The plan they pursued in
its nature demanded great length of time. In its execution, they who
went the nearest way to work were obliged to cover an incredible extent
of country. It left to the enemy every means of destroying this extended
line of weakness. Ill success in any part was sure to defeat the effect
of the whole. This is true of Austria. It is still more true of England.
On this false plan, even good fortune, by further weakening the victor,
put him but the further off from his object.
As long as there was any appearance of success, the spirit of
aggrandizement, and consequently the spirit of mutual jealousy, seized
upon all the coalesced powers. Some sought an accession of territory at
the expense of France, some at the expense of each other, some at the
expense of third parties; and when the vicissitude of disaster took its
turn, they found common distress a treacherous bond of faith and
friendship.
The greatest skill, conducting the greatest military apparatus, has
been employed; but it has been worse than uselessly employed, through
the false policy of the war. The operations of the field suffered by the
errors of the cabinet. If the same spirit continues, when peace is made,
the peace will fix and perpetuate all the errors of the war; because it
will be made upon the same false principle. What has been lost in the
field, in the field may be regained. An arrangement of peace in its
nature is a permanent settlement: it is the effect of counsel and
deliberation, and not of fortuitous events.
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