To admit it for a moment were to
erect this power, usurped at home, into a legislature to govern mankind.
It is an authority that on a thousand occasions they have asserted in
claim, and, whenever they are able, exerted in practice. The
dereliction, of this whole scheme of policy became, therefore, an
indispensable previous condition to all renewal of treaty. The remark of
the British Cabinet on this arrogant and tyrannical claim is natural and
unavoidable. Our ministry state, that, "_while these dispositions shall
be persisted in, nothing is left for the king but to prosecute a war
that is just and necessary_."
It was of course that we should wait until the enemy showed some sort of
disposition on his part to fulfil this condition. It was hoped, indeed,
that our suppliant strains might be suffered to steal into the august
ear in a more propitious season. That season, however, invoked by so
many vows, conjurations, and prayers, did not come. Every declaration of
hostility renovated, and every act pursued with double animosity,--the
overrunning of Lombardy,--the subjugation of Piedmont,--the possession
of its impregnable fortresses,--the seizing on all the neutral states of
Italy,--our expulsion from Leghorn,--instances forever renewed for our
expulsion from Genoa,--Spain rendered subject to them and hostile to
us,--Portugal bent under the yoke,--half the Empire overrun and
ravaged,--were the only signs which this mild Republic thought proper to
manifest of her pacific sentiments.
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