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Under any circumstances, this is a most extraordinary topic of argument;
but it is rendered by much the more unaccountable, when we are told,
that, if the war has been diverted from the great object of establishing
society and good order in Europe by destroying the usurpation in France,
this diversion was made to increase the naval resources and power of
Great Britain, and to lower, if not annihilate, those of the marine of
France. I leave all this to the very serious reflection of every
Englishman.
This basis was no sooner admitted than the rejection of a treaty upon
that sole foundation was a thing of course. The enemy did not think it
worthy of a discussion, as in truth it was not; and immediately, as
usual, they began, in the most opprobrious and most insolent manner, to
question our sincerity and good faith: whereas, in truth, there was no
one symptom wanting of openness and fair dealing. What could be more
fair than to lay open to an enemy all that you wished to obtain, and the
price you meant to pay for it, and to desire him to imitate your
ingenuous proceeding, and in the same manner to open his honest heart to
you? Here was no want of fair dealing, but there was too evidently a
fault of another kind: there was much weakness,--there was an eager and
impotent desire of associating with this unsocial power, and of
attempting the connection by any means, however manifestly feeble and
ineffectual.
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