In that piece "these powers expressly
renounce all views of personal aggrandizement," and confine themselves
to objects worthy of so generous, so heroic, and so perfectly wise and
politic an enterprise. It was to the principles of this confederation,
and to no other, that we wished our sovereign and our country to accede,
as a part of the commonwealth of Europe. To these principles, with some
trifling exceptions and limitations, they did fully accede.[34] And all
our friends who took office acceded to the ministry, (whether wisely or
not,) as I always understood the matter, on the faith and on the
principles of that declaration.
As long as these powers flattered themselves that the menace of force
would produce the effect of force, they acted on those declarations; but
when their menaces failed of success, their efforts took a new
direction. It did not appear to them that virtue and heroism ought to be
purchased by millions of rix-dollars. It is a dreadful truth, but it is
a truth that cannot be concealed: in ability, in dexterity, in the
distinctness of their views, the Jacobins are our superiors. They saw
the thing right from the very beginning. Whatever were the first motives
to the war among politicians, they saw that in its spirit, and for its
objects, it was a _civil war_; and as such they pursued it. It is a war
between the partisans of the ancient civil, moral, and political order
of Europe against a sect of fanatical and ambitious atheists which means
to change them all.
Pages:
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365