friendly to liberty, adverfe to that mode of it. He was furrounded by a rampart of monarchies, moft of them allied to him, and generally under his influence. Yet even thus fecured, a republick erected under his aufpices, and dependent 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 operated as perfidy, was punctually paid to his enemies, and became a refource in the hands of his affaffins. With this example before their eyes, do any minifters in England, do any minifters in Auftria, really flatter themselves, that they can erect, not on the remote fhores of the Atlantick, but in their view, in their vicinity, in abfolute contact with one of them, not a commercial but a martial republick-a republick not of fimple husbandmen or fishermen, but of intriguers, and of warriorsa republick of a character the moft reftlefs, the most enterprising, the most impious, the moft fierce and bloody, the moft hypocritical and perfidious, the most bold and daring that ever has been feen, or indeed that can be conceived to cxift, without bringing on their own certain ruin? Such is the republick to which we are going to give a place in civilifed fellowship: The republick, which with joint confent we are going to eftablish in the centre of Europe, in a poft that overlooks and commands every other ftate, and which S 3 which eminently confronts and menaces this kingdom. You cannot fail to observe, that I speak as if the allied powers were actually confenting, and not compelled by events to the establishment of this faction in France. The words have not efcaped me. You will hereafter naturally expect that I fhould make them good. But whether in adopt. ing this measure we are madly active, or weakly paffive, or pufillanimoufly panick-ftruck, the effects will be the fame. You may call this faction, which has eradicated the monarchy,-expelled the proprietary, perfecuted religion, and trampled upon law,*—you may call this France if you please: but of the ancient France nothing remains, but its central geography; its iron frontier; its spirit of ambition; its audacity of enterprise; its perplexing intrigue. These and these alone remain; and they remain heightened in their principle and augmented in their means. All the former correctives, whether of virtue or of weakness, which ex. ifted in the old monarchy, are gone. No fingle new corrective is to be found in the whole body of the new inftitutions. How fhould fuch a thing be found there, when every thing has been chofen with care and felection to forward all thofe ambitious defigns and difpofitions, not to control them? The whole See our declaration. is is a body of ways and means for the supply of dominion, without one heterogeneous particle in it. Here I fuffer you to breathe, and leave to your meditation what has occurred to me on the genius and character of the French revolution. From having this before us, we may be better able to determine on the first question I propofed, that is, how far nations, called foreign, are likely to be affected with the system established within that territory. I intended to proceed next on the question of her facilities, from the internal state of other nations, and particularly of this, for obtaining her ends; but I ought to be aware, that my notions are controverted.—I mean, therefore, in my next letter, to take notice of what, in that way, has been recommended to me as the most deferving of notice. In the examination of those pieces, I shall have occafion to difcufs fome others of the topicks to which I have called your attention. You know, that the letters which I now fend to the prefs, as well as a part of what is to follow, have been in their substance long fince written. A circumstance which your partiality alone could make of importance to you, but which to the publick is of no importance at all, retarded their appearance. The late events which prefs upon us obliged me to make fome additions; but no fubftantial change in the matter. |