Our power must be their strength. They hope
more from us than they fear. I am sure the only ground of their hope,
and of our hope, is in the greatness of mind hitherto shown by the
people of this nation, and its adherence to the unalterable principles
of its ancient policy, whatever government may finally prevail in
France. I have entered into this detail of the wishes and expectations
of the European powers, in order to point out more clearly not so much
what their disposition as (a consideration of far greater importance)
what their situation demands, according as that situation is related to
the Regicide Republic and to this kingdom.
Then, if it is not to satisfy the foreign powers we make this assurance,
to what power at home is it that we pay all this humiliating court? Not
to the old Whigs or to the ancient Tories of this kingdom,--if any
memory of such ancient divisions still exists amongst us. To which of
the principles of these parties is this assurance agreeable? Is it to
the Whigs we are to recommend the aggrandizement of France, and the
subversion of the balance of power? Is it to the Tories we are to
recommend our eagerness to cement ourselves with the enemies of royalty
and religion? But if these parties, which by their dissensions have so
often distracted the kingdom, which by their union have once saved it,
and which by their collision and mutual resistance have preserved the
variety of this Constitution in its unity, be (as I believe they are)
nearly extinct by the growth of new ones, which have their roots in the
present circumstances of the times, I wish to know to which of these new
descriptions this Declaration is addressed.
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