Could Keppel, who idolized the House of Nassau, who was himself given to
England along with the blessings of the British and Dutch Revolutions,
with Revolutions of stability, with Revolutions which consolidated and
married the liberties and the interests of the two nations
forever,--could he see the fountain of British liberty itself in
servitude to France? Could he see with patience a Prince of Orange
expelled, as a sort of diminutive despot, with every kind of contumely,
from the country which that family of deliverers had so often rescued
from slavery, and obliged to live in exile in another country, which
owes its liberty to his house?
Would Keppel have heard with patience that the conduct to be held on
such occasions was to become short by the knees to the faction of the
homicides, to entreat them quietly to retire? or, if the fortune of war
should drive them from their first wicked and unprovoked invasion, that
no security should be taken, no arrangement made, no barrier formed, no
alliance entered into for the security of that which under a foreign
name is the most precious part of England? What would he have said, if
it was even proposed that the Austrian Netherlands (which ought to be a
barrier to Holland, and the tie of an alliance to protect her against
any species of rule that might be erected or even be restored in France)
should be formed into a republic under her influence and dependent upon
her power?
But above all, what would he have said, if he had heard it made a matter
of accusation against me, by his nephew, the Duke of Bedford, that I was
the author of the war? Had I a mind to keep that high distinction to
myself, (as from pride I might, but from justice I dare not,) he would
have snatched his share of it from my hand, and held it with the grasp
of a dying convulsion to his end.
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