From these _ruins_, which _still frown_ on the liberties
of the Republic, we have extracted the means of producing good; and
those piles which have hitherto glutted the _pride of despots_, and
covered the plots of La Vendee, will soon furnish wherewithal to tame
the traitors and to overwhelm the disaffected,"--"The _rebellious
cities_, also, have afforded a large quantity of saltpetre. _Commune
Affranchie_" (that is, the noble city of Lyons, reduced in many parts to
an heap of ruins) "and Toulon will pay a _second_ tribute to our
artillery."--_Report, 1st February_, 1794.
THREE LETTERS
ADDRESSED TO
A MEMBER OF THE PRESENT PARLIAMENT,
ON THE
PROPOSALS FOR PEACE WITH THE REGICIDE DIRECTORY OF FRANCE.
1796-7.
LETTER I.
ON THE OVERTURES OF PEACE.
My Dear Sir,--Our last conversation, though not in the tone of absolute
despondency, was far from cheerful. We could not easily account for some
unpleasant appearances. They were represented to us as indicating the
state of the popular mind; and they were not at all what we should have
expected from our old ideas even of the faults and vices of the English
character. The disastrous events which have followed one upon another in
a long, unbroken, funereal train, moving in a procession that seemed to
have no end,--these were not the principal causes of our dejection. We
feared more from what threatened to fail within than what menaced to
oppress us from abroad.
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