This great, prolific
error (I mean that peace was always in our power) has been the cause
that rendered the Allies indifferent about the _direction_ of the war,
and persuaded them that they might always risk a choice and even a
change in its objects. They seldom improved any advantage,--hoping that
the enemy, affected by it, would make a proffer of peace. Hence it was
that all their early victories have been followed almost immediately
with the usual effects of a defeat, whilst all the advantages obtained
by the Regicides have been followed by the consequences that were
natural. The discomfitures which the Republic of Assassins has suffered
have uniformly called forth new exertions, which not only repaired old
losses, but prepared new conquests. The losses of the Allies, on the
contrary, (no provision having been made on the speculation of such an
event,) have been followed by desertion, by dismay, by disunion, by a
dereliction of their policy, by a flight from their principles, by an
admiration of the enemy, by mutual accusations, by a distrust in every
member of the Alliance of its fellow, of its cause, its power, and its
courage.
Great difficulties in consequence of our erroneous policy, as I have
said, press upon every side of us. Far from desiring to conceal or even
to palliate the evil in the representation, I wish to lay it down as my
foundation, that never greater existed. In a moment when sudden panic is
apprehended, it may be wise for a while to conceal some great public
disaster, or to reveal it by degrees, until the minds of the people have
time to be re-collected, that their understanding may have leisure to
rally, and that more steady councils may prevent their doing something
desperate under the first impressions of rage or terror.
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