On the most
elaborate and correct detail of facts, the result seems to be, that at
no time has the wealth and power of Great Britain been so considerable
as it is at this very perilous moment. We have a, vast interest to
preserve, and we possess great means of preserving it: but it is to be
remembered that the artificer may be incumbered by his tools, and that
resources may be among impediments. If wealth is the obedient and
laborious slave of virtue and of public honor, then wealth is in its
place and has its use; but if this order is changed, and honor is to be
sacrificed to the conservation of riches, riches, which have neither
eyes nor hands, nor anything truly vital in them, cannot long survive
the being of their vivifying powers, their legitimate masters, and their
potent protectors. If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free:
if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed. We are bought by the
enemy with the treasure from our own coffers. Too great a sense of the
value of a subordinate interest may be the very source of its danger, as
well as the certain ruin of interests of a superior order. Often has a
man lost his all because he would not submit to hazard all in defending
it. A display of our wealth before robbers is not the way to restrain
their boldness or to lessen their rapacity. This display is made, I
know, to persuade the people of England that thereby we shall awe the
enemy and improve the terms of our capitulation: it is made, not that we
should fight with more animation, but that we should supplicate with
better hopes.
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