide Peace, let us be aftured, that 
 a .Regicide Peace and a Conftitutional Miniftry are 
 terms that will not agree. With a Regicide Peace 
 the King cannot long have a Minifter to ferve 
 him, nor the Minifter a King to ferve. If the Great 
 Difpofer, in reward of the royal and the private 
 virtues of our Sovereign, fhould call him from the 
 calamitous fpeclacles, which will attend a ftate of 
 amity with Regicide, his fucceilbr will furely fee 
 them, unlefs the fame Providence greatly antici- 
 pates the courfe of nature. Thinking thus, (and 
 not, as I conceive, on light grounds) I dare not 
 flatter the reigning Sovereign, nor any Minifter he 
 has or can have, nor his Succefibr Apparent, nor 
 any of thofe who may be called to ferve him, with 
 what appears to me a falfe ftate of their fituation. 
 We cannot have them and that Peace together. 
 
 I do not forget that there had been a confider- 
 ;ible difference between feveral of our friends, with 
 my infignificant felf, and the great man at the 
 head of Miniftry, in an early ftage of thefe difcuf- 
 lions. But I am fure there was a period in which 
 we agreed better in the clanger of a Jacobin exiit- 
 
 encc
 
 ( 137 ) 
 
 ence in France. At one time, he and all Europe 
 fcemed to feel it. But why am not I converted 
 with fo many great Powers, and fo many great 
 Minifters ? It is becaufe I am old and flow, 
 I am in this year, 1 796, only where all the powers 
 of Europe were in 1 793. I cannot move with this 
 proceffion of the Equinoxes, which is preparing for us 
 the return of fome very old, I am afraid no golden 
 sera, or the commencement of fome new aera that 
 must be denominated from fome new metaj. In 
 this crifis I rnuft hold my tongue, or I muft fpeak 
 with freedom. Falfhood and delufion are allowed 
 jn no cafe whatever : But, as in the exercife of all 
 the virtues, there is an oeconomy of truth. It is a 
 fort of temperance, by which a man fpeaks truth 
 with meafure that he may fpeak it the longer. But 1 - 
 as the fame rules do not hold in all cafes what"; 
 
 would be right for you, who may prefume on a 
 feries of years before you, would have no fenfe for 
 me, who cannot, without abfurdity, calculate on 
 
 y 
 
 fix months of life. What I fay, I muft fay at once. 
 Whatever I write is in it's nature teftamentary. It 
 may have the weaknefs, but it has the fincerity of 
 a dying declaration. For the few days I have to 
 linger here, I am removed completely from the 
 bufy fcene of the world; but I hold myfelf to be 
 flill refponfible for every thing that I have done 
 xvhilft I continued on the place of action. If the 
 raweftTyro in politicks has been influenced by the 
 T authority
 
 ( 138 ) 
 
 Authority of my grey hairs, and led by any thing 
 in my fpeeches, or my writings, to enter into this 
 war, he has a right to call upon me to know why 
 1 have changed my opinions, or why, when thofe 
 J voted with, have adopted better notions, I per- 
 fevere in exploded errour ? 
 
 When I feem not to acquiefce in the acls of 
 thofe I refpect in every degree fhort of fuperfti- 
 tion, I m obliged to give my reafons fully. I 
 cannot fet my authority againft their authority. 
 But to exert rcafon is not to revolt againft authority, 
 Reafon and authority do not move in the fame 
 parallel. That reafon is an amicus curia who fpeaks 
 de piano, not pro tribunali. It is a friend who 
 makes an ufeful fuggeftion to, the Court, without 
 queftioning it's jurifdiclion, Whilft he acknow- 
 ledges jt's competence, he promotes it's efficiency. 
 I fhall purfue the plan I have chalked out in my 
 Letters that follow this. 
 
 LETTER
 
 ( '39 ) 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 V 
 
 On the Genius and Character of the French 
 Revolution as it regards other Nations. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 IClofed my firft Letter with ferious matter; 
 and I hope it has employed your thoughts. 
 The fyftem of peace muft have a reference to 
 the fyftem of the war. On that ground, I muft 
 therefore again recal your mind to our original 
 opinions, which time and events have not 
 taught me to vary. 
 
 My ideas and my principles led me, in this 
 conteft, to encounter France, not as a State, but 
 as a Faction. The vaft territorial extent of that 
 country, it's immenfe population, it's riches of 
 production, it's riches of commerce and con- 
 vention the whole aggregate mafs of what, in 
 ordinary cafes, conftitutes the force of a State, 
 to me were but objects of fecondary confidera- 
 tion. They might be balanced j and they have 
 T2 been
 
 been often more than balanced. Great as thefe 
 things are, they are not what make the faction 
 formidable. It is the faction that makes them | 
 truly dreadful. That faction is the evil fpirit 
 that poffefles the body of France ; that informs 
 it as a foul; that flamps upon it's ambition, 
 and upon all it's purfuits, a characteriftick mark, 
 which ftrongly diftinguimes them from the fame 
 general paffions, and the fame general views, in 
 other men and in other communities. It is that 
 fpirit which infpires into them, a new, a perni- 
 cious, a defolating activity. Conftituted as 
 France was ten years ago, it was not in that 
 France to make, to (hatter, and to over- 
 Whelm Europe in the manner that we behold. 
 A fure deflruction impends over thofe infatuated 
 Princes, who, in the conflict with this new and 
 unheard-of power, proceed as if they were en- 
 gaged in a war that bore a refemblance to their 
 former contefls ; or that they can make peace 
 in the fpirit of their former arrangements of pa- 
 cification. Here the beaten path is the very 
 reverfe of the fafe road. 
 
 As to me, I was always fleadily of opi- 
 nion, that this diforder was not in it's nature 
 intermittent. I conceived that the conteft 
 once begun, could not be laid down again, 
 to be refumed at our difcretion 3 but that our 
 
 firft
 
 ( HI ) 
 
 firft ftruggle with this evil would alfp be our 
 laft. I never thought we could make peace 
 with the fyftem ; becatife it was not for ihe lake 
 of an object we purfue'd in rivalry with each 
 other, but with the fyftem itfclf that we were at 
 war. As I underftood the matter, we were at 
 war not with it's conduct, but with it's exist- 
 ence ; convinced that it's exiftence and it's hof- 
 tility were the fame. 
 
 The faction is not local or territorial. It is a 
 general evil. Where it leaft appears in action, 
 it is dill full of life. In it's deep it recruits it's 
 ftrength, and prepares it's exertion. It's fpirit lies 
 deep in the corruptions of our common nature. 
 The focial order which reftrains it, feeds it. It 
 exifts in every country in Europe ; and among 
 all orders of men in every country, who look up 
 to France as to a common head. The centre is 
 there. The circumference is the world of Eu- 
 rope wherever the race of Europe may be fet- 
 tled. Every where elfe the faction is militant ; in 
 France it is triumphant. In Fiance is the bank 
 of depofit, and the bank of circulation, of all 
 the pernicious principles that are forming in 
 every State. It will be a folly fcarcely deferving 
 of pity, and too mifchievous for contempt, to 
 think of reftraining it in any other country 
 whilft it is predominant there. War, inftead of 
 
 toeing
 
 ( 142 ) 
 
 being the caufe of it's force, has fufpended it's 
 operation, It has given a reprieve, at leaft, to 
 the Chriflian World. 
 
 The true nature of a Jacobin war, in the be- 
 ginning, was, by moft of the Chriflian Powers, 
 felt, acknowledged, and even in the moft pre- 
 cife manner declared. In the joint manifefto, 
 publifhed by the Emperor and the King of 
 Pruflia, on the 4th of Auguft 1792, it is ex- 
 prefled in the cleared terms, and on principles 
 which could not fail, if they had adhered to 
 them, of clafling thofc monirchs with the firft 
 benefactors of mankind. This manifefto was 
 publifhed, as they themfelves exprefs it, le to 
 " lay open to the prefent generation, as well as 
 " to pofterity, their motives, their intentions, 
 " and .the dijintereftednefs of their perfonal views; 
 ** taking up arms for the purpofe of preferving 
 " focial and political order amongft all civilized 
 " nations, and to fecure to each ftate it's reli- 
 p" gion, happinefs, independence, territories, 
 ' and real conftitution." " On this ground, 
 M they hoped that all Empires, and all States, 
 " ought to beunanimous; and becoming the firm 
 " guardians of the happinefs of mankind, that 
 " they cannot fail to unite their efforts to refcue 
 " a numerous nation from it's own fury, to pre- 
 ** ferve Europe from the return of barbarifm, 
 
 " and
 
 ( '43 ) 
 
 < and the Univerfe from the fubverfion and 
 " anarchy with which it was threatened." The 
 whole of that noble performance ought to be read 
 at the firft meeting of any Congrefs, which may 
 alTemble for the purpofe of pacification. In that 
 piece " thefe Powers exprefsly renounce ah views 
 *' of perfonal aggrandizement," and confine 
 themfelves to objects worthy of fo generous, fo 
 heroic, and fo perfectly wife and politick an en- 
 terprife. It was to the principles of this confe- 
 deration and to no other, that we wifhed our 
 Sovereign and pur Country to accede, as a part 
 of the commonwealth of Europe. To thefe 
 principles with forrie trifling exceptions and 
 limitations they did fully accede.* And all our 
 friends who did take office acceded to the Mi- 
 niftry (whether wifely or not) as I always un- 
 derftood the matter, on the faith and on the 
 principles of that declaration. 
 
 As long as thefe powers flattered themfelves 
 that the meaace of force would produce the ek 
 feel: of force, they acted on thofe declarations': 
 but when their menaces failed of fuccefs, their 
 efforts took a new direction. It did not appear 
 to them that virtue and heroifm ought to be pur- 
 chafed by millions of rix-dollars. It is a dreadful 
 
 * See Declaration, Whitehall, O&, 29, 1793. 
 
 truth,
 
 ( 144 ) 
 
 truth, hut it is a truth that cannot be concealed; 
 in ability, in dexterity, in the diftinctnefs of their 
 views, the Jacobins are our fuperiours. They fa\v 
 the thing right from the very beginning. Whatr 
 -ever were the firft motives to the war among 
 politicians, they law that it is in it's fpirit, and 
 for it's objects, a civil war ; and as fuch they 
 purfued it. It is a war between the partizans 
 of the antient, civil, moral, and political order 
 of Europe againft a feet of fanatical and ambi- 
 tious atheifts which means to change them all. \ 
 It is not France extending a foreign empire over 
 other nations : it is a feet aiming at univerfal / 
 empire, and beginning with the conqueft of 
 France. The leaders of that feet fecured the 
 centre of Europe ; and that fecured, they knew, 
 that whatever might be the event of battles and 
 fieges, their caitfe was victorious. Whether it's 
 territory had a litcle more or a little lefs peeled 
 from it's ftirface, or whether an ifland or two 
 was detached from it's commerce, to them was 
 of little moment. The conqueft of France was 
 a glorious acquifition. That once well laid as 
 a balis of empire, opportunities never could be 
 wanting to regain or to replace what had been 
 loft, and dreadfully to avenge themfelves on tfye 
 faction of their adverfaries. 
 
 They
 
 ( '45 1 
 
 They faw it was a civil war. It was their bu- 
 finefs to perfuade their adverfaries that it ought 
 to be a foreign war. The Jacobins every where 
 fet up a cry againft the new crufade ; and they 
 intrigued with effect in the cabinet, in the field, 
 and in every private fociety in Europe. Their 
 tafk was not difficult. The condition of Princes, 
 and fometimes of firft Minifters too, is to 
 be pitied. The creatures of the defk, and 
 the creatures of favour, had no relifli for 
 the principles of the manifeftoes. They pro- 
 mifed no governments, no regiments, no reve- 
 nues from whence emoluments might arife, by 
 perquiiite or by grant. In truth, the tribe of 
 vulgar politicians are the loweft of our fpecies. 
 There is no trade fo vile and mechanical as go- 
 vernment in their hands. Virtue is not their 
 habit. They are out of themfelves in any courfe 
 of conduct recommended only by confcience 
 and glory. A large, liberal and profpeftive 
 view of the interefts of States pafles with them 
 for romance ; and the principles that recom- 
 mend it for the wanderings of a difordered 
 imagination. The calculators compute them 
 out of their fenfes. The jefters and buffoons 
 ihame them out of every thing grand and ele- 
 vated. Littlenefs in object and in means, t 
 them appears foundnefs and fobriety. They think 
 there is nothing worth purfuit, but that which 
 U they
 
 ( '46 ) 
 
 they can handle j which they can meafure with 
 a two -foot rule; which they can tell upon ten 
 
 fingers. 
 
 Without the principles of the Jacobins, per- 
 haps without any principles at all, they played the 
 game of that fadtion. There was a beaten road 
 before them. The Powers of Europe were arm- 
 ed ; France had always appeared dangerous ; the 
 war was eafily diverted from France as a fac- 
 tion, to France as a flate. The Princes were 
 eaiily taught -to flide back into their old 
 habitual courfe of politicks. They were eafily 
 led to confider the flames that were confuming 
 France, not as a warning to protect their own 
 buildings, (which were without any party wall, 
 and linked by a contignation into the edifice 
 of France,) as an happy occafion for pillag- 
 ing the goods, and for carrying off the materials 
 of their neighbour's houfe. Their provident fears 
 were changed into avaricious hopes. They car- 
 ried on their new defigns without feeming to 
 abandon the principles of their old policy. They 
 pretended to leek, or they flattered themfelves 
 that they fought, in the acceflion of new for- 
 trelies, and new territories, a defenfive fecurity. 
 But the fecurity wanted was againft a kind of 
 power, which was not fo truly dangerous in it's 
 fjrtreftes nor in it's territories, as in it's fpirit and 
 
 it's
 
 { '47 ) 
 
 it's principles. They aimed, or pretended to 
 aim, at defending themfelves againft a danger, 
 from which there can be no fecurity in any de- 
 fenjive plan. If armies and fortrefics were a de- 
 fence againft Jacobinifm, Louis the Sixteenth 
 would this day reign a powerful monarch over 
 an happy people. 
 
 This error obliged them, even in their oflfen- 
 five operations, to adopt a plan of war, againft 
 the fuccefs of which there was fomething little 
 fhort of mathematical demonftration. They 
 refuted to take any ftep which might ftrike at 
 the heart of affairs. They feemed unwilling to 
 wound the enemy in any vital part. They 
 acted through the whole, as if they really wifhed 
 the confervation of the Jacobin power ; as what 
 might be more favourable than the lawful Go- 
 vernment to the attainment of the petty objects 
 they looked for. They always kept on the cir- 
 cumference; and the wider and remoter the circle 
 was, the more eagerly they chofe it as their fphere 
 of action in this centrifugal war. The plan they 
 purfued, in it's nature demanded great length of 
 time. In it's execution, they, who went the near- 
 eft way to work, were obliged to cover an incre- 
 dible extent of country. It left to the enemy 
 every means of dcftroying this extended line of 
 wcakncfs. Ill fuccefs in any part was fure to cje- 
 U z ' feat
 
 feat the effect of the whole. This is true of Aut~ 
 tria. It is frill more true of England. On this 
 falfe plan, even good fortune, by further weak- 
 ening the victor, put him but the further off 
 from his object. 
 
 As long as there was any appearance of fuc- 
 cefs, the fpirit of aggrandizement, and confe- 
 quently the fpirit of mutual jealoufy feized upon 
 all the coalefced Powers. Some fought an ao 
 ceflion of territory at the expence of France, 
 fome at the expence of each other ; fome at the 
 expence of third parties ; and when the vicifli- 
 tude of difafter took it's turn, they found com- 
 mon diftrefs a treacherous bond of faith and 
 friendship. 
 
 The greateft fkill conducting the greateft mi- 
 litary apparatus has been employed j but it 
 has been worfe than ufelefsly employed, 
 through the falfe policy of the war. The ope- 
 rations of the field fuffered by the errors of the 
 Cabinet. If the fame fpirit continues when 
 peace is made, the peace will fix and perpetuate 
 all the errors of the war ; becaufe it will be 
 made upon the fame falfe principle. What 
 has been loft in the field, in the field may be 
 regained. An arrangement of peace in it's na- 
 ture is a permanent fettlement ; it is the effect 
 
 of
 
 ( 149* ) 
 
 of counfel and deliberation, and not of for- 
 tuitous events. If built upon a bafis funda- 
 mentally erroneous, it can only be retrievetl 
 by fome of thofe unforefeen difpofitions, which 
 the all-wife but myfterious Governor of the 
 World, fometimes interpofes, to fnatch nations 
 from ruin. It would not be pious error, but 
 mad and impious prefumption for any one to 
 truft in an unknown order of difpenfations., in 
 defiance of the rules of prudence, which are 
 formed upon the known march of the ordinary 
 providence of God. 
 
 It was not of that fort of war that I was 
 amongft the lead confiderable, but amongfl the 
 moft zealous advifers ; and it is not by the fort 
 of peace now talked of, that I with it concluded. 
 It would anfwer no great purpofe to enter into 
 the particular errours of the war. The whole has 
 been but one errour. It was but nominally a 
 war of alliance. As the combined powers pur- 
 lued it, there was nothing to hold an alli- 
 ance together. There could be no tie of 
 honour, in a fociety for pillage. There could be 
 no tie of a common intereft where the object did 
 not offer fuch a divifion amongft the parties, as 
 could well give them a warm concern in the 
 gains of each other, or could indeed form fuch 
 a body of equivalents, as might make one of 
 
 them
 
 them willing to abandon a feparate object of 
 his ambition for the juftification of any other 
 member of the alliance. The partition of Poland 
 offered an object of fpoil in which the parties 
 wight agree. They were circumjacent ; and 
 each might take a portion convenient to his own 
 territory. They might difpute about the value 
 of their feveral mares, but the contiguity to 
 each of the demandants always furnifhed the 
 means of an adjuftmcnt. Though hereafter the 
 world will have caufe to rue this iniquitous 
 meafure, and they mod who were moft con- 
 cerned in it, for the moment, there was where- 
 withal in the object to prtferve peace amongft 
 confederates in wrong. But the fpoii of France, 
 did not afford the fame facilities for accom- 
 modation. What might fatisfy the Houfe of 
 Auftria in a Flemifh frontier afforded no equi- 
 valent to tempt the cupidity of the King of 
 Prufiia. What might be defired by Great Bri- 
 tain in the Weft-Indies, muft be coldly and 
 remotely, if at all, felt as an inured, at Vienna j 
 and it would be felt as fomething worfe than a 
 negative intereft at Madrid. Auftria, long pof- 
 fefled with unwife and dangerous defigns on 
 Italy, could not be very much in earned about 
 the confervatkm of the old patrimony of the 
 Houfe of Savoy : and Sardinia, who owed to 
 an Italian force all her means of fliuuing out 
 
 France
 
 France from Italy, of which (he has been fup- 
 pofed to hold the key, would not purchafe the 
 means of flrength upon one fide by yielding it 
 on the other. She would not readily give the pof- 
 feflion of Novara for the hope of Savoy. No 
 continental Power was willing to lofe any of 
 it's continental objects for the encreafe of the 
 naval power of Great Britain ; and Great Bri- 
 tain would not give up any of the objects (he 
 fought for as the means of an encreafe to her na- 
 val power, to further their aggrandizement. 
 
 ' "U;o ' j> ' '-] ' f 
 
 The moment this war came to be confidered \ 
 as a war merely of profit, the actual circum- 
 ilances are fuch, that it never could become 
 really a war of alliance. Nor can the peace be a 
 peace of alliance, until things are put upon their 
 right bottom. 
 
 . [ fv.j/V- 3- ->. t)ii s ' "">'! 1' ""<'/ 
 
 I don*t find it denied, that when a treaty i$ 
 entered into for peace, a demand will be made 
 on the Regicides to furrender a great part of 
 their conquefts on the Continent. Will they, 
 in the prefent (late of the war, make that fur- 
 render without an equivalent ? This continental 
 ceflion muft of courfe be made in favour of that 
 party in the alliance, that has fuflfered lofles. 
 That party has nothing to furnifn towards an 
 equivalent. What equivalent, for inftance, has 
 
 Holland
 
 Holland to offer, who has loft her all? What 
 equivalent can come from the Emperor, every 
 part of whofe territories contiguous to France, 
 is already within the pale of the Regicide domi- 
 nion ? What equivalent has Sardinia to offer for 
 Savoy and for Nice, I may fay for her whole being? 
 What has me taken from the faction of France? 
 She has loft very near her all ; and me has gained 
 nothing. What equivalent has Spain to give ? 
 Alas ! fhe has already paid for her own ranfom 
 the fund of equivalent, and a dreadful equiva- 
 lent it is, to England and to herfelf. But I put 
 Spain out of the queftion. She is a province of 
 the Jacobin Empire, and fhe muft make peace 
 or war according to the orders me receives from 
 the Directory of AfiafTms. In effect and fub- 
 ftance, her Crown is a fief of Regicide. 
 
 .{(:',J!9d ' 
 
 Whence" then can the compenfation be de- 
 manded ? Undoubtedly from that power which 
 alone has madefome conquefts. That power. is> 
 England. Will the allies then give away their 
 antient patrimony, that England may keep 
 Jflands '.in the Weft- Indies ? They never can 
 protract the war in good earneft for that object? 
 nor can they act in concert with us, in our rcfufal, 
 to grant any thing towards their redemption. In 
 that cafe we are thus fituated. Either we muft 
 give Europe, bound hand and foot to France ;, 
 
 or
 
 t '53 ) 
 
 6r we muft quit the Weft Indies without any 
 one object, great or (mall, towards indemnity 
 and fecurity. I repeat it without any advantage 
 whatever: becaufe, fuppofing that our conqueft 
 could comprize all that France ever poiTeffed 
 in the tropical America, it nevercan amount in 
 any fair eftimation to a fair equivalent for Hol- 
 land, for the Auftrian Netherlands, for the 
 lower Germany, that is for the whole antient 
 kingdom or circle of Burgundy, now under the 
 yoke of Regicide, to fay nothing of almoft all 
 Italy under the fame barbarous domination* 
 If we treat in the prefent lituation of things, we 
 have nothing in our hands that can redeem 
 Europe. Nor is the Emperor, as I have ob- 
 ferved; more rich in the fund of equivalents. 
 
 ff we look to our ftock in the Eaftern world, 
 our moft valuable and fyftematick acquifitions 
 are made in that quarter. Is it from France 
 they are made? France has but one or two con- 
 temptible factories, fubfifting by the offal of 
 the private fortunes -of Englilh individuals ro 
 fupport them, in any part of India. I look on 
 the taking of the Cape of Good Hope as the 
 fecuring of a poft of great moment. It does 
 honour to thofe who planned, and to thofe who 
 executed that enterprize: but I fpeak of it al- 
 ways as compararively good; as good as any 
 X thing
 
 ( 154 5 
 
 thing can be in a fcheme of war that repels us 
 from a center, and employs all our forces where 
 nothing can be finally decifive. But giving, as 
 I freely give, every poffible credit to thefe eaftern 
 conquefts, I alk one queftion, on whom are 
 they made? It is evident, that if we can keep 
 our eaftern conquefts, we keep them not at the 
 expence of France-, but at the expence of Hol- 
 land our a!fy; of Holland the immediate caufe 
 of the war, the nation whom we had un- 
 dertaken to protect, and not of the Republic 
 which it was our buiinefs to deftroy. If we re- 
 turn the African and the Aiiatick conquefts, we 
 put them into the hands of a nominal State,, (to 
 that Holland is reduced^ unable to retain them; 
 and which will virtually leave them under the 
 direction of France. If we withhold them, 
 Holland declines ftill more as a State; and the 
 lofes fo much carrying trade and that means, of 
 keeping up the finall degree of naval power fhe 
 holds ; for which policy, and not for any com- 
 mercial gain, me maintains the Cape, or any 
 fcttlement beyond it. In that cafe, refentment, 
 faction, and even neceffity will throw her more 
 and more into the power of the new mifchievous 
 Rcpublick. But on the probable ftate of Hol- 
 land, I mall fay more, when in this correfpon- 
 clcnce I come to talk over with you the ftate in 
 
 which
 
 t 155 ] 
 
 which any fort of Jacobin peace will leave all 
 Europe. 
 
 So far as to the Eaft Indies. 
 
 As to the Weil Indies, indeed as to either, if 
 we look for matter of exchange in order to ran- 
 ibm Europe, it is cafy to fhew that we have 
 taken a terribly roundabout road. I cannot 
 conceive, even if, for the fake of holding 
 conquefts- there, we fhould refufe to redeem 
 Holland, and the Auftrian Netherlands, and the 
 hither Germany, that Spain, merely as fhe is 
 Spain, (and forgetting that the Regicide Am- 
 baffador governs at Madrid,/ will fee with per- 
 fect fatisfa<5Hon, Great Britain fole miflrefs of 
 the Ifles. In truth it appears to me, that, when 
 we come to balance our account, we fhall find 
 in the propofed peace only the pure, iimple, and 
 unendowed charms of Jacobin amity. We (hall 
 have the fatisfaclion of knowing, that no blood 
 of treafure has been fpared by the allies for lup~ 
 port of the Regicide fyftem. We fhall reflecT: 
 at leifure on one great truth, that it was ten 
 times more eafy totally to deftroy the fyftem it- 
 fclf, than when eftabliflied, it would be to re- 
 duce it's powerand that this Republick, moft 
 formidable abroad, was, of all things, the weak^ 
 eft at home; That her frontier was terrible--- 
 X2 hr
 
 -i 156 ) 
 
 her integer feeble that it was matter of choice 
 to attack her where fhe is invincible; and to 
 fpare her where Ihe was ready to diffblve by her 
 own internal diforders. We fhall reflect, that 
 our plan was good neither for offence nor de^ 
 fence, ; V; 
 
 My dear Friend, I hold it impoflible that 
 thefe confiderations fhould have efcaped the 
 Statefmen-on both fides of the water, and on 
 both fides of the houfe of Commons. How a 
 queftion of peace can be difcufled without hav- 
 ing them in view, I cannot imagine. If you or 
 others fee a way out of thefe difficulties I am. 
 happy. I fee indeed a fund from whence equi- 
 valents will be propofed. I fee it. But I can- 
 not juft now touch it. It is a queftion of high 
 moment. It opens another Iliad of woes to Eu- 
 rope. 
 
 Such-is the time propofed for making a com- 
 mon political peace, to which no one circumftance 
 is propitious. As to the grand principle of &e 
 peace; it is left, as if by common confent, 
 wholly out of the queftion. 
 
 V 
 
 Viewing things in this light, I have frequently 
 funk into a degree of defpondency and dejec- 
 tion hardly to be dcfcribed ; yet out of the pro- 
 
 foundeft
 
 ( 157 ) 
 
 foundeft depths of this defpair, an i 
 which I have in vain endeavoured to refift, 
 has ' 7 :ged me to raife one feeble cry againft 
 this unfortunate coalition which is formed at 
 home, in order to make a coalition with France, 
 fubverfive of the whole ancient order of the 
 world. No difafter of war, no calamity of feafoa 
 could ever ilrike me with half the horror which 
 I felt from what is introduced to us by this 
 junction of parties, under the foothing name of 
 peace. We are apt to fpeak of & low and pu- 
 fillanimous fpirit as the .ordinary caufe by which 
 dubious wars terminate in humiliating treaties. 
 It inhere the direct contrary. I am perfectly 
 uftoniihed at the boldnefs of character, at the 
 intrepidity of mind, the firmnefs of nerve, in 
 thofe who are able with deliberation to face the 
 perils of Jacobin fraternity. 
 
 This fraternity is indeed fo terrible in it's 
 nature, and in it's manifeft confequences, that 
 there is no way of quieting our apprehenfions 
 about it, but by totally putting it out of fight, 
 by fubftituting for it, through a fort of pcriphra- 
 fis, fomething of an ambiguous quality, and 
 defcribing fuch a connection under the terms of 
 " the ufual relations of 'peace and amity ;" By this 
 means the propofed fraternity is huftled in the 
 crowd of thofe treaties, which imply no change 
 
 in
 
 ( 158 
 
 in the public law of Europe, and which do not 
 upon fyftem affect the interior condition of na- 
 tions. It is confounded with thofe conventions 
 in which matters of difpute among fovereign 
 powers are compromifed, by the taking offa duty 
 more or lefs, by the furrender of a frontier town, 
 or a difputed diftrict on the one fide or the other ; 
 by pacTio'ns in which the pretertfions of families 
 are- fettled, (as by a conveyancer, making family 
 fubftitutions and fucceffions) without any alte- 
 ration in the Jaws, manners, religion, privileges 
 and cuftoms of the cities- or territories which 
 are the'fubjecl: of fuch arrangements. 
 viio-vritq tn.i; 1 .v t-hio'j '> >> n/r} sijit^) 
 
 AH this body of old conventions, compofing 
 the vail and voluminous collection: called the 
 'tar 'ps diplomatique, forms the code or ftatute law, 
 as the methodized reafonings of the great pub- 
 licifts and jurifts form the digeft and jurifpru- 
 dence, of the Chrift'ian world'. In thefe trea- 
 fures are to be found the ufital relations of peace 
 and amity in civilized -Europe^ and there \hc 
 relations of ancient France were to be foimd 
 amongft the rell. 
 ?.;*!? ,\ j'.lku > ^iJOi.'M'lujJs fir. lo ^jtiiiii j.'nr.^ ,, T; 
 
 The prefent fyftem in' France is not the an- 
 eicnt France. It is not the ancient France with 
 ordinary ambition and ordinary means. It is not 
 a new power of an -old kind. -It i* a new power o 
 
 a new
 
 a new fpecies. When fuch a queftionable mapc 
 is to be admitted for the firft time into the bro- 
 therhood of Chriftendom, it is not a mere matter 
 of idle curiofity to confider how far it is in it's na- 
 ture alliable with the reft, or whether " the re- 
 lations of peace and amity" with this new State 
 are likely to be of the fame nature with the 
 nfual relations of the States of Europe. 
 
 The Revolution in France had the relation 
 of France to other nations as one of it's princi- 
 pal objects. The changes made by that Revo- 
 lution were not the better to accommodate her 
 to the old and ufual relations, but to produce 
 new ones. The Revolution was made, not to 
 make France free, but to make her formid- 
 able ; not to make her a neighbour, but a mif- 
 trefs ; not to make her more obfervant of laws, 
 but to put her in a condition to impofe them. 
 To make France truly formidable it was necef- 
 fary that*France mould be new-modelled. They 
 who have not followed the train of the late pro- 
 ceedings, have been led by deceitful reprefenta- 
 tions (which deceit made a part in the plan) to 
 conceive that this totally new model of a ftate 
 in which nothing efcaped a change, was made 
 with a view to it's internal relations only. 
 
 la
 
 In the Revolution of France two forts of mefi 
 were principally concerned in giving a character 
 and determination to it's purfuits j the philofo* 
 phers and the politicians. They took different 
 ways, but they met in the fame end. The philo- 
 fophers had one predominant object, which they 
 parfued with a fanatical fury, that is, the utter 
 extirpation- of religion. To that every queftixm of 
 empire was fubordinate. They had rather domi- 
 neer in a parim of Atheifts, than rule over aChrif- 
 tian world. Their temporal ambition was wholly 
 fubfervient to their profelytizing fpirit, in which 
 they were not exceeded by Mahomet himfelf. 
 
 They who have made but fuperficial ftudies 
 in the Natural Hiftory of the human mind, 
 have been taught to look on religious opinions 
 as the only caufe of emhufiaftick teal, and fec- 
 tarian propagation. But there is no doctrine 
 whatever, on which men can warm, that is not 
 capable of the very fame effect. The focial 
 nature of man impels him to propagate his prin- 
 ciples, as much as phyiical impulfes urge him to 
 propagate his kind. The paflions give zeal and 
 vehemence. The nnderftanding beftows defign 
 and fyftem. The whole man moves under the 
 d.ifciplme of his opinions. Religion is among 
 the moft powerful caufes of enthufiafm. When 
 
 any
 
 any thing concerning it becomes an object of 
 much meditation, it cannot be indifferent to the 
 mind. They who do not love religion, hate it. 
 The reb.els to God perfectly abhor the Author 
 of their being. They hare him " with all their 
 " heart, with all their mind, with all their foul, 
 " and with all their flrength." He never pre- 
 fents himfelf to their thoughts, but to menace and 
 alarm them. They cannot flrike the Sun out 
 of Heaven, but they are able to raife a fmouider- 
 ing fmoke that obfcures him from their own 
 eyes. Not being able to revenge themfelves on 
 God, they have a delight in vicarioufly defacing, 
 degrading, torturing, and tearing in pieces his 
 image in man. Let no one judge of them 
 by what he has conceived of them, when they 
 were not incorporated, and had no lead. They 
 were then only paffengers in a common vehicle. 
 They were then carried along with the general 
 motion of religion in the community, and with- 
 out being aware of it, partook of it's influence, 
 in that fituation, at worft their nature was left 
 free to counterwork their principles. They de- 
 fpaired of giving any very general currency to 
 their opinions. They conlidered them as a re- 
 ferved privilege for the chofen few. But when 
 the poffibility of dominion, lead, and propaga- 
 tion prefented themfelves, and that the ambi- 
 tion, which before had fo often made them hy- 
 Y pocrtes,
 
 pocrites, might rather gain than lofe by a daring 
 avowal of their fentiments, then the nature of 
 this infernal fpirir, which has " evil for it's 
 good" appeared in it's full perfection. Nothing 
 indeed but the pofleffion of fome power can 
 with any certainty difcover, what at the bottom, 
 is the true character of any man. Without read- 
 ing the fpeeches of Vergniaux, Frangais of 
 Nantz, Ifnard, and fome others of that fort, it 
 would not be eafy to conceive the paflion, ran- 
 cour, and malice of their tongues and hearts 
 They worked themfelves up to a perfect phrenzy 
 againft religion and all it's profeffors. They 
 tore the reputation of the Clergy to pieces by 
 their infuriated declamations and invectives, be- 
 fore they lacerated their bodies by their maf- 
 facres. This fanatical atheifm left out, we omit 
 the principal feature in the French Revolution, 
 and a principal confideration with regard to the 
 "effects to be expected from a peace with it. 
 
 The other fort of men were the politicians, 
 To them who had little or not at all reflected on 
 the fubject, religion was in itfelf no object of 
 love or hatred. Theydifbelieved it, and that was 
 all. Nentral with regard to that object, they took 
 the fide which in the prefent (late of things 
 might befir anfwer their purpofes. They foon 
 found that they could not do without the philo- 
 
 fpphers i
 
 fopher? ; and the philofophcrs Torn made them 
 fenfible, that the dctlrXidlion of religion was to 
 fupply them with means of c^nqueft fit ft at 
 home, and then abroad. The philofophers 
 were the active internal agitators, and iup- 
 plied the fpirit. and principles: the fecond 
 gave the practical direction. Sometimes the one 
 predominated in the com portion, fometimes 
 the other. The only difference between them 
 was in the neceflity of concealing the general de- 
 ilgn for a time, and in theit dealing with foreign 
 nations ; the fanaticks going ftrait toiward and 
 openly, the politic! ns by the iurer mode of 
 zigzag. In the" courfe of event:-, this, among 
 other cai.fes, produced fierce and bloody con- 
 tentions between ihtm. But at the bottom 
 they thoroughly agreed in ail the objecls of am- 
 bition and irrehgion, and fubllanually in all the 
 means of promoting thefe ends. 
 
 Without queftion, to bring about the un- 
 exampled event of the French revolution, the 
 concurrence of a very great number of views 
 and pafii MS was ntxeliary. In that ftupen- 
 dous wo'k, no o;;e principle by which the hu- 
 man m;nd may have, it's faculties at once in- 
 vigorated and depraved, was left unemployed: 
 but I can fpeak it to a certainty, and fupport 
 it by undoubted proofs, -that the ruling prin- 
 Yz ciple
 
 ( '64 ) 
 
 ciple of thofe who acted in the Revolution as 
 Jtatefmetty had the exterior aggrandizement of 
 France as their ultimate end in the moft minute 
 part of the internal changes that were made. 
 We, who of late years, have been drawn from an 
 attention to foreign affairs by the importance of 
 our domeftic difcuffions, cannot eafily form a 
 conception of the general eagernefs of the active 
 and energetick part of the French nation itfelf, 
 the moft active and energetick of all nations pre- 
 vious to it's revolution, upon that fubject. I am 
 convinced that the foreign fpeculators in France, 
 under the old Government, were twenty to 
 one of the fame defcription then or now in 
 England ; and few of that defcription there were, 
 who did not cmuloufly let forward the Revolu- 
 tion. The whole offi ial fyftem, particularly in 
 the diplomatic part, the regulars, the irregulars, 
 down to the clerks in office, (a corps, without 
 all comparifon, more numerous than the fame 
 amongft us) co-operated in it. All the in- 
 triguers in foreign politicks, all the fpies, all 
 the intelligencers, actually or late in function, 
 all the candidates for that fort of employment, 
 acted folely upon that principle. 
 
 On that fyftem of aggrandizement there 
 was but one mind : but two violent fa<5tions 
 arofe about the means. The firft wifhed 
 
 France,
 
 France, diverted from the politicks of the 
 continent, to attend folely to her marine, 
 to feed it by an ertcreafe of commerce, and 
 thereby to overpower England on her own 
 element. They contended, that if England 
 were difabled, the Powers on the continent 
 would fail into their proper fubordination; that 
 it was England which deranged the whole conti- 
 nental fyftem of Europe. The others, who were 
 by far the more numerous, though not the moft 
 outwardly prevalent at Court, confidered this 
 plan for France as contrary to her genius, her 
 lituation, and her natural means. They agreed 
 as to the ultimate object, the reduction of 
 the Britilh power, and if poflible, it's naval 
 power ; but they confidered an afcendancy on 
 the continent as a neceflary preliminary to that 
 undertaking. They argued, that the proceed- 
 ings of England herfelf had proved the found- 
 nefs of this policy. That her greater! and ableft 
 Statefmen had not confidered the fupport of a 
 continental balance againft France as a devia- 
 tion from the principle of her naval power, but 
 as one of the mod effectual modes of carrying 
 it into effect. That fuch had been her po- 
 licy ever fince the Revolution; during which pe- 
 riod the naval ftrength of Great Britain had 
 gone on encreating in the direct ratio of 
 her interference in the politicks of the conti- 
 nent.
 
 With much ftronger reafon ought the 
 politicks of France to take the fame direction; 
 is well for puiiuing objects which her fituation 
 would dictate to her, though England had no 
 exigence, as for counteracting the politicks of 
 that nation ; to France continental politicks are 
 primary} they looked on them only of fecon- 
 dfiry coafidei'ation to England, and however 
 nece&iry, but as means neceifary to an end. 
 
 What is truly aftoniming, the partizans of 
 thofe two oppofite fyftems wtre at once preva- 
 lent, and at once employed, and in the very 
 fame tranfactions, the one oftenlibly, the other 
 fccretly, during the latter part ot the reign of 
 Lewis XV. Nor was there one Co irt in which 
 an Ambaffador refided on the part of the Mi- 
 niflers, in which another as a fpy on him did 
 not alfo refide on the part of the King They 
 who purfued the fcheme for keeping peace on 
 the continent, and particularly with Auftria, 
 acting officially and publii.kly, the other fac- 
 tion counteracting and oppoling them. Thefc 
 private agents were continually going from their 
 function to the Baftille, and from the Baftiile 
 to employment, ai.d favour again. An in- 
 extricable cabal was formed, fome of persons 
 of rank, others of iubordmates. But by this 
 
 means
 
 ( 167 ) 
 
 means the, corps of politicians was augmented 
 in number, and the whole formed a body of 
 adive, adventuring, ambitious, difcontented 
 people, defpifing the regular Miniftry, defpif- 
 ing the Courts at which they were employed, 
 defpifmg the Court which employed them. 
 
 The unfortunate Louis the Sixteenth * was 
 not the firft caufe of the evil by which he fuffer- 
 ed. He came to it, as to a fort of inheritance, 
 by the falfe politicks of his immediate predecef- 
 
 * It may be right to do juftice to Louis XVI. He did 
 what he could to deftroy the double diplomacy of France. 
 He had all the fecret correfpondence burnt, except one 
 piece, which was called, Conjectures ra'-fonntes fur la. Situation 
 Je la France dans If. Syjieme Pulitique de V Europe ; a work exe- 
 <:u*"ed by M. Favier, under the direction of Count BrogHe- 
 A (ingle copy of this was faid'to have been found in the Ca- 
 binet of Louis XVI. It was publifhed with fome fubfequent 
 ftate papers of Vergennes : ,.-Tupgot, and others, as, "Anew 
 Benefit of the Revolution ;" and the advertifement to the 
 publication ends with the following words. " II f era facile 
 de fe convaincre, qu Y COMPRIS MEME LA REVOLUTION, e 
 grande partie, ON TROUVE DANS CES MEMOIRES ET SES CON- 
 JECTURES LE GBSME DE TOUT CE Qtl' ARRIVA AUJOURD*- 
 -HUl, & qu'on nepeut pas fans ks avoir fas, etre lien aufait des 
 interctS) & mane des vues afluelles des diverfes puiffances d* 
 I 1 Europe" The book is entitled, Potitiqut de teas le s Cabinets 
 de I' Europe pendant les regnes de Louis XV. 9" Louis XVL 
 It is altogether very curious, and wortfe reading. 
 
 for
 
 C 168 ) 
 
 for. This fyftem of dark and perplexed intri- 
 gue had come to it's perfection before he came 
 to the throne: and even then the Revolution 
 flrongly operated in all it's caufes. 
 
 There was no point on which the difcontented 
 diplomatic politicians fo bitterly arraigned their 
 Cabinet, as for the decay of French influ- 
 ence in all others. From quarrelling with 
 the Court, they began to complain of Mo- 
 narchy itfelf ; as a fyftem of Government too 
 variable for any regular plan of national ag- 
 grandizement. They obferved, that in that 
 fort of regimen too much depended on the 
 perfonal character of the Prince; that the vi- 
 ciflkudes produced by the fucceffion of Princes 
 of a different character, and even the viciflitudes 
 produced in the fame man, by the different views 
 and inclinations belonging to youth, manhood, 
 and age, difturbe'd and diffracted the policy of 
 a country made by nature for extenfive empire, 
 or what was ftill more to their tafle, for that 
 fort of general over-ruling influence which pre- 
 pared empire or fupplied the place of it. They 
 had continually in their hands the obfervations 
 Q{ Machiavel on Livy. They had Montefquieu's 
 Grandeur C5? Decadence des Romains as a manual ; 
 and they compared with mortification the fyf- 
 tematic proceedings of a Roman fenate with the 
 
 fluctuations
 
 ( 169 ) 
 
 fluctuations of a Monarchy. They obferved, 
 the very fmall additions of territory which all 
 the power of France, actuated by all the ambi- 
 tion of France, had acquired in two centuries. 
 The Romans had frequently acquired more in 
 a fingle year. 1 hey feve'rely and in every part 
 of it criticifed therein of Louis the XlVth, 
 whofe irregular and defultory ambiti'on had 
 more provoked than endangered Europe. In- 
 deed, they who will be at the pains of feri- 
 oufly confidering the hiftory of that period will 
 fee, that thofe French politicians had fome rea- 
 fon. They who will not take the trouble of 
 reviewing it through all it's wars and all it's 
 negociations, will confult the fhort but judicious 
 criticifm of the Marquis de Montalambert on 
 that fubjed. It may be read feparately from his 
 ingenious fyflem of fortification and military 
 defence, on the practical merit of which I am 
 unable to form a judgment. 
 
 The diplomatick politicians of whom I fpeak, 
 and who formed by far the majority in that clafs, 
 made difadvantageous comparifons even between 
 their more legal and formalifins; Monarchy, 
 and the monarchies of other (btes, as a fyf- 
 tem of power and influence. They obferved, 
 that France not only loft ground herfelf, but 
 through the languor and unfteadinefs of her pur- 
 Z fuits,
 
 (bits, and from her aiming through commerce at 
 naval force which me never could attain without 
 lofing more on one fide than (he could gain on 
 the other, three great powers, each" of them (as 
 military dates) capable of balancing her, had 
 grown up on the continent. Ruffia and Pruffia 
 had been created almofl>within memory; and 
 Auftria, though not a new power, and even cur- 
 tailed in territory, was by the very collifion in 
 which (he loft that territory, greatly improved 
 in her military difcipline and force. Dur- 
 ing the reign of Maria Therefa the interior 
 ceconomy of the country was made more to cor- 
 refpond with the fupport of great armies than 
 formerly it had been. As to Pruffia, a merely 
 military power, they obferved that one war had 
 enriched her with as confiderable a conqueft as 
 France had acquired in centuries. Ruffia had 
 broken the Turkim power by which Auftria 
 might be, as formerly (he had been, balanced 
 in favour of France. They felt it with pain, 
 that the two northern powers of Sweden and 
 Denmark were in general under the fway of 
 Rufliaj or that at beft, France kept up a very 
 doubtful conflict, with many fluctuations of 
 fortune, and at an enormous expence in Swe- 
 den. In Holland, the French party feemed. 
 if not extinguished, at lead utterly obfcured, 
 and kept under by a Stadtholder, fometimes 
 leaning for fupport on Great Britain, fometimes
 
 on Pruffia, fometimes on both, never on France. 
 Even the fpreading of the Bourbon family had 
 become merely a family accommodation ; and had 
 little effect on the national politicks. This alli- 
 ance, they faid, extinguifhed Spain by deftroying 
 all it's energy, without adding anything to the 
 real power of France in the acceffion of the 
 forces of it's great rival. In Italy, the fame family 
 accommodation, the fame national infignificance 
 were equally vifible. What cure for the radical 
 weaknefs of the French Monarchy, to which all 
 the means which wit could devife, or nature 
 and fortune could beftow, towards univerfal 
 empire, was not of force to give life, or vigour, 
 or confiftency, but in a republick ? Out the 
 Word came j and it never went back. 
 
 Whether they reafoned fight or wrong, or 
 that there was fome mixture of right and wrong 
 in their reafoning, I am fure, that in this man- 
 ner they felt and reafoned. The different ef- 
 fects of a great military and ambitious repub- 
 lick, and of a monarchy of the fame defcripticvn 
 \vere conflantly in their mouths. The principle 
 was ready to operate when opportunities mould 
 offer, which few of them indeed forefaw in the 
 extent in which they were afterwards prefented 5 
 but thefe opportunities, in fome degree or 
 other, they all ardently wiftied for. 
 
 Z z When
 
 When I was in Paris in 1773, the treaty of 
 1756 between Auftria and France was deplored 
 as a national calamity; becaufe it united France 
 in friendfhip with a Power, at whofe expence 
 alone they could hops any continental aggran- 
 dizement. When the firft partition of Poland 
 \vasmade, in which France had no (bare, and 
 which had farther aggrandized every one of the 
 three Powers of which they were moft jealous, 
 I found them in a perfect phrenzy of rage and 
 indignation : Not that they were hurt at the 
 fhocking and uncoloured violence and i-ijuftice 
 of that partition, but at the debility, improvi- 
 dence, and want of activity in their Govern- 
 ment, in not preventing it as a means of aggran- 
 dizement to their rivals, or in not contriving, 
 by exchanges of fume kind or other, to obtain 
 their mare of advantage from that robbery. 
 
 In that or nearly in that ftate of things 
 and of opinions, came the Auftrian match; 
 which promifed to draw the knot, as after- 
 wards in effect it did, ftill more clofely be- 
 tween the old rival houfes. This added ex- 
 ceedingly to their hatred and contempt of 
 their monarchy. It was for this reafon that the 
 late glorious Queen, who on all accounts was 
 formed to produce general love and admiration, 
 and whofe life was as mild and beneficent as her 
 death was beyond example great and heroic, be- 
 came
 
 ( '73 ) 
 
 came fo very foon and fo very much the objeft 
 of an implacable rancour, never to be exrin- 
 guifhed but in her blood. When I wrote my 
 letter in anfwer to M. de Menonville, in the 
 beginning of January, 1791, I had good reafoo. 
 for thinking that this defcription of revolu- 
 tionifts did not fo early norfo fteadily point their 
 murderous defigns at the martyr King as at the 
 Royal Heroine. It was accident, and the mo- 
 mentary depreflion of that pert of the faction, 
 that gave to the hufband the happy priority in 
 death. 
 
 From this their reftlefs defire of an over- rul- 
 ing influence, they bent a very great part of their 
 defigns and efforts to revive the old French party, 
 which was a democratick party in Holland, and 
 to make a revolution there. They were happy at 
 the troubles which the fingular imprudence of 
 Jofeph the Second had ftirred up in the Auf- 
 trian Netherlands. They rejoiced, when they 
 faw him irritate his fubjecls, profefs philo- 
 fophy, fend away the. Dutch garrifons, and 
 difmantle his fortifications. As to Holland, 
 they never forgave either the King or the Mini- 
 ftry, forfuffering that object, which theyjuilly 
 looked on as principal in their defign of reduc- 
 ing-the power of England, to efcape out of their 
 hands. This was the true fecret of the com- 
 mercial treaty, made, on their part, againft all 
 
 the
 
 the old rules and principles of commerce, with 
 a view of diverting the Englilh nation, by apur- 
 fuit of immediate profit, from an attention to 
 the progrefs of France in it's defigns upon that 
 Republic. The fyflem of the ceconomifts, which 
 led to the general opening of commerce, facili- 
 tated that treaty, but did not produce it. They 
 were in defpair when they found that by the 
 vigour of Mr. Pitt, fupported in this point 
 by Mr. Fox and the oppofition, the object, to 
 which they had facrificed their manufactures, 
 was loft to their ambition. This eager de- 
 lire of railing France from the condition into 
 which (he had fallen, as they conceived, from 
 her monarchical imbecillity, had been the main 
 fpring of their precedent interference in that un- 
 happy American quarrel, the bad effects of 
 which to this nation have not, as yet, fully dif- 
 clofed themfelves. 
 
 Thefe fentiments had been long lurking in 
 their breads, though their views were only dif- 
 covered now and then, in heat and as by efcapes; 
 but on this occafion they exploded fuddenly. 
 They were profefled with oftentation, and pro- 
 pagated with zeal. Thefe fentiments were not 
 produced, as fome think, by their American 
 alliance. The American alliance was produced 
 by their republican principles and republican 
 
 policy
 
 ( '75 ) 
 
 policy. This new relation undoubtedly did 
 much. The difcourfes -and cabals that it pro- 
 duced, the intercourfe that it eftablifhed, and 
 above all, the example, which made it feem prac- 
 ticable to eftablim a Republick in a great extent 
 of country, finimed the work, and gave to that 
 part of the Revolutionary faction a degree of 
 ftrength, which required other energies than the 
 late King pofiefied, to refift, or even to reftrain. 
 It fprcad every where ; but it was no where more 
 prcvalcntthan in the heart of the Court. The pa- 
 lace of Verfailles, by it's language, feemed a forum 
 of democracy. To have pointed out to moft of 
 thofe politicians, from their difpoiitions and move- 
 ments, what has iince happened, the fall of their 
 own Monarchy, of their own Laws, of their own 
 Religion, would have been to furnim a motive 
 the more for pufhing forward a fyftem on which 
 ** they confidered all thele things as incumbrances. 
 Such in truth they were. And we have feen them 
 fucceed not only in the destruction of their mo- 
 narchy ; but in all the objects of ambition that they 
 propofed from that deftruction. 
 
 "When I contemplate the fcheme on which 
 France is formed, and when I compare it with 
 thefe fyftems, with which it is, and ever muft be 
 in conflict, thofe things which feem as defects 
 in her polity, are the very things which make 
 me tremble. The States of the Chriftian World 
 have grown up to. ijheir prefcnt magnitude in a
 
 [ i 7 6 r 
 
 great length of time, and by a great variety of 
 accidents. They have been improved to what 
 we fee them with greater or lefs degrees of fe- 
 licity and fkill. Not one of them has been 
 formed upon a regular plan or with any unity 
 of defign. As their Conftitutions are not fyf- 
 tematicalj they have not been directed to any 
 peculiar end, eminently diftinguifhed, and fuper- 
 feding every other. The objects which they em- 
 brace are of the greateft poffiblc variety, and have 
 become in a manner infinite. In all thefe old 
 countries the ftate has been made to the people, and 
 not the people conformed to the ftate. Every ftate 
 lias purfued, not only every fort of focial advan- 
 tage, but it has cultivated the welfare of every indi- 
 vidual. His wants, his wifhes, even his taftes have 
 been confulted. This comprehenlive fchcme, vir- 
 tually produced a degree of perfonal liberty in 
 forms the moft adverfe to it. That liberty was found, 
 under monarchies ftiled abfolute, in a degree un- 
 known to the ancient commonwealths. From 
 hence the powers of all our modern ftates, meet in 
 all their movements, with fome obftruclion. It 
 is therefore no wonder, that when thefe ftates are 
 to be confidered as machines to operate for fome 
 one great end, that this diflipated and balanced 
 force is not eafily concentred, or made to bear 
 with the whole nation upon one point. 
 
 The Britifh State is, without queftion, tha.t 
 which purfues the greateft variety of ends,
 
 ( -77 ) 
 
 and is the leaft difpofed to facrifice any one of 
 them to another, or to the whole. It aims at 
 taking in the entire circle of human defires, and 
 fecuring for them their fair enjoyment. Our le- 
 giflature has been ever clofely connected, in it's moft 
 efficient part, with individual feeling and indivi- 
 dual intereft. Pcrfonal liberty, the moft lively of 
 thefe feelings and the moft important of thefe in-^ 
 terefts, which in other European, countries has 
 rather arifcn from the iyftem of manners and the 
 habitudes of life, than from the laws of the ftate, (in 
 which it flourifhed more from neglect than at- 
 tention) in England, has been a direct object of 
 Government. 
 
 On this principle England would be the weakefl 
 power in the w r hole fyftem. Fortunately, how- 
 ever, the great riches of this kingdom, arifing 
 from a vaicty of caufes, and the difpofition of 
 the people, which is as great to fpend as to accu- 
 mulate, has ealily afforded a difpofeable furplus that 
 gives a mighty momentum to the ftate. This dif- 
 ficulty, with thefe advantages to overcome it, has 
 called forth the talents of the Englifh financiers, 
 who, by the furplus of induftry poured out by pro- 
 digality, have outdone every thing which has been 
 accomplifhed in other nations. The prefcnt Mi- 
 nifter has outdone his predeceflbrs ; and as a 
 Minifter of revenue, is far above my power of 
 praife. But ft ill there are cafes in which Eng- 
 A a land
 
 [ ?8 3 
 
 land feels more than feveral others, (though they 
 all feel) the perplexity of an immenfe body of ba- 
 lanced advantages, and of individual demands, and 
 of foine irregularity in the whole mafs. 
 
 France differs effentially from all thofe Govern^ 
 ments which arc formed without fyftem, which 
 exift by habit, and which are confufed with the 
 multitude, and with the complexity of their pur- 
 fuits. What now ftands as Government in France- 
 is flruck out at a heat. The defign is wicked, im- 
 moral, impious, oppreffive ; but it is fpirited and 
 daring; it is fyftematick; it isfimplc in it's princi- 
 ple; it has unity and coniiftency in perfection. In 
 that country entirely to cut off a branch of com- 
 merce, to extinguifh a manufacture, to deftroy the 
 circulation of money, to violate credit, to fufpend 
 the courfe of argricultuije, even to burn a city, or to 
 lay wafte a province of their own, does not coft them 
 a moment's anxiety. To them, the will, the wifh, 
 the want, the liberty, the toil, the blood of indivi- 
 duals is as nothing. Individuality is left out of 
 their fcheme of Government. The ftate is all in 
 all. Every thing is referred to the production of 
 force ; afterwards every thing is trufted to the ufe of 
 it. It is military in it's principle, in it's maxims, ia 
 it's fpirit, and in all it's movements. The ftate has 
 dominion and conqucft for it's folp objccls ; do- 
 minion over minds by profehtifm, over bodies by 
 - arm?. 
 
 Thus
 
 [ '79 ] 
 
 Thus constituted with an immenfe body of na- 
 tural means, which are leflened in their amount 
 only to be increafed in their effect, France has, 
 fince the accomplifhmcnt of the Revolution, a 
 complete unity in it's direction. It has deftroycd 
 every refource of the State, which depends upon 
 opinion and the good-will of individuals. The 
 riches of convention difappear. The advantages 
 of nature in fome meafure remain; even thefe, I 
 admit, are aftonifhingly leflened; the command 
 over what remains is complete and abfolute. 
 We go about aiking when affignats will expire, 
 and we laugh at the laft price of them. But what 
 fignifies the fate of thofe tickets of defpotifm ? 
 The defpotifm will find defpotick means of fup- 
 ply. They have found the fhort cut to the pro- 
 ductions of Nature, while others in purfuit of 
 them, are obliged to wind through the labyrinth 
 of a very intricate flate of fociety. They feize 
 upon the fruit of the labour; they feize upon 
 the labourer himfelf. Were France but half of 
 what it is in population, in compactnefs, in applica- 
 bility of it's force, fituated as it is, and beingwhat itis, 
 it would be too ftrcng for moft of the States of Eu- 
 rope, conftituted as they are, and proceeding as they 
 proceed. Would it V-e wife to eftimate what the 
 world of Europe, as well as the worM of Afia, had to 
 dread from Jinghiz Khan, upon a contemplation 
 of the refources of the cold and barren fpot in the 
 remoteft Tartary, from whence firft iflued that 
 A ;i 2 fcourffc
 
 Icourge of the human race ? Ought we to judge 
 from the excife and ftamp duties of the rocks, or 
 from the paper circulation of the fands of Arabia, 
 the power by which Mahomet and his tribes laid 
 hold at once on the two moll powerful Empires of 
 the world ; beat one of them totally to the ground, 
 broke to pieces the other, and, in not much lon- 
 ger fpace of time than I have lived, overturned go- 
 vernments, laws, manners, religion, and extended 
 an empire from the Indus to the Pyrennees. 
 
 Material rcfources never have fupplied, nor ever 
 can fupply the want of unity in delign and con- 
 flancy in purfuit. But unity in defign, and perfe- 
 vcrance, and boldnefa in purfuit, have never want^ 
 ed refources, and never will. We have not con^ 
 fidered as we ought the dreadful energy of a State, 
 in which the property has nothing to do with the 
 Government. Reflect, my dear Sir, reflect again 
 and again on a Government, in which the property 
 is in complete fubjeclion, and where nothing rules 
 but the mind of defpcrate men. The condition of 
 a commonwealth not governed by it's property was a 
 combination of things, which the learned and in- 
 genious Speculator Harrington, who has tolled 
 about ibcicty into all forms, never could imagine to 
 be pofiiblc. We have feen it ; the world has felt 
 it; and if the world will fhut their eyes to this 
 ftate of things, they will feel it more. The Rulers 
 there have found their refources in crimes. The 
 
 difcovery
 
 
 discovery is dreadful : the mine exhauftlefs. T\ 
 have every thing to gain, and they have nothing u 
 k>fe. They have a boundlefs inheritance in hope ; 
 and there is no medium for them, betwixt the 
 higher! elevation, and death with infamy- Never 
 can they who from the miserable fervitude of the 
 defk have been raifed to Empire, again fubmit to 
 the bondage of a ftarving bureau, or the profit of 
 copying mufic, or writing plaidoyers by the iheet. 
 It has made me often fmile in bkternefs, when- I 
 have heard talk of an indemnity to fuch men, pro- 
 vided they returned to their allegiance. 
 
 From all this, what is my inference? It is, that 
 this new fyftem of robbery in France, cannot be 7 
 rendered fafe by any art ; that it mujl be deltroyed, : 
 or that it will deftroy all Europe ; that to deilroV j 
 that enemy, by fome means or other, the force op- 
 pofed to it mould be made to bear fome analogy 
 and refemblance to the force and fpirit whbh that 
 fyftem exerts ; that war ought to be made againft 
 it, in its vulnerable parts. Thefe are my infe- 
 rences. In one word, with this Republick. nothing 
 independent can co-exifl. The errors of Louis 
 the XVIth. \vere more pardonable to prudence, 
 than any of thofe of the fame kind into which the 
 Allied Courts may fall. They nave the benefit of 
 his dreadful example. 
 
 The unhappy Louis XVI. was a man of the bcft 
 
 intentions
 
 intentions that probably ever reigned. He was by 
 no means deficient in talents. He had a moft 
 laudable delire to fupply by general reading, and 
 even by the acquisition of elemental knowledge, 
 an education in all points originally defective ; but 
 nobody told him (and it was no wonder he fhould 
 not himfelf divine it) that the world of which he 
 read, and the world in which he lived, were no 
 longer the fame. Deiirous of doing every thing 
 for the beft, fearful of cabal, diflrufting his 
 own judgment, he fought his Minifters of all kinds 
 upon public teftimony. But as Courts are the 
 field for caballers,, the publick is the theatre for 
 mountebanks and impoftors. The cure for both 
 thofe evils is in the discernment of the Prince. 
 But an accurate and penetrating difcernment is 
 what in a young Prince could not be looked for. 
 
 His conduclin it's principle was not unwife; but, 
 like molt other of his well-meant dcfi^rn?, it failed 
 in his hands. It failed partly from mere ill fortune, 
 to which fpeculatorsare rarely pleafcd to aflurnihat 
 very Isrge fhare to which ihe is jullly entitled in 
 all human affairs. The failure, perhaps, in part 
 was owing to his fufFering his fyfrem to be vitiated 
 and difturbed by thofe intrigues, which it is, hu- 
 manly fpeaking, impofllble wholly to prevent in 
 Courts, or indeed under any form of Government. 
 However, with thefe aberrations, he gave himfelf 
 over to a fucceffion of the ftatefmen of publick 
 
 opinion,
 
 opinion. In other things he thought that he might 
 be a King on the terms of his predeceilors. He 
 was confcious of the purity of his heart and 
 the general good tendency of his Government. He 
 flattered himfelf, as moft men in his lituation will, 
 that he might confult his eafe without danger to his 
 fafety. It is not at all wonderful that both he and 
 his Miniilers, giving way abundantly in other re- 
 fpecl:sto innovation, fhould take up in policy \\ith 
 the tradition of their monarchy. Under his an- 
 ceftors the Monarchy had fubfifted, and even been 
 ftrengthencd by the generation or fupport of Re- 
 publicks. Firft, the Swifs Republicks grew un- 
 der the guardianfhip of the French Monarchy. 
 The Dutch Republicks were hatched and che- 
 rilhcd under the fame incubation. Afterwards, a 
 republican conftitution was under it's influence 
 eftabliflied in the Empire aguinil the pretenfions of 
 it's Chief. Even whilft the Monarchy of France, 
 by a (cries of wars and negotiations, and laflly by 
 the treaties of Weflphalia, had obtained the efta- 
 blimment of the Proteftants in Germany as a law 
 of the Empire, the fame Monarchy under Louis 
 the Xlllth, had force enough to deftroy the re- 
 publican fyflem of the Proteftants at home. 
 
 Louis the XVIth was a diligent reader of hif- 
 tory. But the very lamp of prudence blinded him. 
 The guide of human life led him ailray. A filent 
 revolution in the 'moral world preceded the politi- 
 cal,
 
 eal, and prepared it. It became of more impor- 
 tance than ever what examples were given, and 
 what meal arcs were adopted. Their caufes no 
 longer lurked in the recefles of cabinets, or in the 
 private confpiracies of the factious. They were 
 no lenger to be controlled by the force and influ- 
 ence of the grandees, who formerly had been able 
 to ftir up troubles by their difcontents, and to 
 quiet them by their corruption. The chain of fu- 
 fcordination, even in cabal and fedition, was broken 
 in it's moft important links. It was no longer the 
 great and the populace. Other interefts were form- 
 ed, other dependencies, other connexions, other 
 communications. The middle clafles had fwellcd 
 far beyond their former proportion. Like what- 
 ever is the moft effectively rich and great in fociety, 
 thefe clafTes became the feat of all the active poli- 
 ticks; and the preponderating weight to decide on 
 them. There were all the energies by which for- 
 tune is acquired ; there the confequence of their 
 fuccefs. There were all the talents which aflert 
 their pretenfions, and arc impatient of the place 
 which fettled fociety prefcribes to them. Thefe 
 defcriptions had got between 1 the great and the po- 
 pulace ; and the influence on the lower claiTes was 
 with them. The fpirit of ambition had taken poflef- 
 fion of this clafs as violently as ever it had done of 
 any other. They felt the importance of this iitua- 
 , tion. The corrcfpondcnce of the monied and the 
 mercantile world, the literary intercourfe of acade- 
 mies.
 
 ( "85 ) 
 
 mies; but, above all, theprefs, of which they had in a 
 manner., entire poffeflion, made a. kind of ele&rick 
 communication every where. The prefs, in reali- 
 ty, has made every Government, in it's fpirit, al- 
 moft democratick. Without the great, the firft 
 movements in this revolution could not, perhaps, 
 have been given. But the fpirit of ambition, now 
 for the firft time connected with the fpirit of fpe- 
 culation, was not to be reftrained at will. There 
 was no longer any means of arrefting a principle 
 in it's courfe. When Louis the XVIth. under the 
 influence of the enemies to Monarchy, meant to 
 found but one Rcpublick, -he fet up two. W^hen he 
 meant to take away half the crown of his neigh- 
 bour, he loft the whole of his own. Louis the 
 XVIth could not with impunity countenance a 
 new Republick: yet between his throne and that 
 dangerous lodgment for an enemy, which he 
 had erected, he had the whole Atlantick for a 
 ditch. He had for an out-work the Englim na- 
 tion itfelf, friendly to liberty, adverfe to that mode 
 of it. He was furrounded by a rampart of Mo- 
 narchies, moft of them allied to him, and generally 
 under his influence. Yet even thus fecurcd, a 
 Republick creeled under his aufpices, and, depen- 
 dent on his power, became .fatal to his throne. 
 The very money which he had lent to fupport this 
 Republick, by a good faith, which to him operat- 
 ed as perfidy, was punctually paid to his enemies, 
 and became a refource in the hands of his aflaffins. 
 B b With
 
 With this example before their eye?, do any 
 Miniftcrs in England, do any Minillcrs in Au- 
 ftria, really flatter thcmfelves, that they can 
 erect, not on the remote fhores of the Atlantick, 
 but in their view, in their vicinity, in abfolute con- 
 ta,cl with one of them, not a commercial but a 
 martial Republick a Republick not of fimple 
 hufbandmen or iifliermen, but of intriguers, and 
 of warriors a Republick of a charadtcr the moft 
 reftlefs, the mod entcrprizing, the moft impious, 
 the moft fierce and bloody, the moft hypocritical 
 and perfidious, the moft bold and daring that ever 
 has been feen, or indeed that can be conceived to 
 exift, without bringing on their own certain ruin ? 
 
 Such is the Republick to which we are going 
 to give a place in civilized fellowfhip. The Re- 
 publick, which with joint confcnt we are going to 
 eftjibliih in the center of Europe, in a poft that 
 overlook* and commands every other State, and 
 which eminently confronts and menaces this king- 
 dom. 
 
 You cannot fail to obferve, that I fpeak as if the 
 allied powers were actually confenting,and notcom- 
 pclfcd by events to the eftablifhmcnt of this faction 
 wi France. The words have not efcaped me. You 
 will hereafter naturally expect that I fliould make 
 them good. But whether in adopting this mea- 
 
 commu-
 
 I i87 ] 
 
 lure we are madly active, or weakly paffive, or pu- 
 iillanimoufly panick-ftmck, the effects will be the 
 fume. You may call this faction, which has era- 
 dicated the monarchy,, expelled the proprietary, 
 perfecuted religion, and trampled upon law*, you 
 may call this France if you pleafe : but~ of 
 the ancient France nothing remains ; but it's 
 central geography ; it's iron frontier ; it's Spirit of 
 ambition; it's audacity of cnterprife; it's perplex- 
 ing intrigue. Thefe and thefe alone remain ; and 
 they remain heightened in their principle and aug- 
 mented in their means. All the former correctives, 
 whether of virtue or of wcaknefs, which exifted in the 
 old Monarchy, are gone. No fingle new corrective 
 is to be found in the whole body of the new infti- 
 tutions. How fliould fuch a thing be found there, 
 when everything has been chofcn with carcandfelec- 
 tion to forward all thofe ambitious defigris and dif- 
 pofitions, not to controul them ? The whole is a 
 body of ways and means for the fupply of domi- 
 nion, without one heterogeneous particle in it. 
 
 Here I differ you to breathe, and leave to your 
 meditation what has occurred to me on the genius 
 ami charafler of the French Revolution. From 
 having this before us, we maybe better able tbdetet- 
 jnine on tlie firft queftion I propofed, that is, how 
 
 * See our declaration. 
 
 far
 
 ( I8S ) 
 
 far nations, called foreign, are likely to be affecled 
 with the fyrbm eftabliihed within that territory ? 
 I intended to proceed next on the qireftion of her fa- 
 cilities, from the internal Jlate of other nations, and 
 particularly of this, for obtaining her ends: but I. 
 ought to be aware, that my notions are controvert- 
 ed. I mean, therefore, in my next letter, to take 
 notice of what, in that way, has been recommend- 
 ed to me as the moft deferring of notice. In tho 
 examination of thole pieces, I ihall have cccnlion 
 to dilcufs fomc others of the topics I have recom- 
 mended to your attention. You know, that the 
 Letters which I now fend to the prefe, as well as a 
 part of what is to follow, have been long fince 
 written. A circumflance which your partiality 
 alone could make of importance to you, but which 
 to thepubliek'is of no importance at all , retarded 
 their appearance. The late events which prefs 
 upon us obliged me to make fornc few additions ; 
 but no fubfiantial change in the matter. 
 
 . This difcuffion, my Friend, will be long. But 
 the matter is ferious ; and if ever the fate of the 
 world could be truly faid to depend on a particular 
 meafure, it is npon tin's peace. For the prcfent, 
 farewel. 
 
 9 32
 
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