and conduct. During the short prevalence of To French superiority,* which was attended with the dispersion of the most noxious and abominable principles, it seemed to me next to a tacit approbation, not to endeavour to expose them. hazard the demolition of the august fabrick of the British Constitution, in attempting to remove some trifling abuses which may adhere to its surface, would be like the wisdom of pulling down St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey, because a few swallows happened to plaister up their nests against the corners of the windows. Minute inspection is requisite to discover them; and how pitiful must be the genius which can overlook the grandeur of the whole, to dwell upon such blemishes! A superficial fimilitude between the Roman republick and France in her revolutionary disorder, occurred so frequently, that not to perceive it would have been blindness, and not to have sometimes expatiated upon it, pusillanimity. * Nov. 1792. There There is one remark not made in the notes to this poem, which ought to have a place somewhere. The infidels of France, when exa'ted into the seats of legislation, began with a policy directly opposite to the practice of every other state pre-existent to them. They commenced by taking off from human appetites all restraint from religion; and of course they dissolved with the ancient form of government, every bond upon conscience, and every obligation to virtue. The consequences have been correspondent. Let me not be suspected to be a favourer or friend of the old constitution of France, for I think nothing could make it appear tolerable, but the anarchy by which it was succeeded; yet even this they attempt impudently to varnish over by false names, and perverted examples. good Brutus! we have heard thy virtuous spirit, thy mild genius, appealed to, for the sanctification of every crime which can stain the black catalogue of human villainy. France has made thee the patron, the tutelary God of atheists and regicides; b Alas, and and thy fair name is invoked to reconcile the world to oppression and cruelty, to robbery, parricide, treachery, and massacre. Cæsar would have fallen by some other hand, could'st thou but have foreseen that such disgrace was reserved for thy memory. In June, 1793, look at the picture of French democracy, as displayed in the masterly colouring of Mr. Pitt, before the House of Commons of England: 66 "What (says that great statesman) could be the effect of any negociation for peace in the present moment? It is not merely to the character of "Marat, with whom we have to treat, that I object; "it is not to the horrour of those crimes which have "stained their legislators, crimes in every stage 66 rising above each other in point of enormity ; but "I object to the consequence of that character, to "the effect of those crimes. They are such as ren"der negociation useless, and must entirely deprive "of stability any peace which could be concluded "under such circumstances. Where is our secu"rity for the performance of a treaty, where we have neither the good faith of a nation, nor the "responsibility of a monarch? The moment that "the mob of Paris becomes under the influence of a new leader, the most mature deliberations are "reversed, the most solemn engagements are re"tracted, or free will is altogether controuled. In every one of the stages of their repeated revolutions "we have said, now we have seen the worst, 'the measure of iniquity is full, we shall no longer 'be shocked or astonished by the contemplation 'of added crimes, and increasing enormities: the "next mail convinced us of our credulity, "and by presenting us with fresh crimes, and enor"mities still more dreadful, excited impressions of 66 new astonishment and accumulated horrour. All "the crimes which disgrace history, have occur-. “red in one country in a space so short, and with "circumstances so highly aggravated, as to out-run b 2 thought, "thought, and exceed imagination. Should we treat with Marat, before we had finished the ne"gociation, he might again be descended to the 66 dregs of the people from whence he sprung, and "have given place to a still more desperate villain. "A band of leaders has swayed the mob in constant "succession, all resembling in guilt, but rising "above one another in point of enormity, each "striving to improve upon the crimes of his prede cessor, and swell the black catalogue with new “modes and higher gradations of wickedness : Ætas parentum pejor avis tulit Lord Mornington's speech in the same assembly, on the 21st of January, 1794, will always remain as a monument of that nobleman's great abilities and eloquence, and as a faithful report of God's dreadful visitation of a vast kingdom, which has repeatedly dared to blaspheme his name, and abjure his worship. Our countrymen may there see the rebellious |
