diffusing itself over all the nations of the earth;
a spirit which can apply itself to all circumstances
and all situations, which can furnish a list of grievances,
and hold out a promise of redress equally to all nations,
which inspired the teachers of French liberty with
the hope of alike recommending themselves to those
who live under the feudal code of the German Empire;
to the various states of Italy, under all their different
institutions; to the old republicans of Holland, and
to the new republicans of America; to the Catholic
of Ireland, whom it was to deliver from Protestant
usurpation; to the Protestant of Switzerland, whom
it was to deliver from popish superstition; and to
the Mussulman of Egypt, whom it was to deliver from
Christian persecution; to the remote Indian, blindly
bigoted to his ancient institutions; and to the natives
of Great Britain, enjoying the perfection of practical
freedom, and justly attached to their constitution,
from the joint result of habit, of reason, and of
experience. The last and distinguishing feature
is a perfidy which nothing can bind, which no tie
of treaty, no sense of the principles generally received
among nations, no obligation, human or divine, can
restrain. Thus qualified, thus armed for destruction,
the genius of the French revolution marched forth,
the terror and dismay of the world. Every nation
has in its turn been the witness, many have been the
victims, of its principles, and it is left for us
to decide whether we will compromise with such a danger,
while we have yet resources to supply the sinews of
war, while the heart and spirit of the country is
yet unbroken, and while we have the means of calling
forth and supporting a powerful co-operation in Europe.
Much more might be said on this part of the subject;
but if what I have said already is a faithful, though
only an imperfect, sketch of those excesses and outrages,
which even history itself will hereafter be unable
fully to record, and a just representation of the principle
and source from which they originated, will any man
say that we ought to accept a precarious security
against so tremendous a danger? Much more will
he pretend, after the experience of all that has passed,
in the different stages of the French revolution,
that we ought to be deterred from probing this great
question to the bottom, and from examining, without
ceremony or disguise, whether the change which has
recently taken place in France is sufficient now to
give security, not against a common danger, but against
such a danger as that which I have described?
In examining this part of the subject, let it be remembered
that there is one other characteristic of the French
revolution, as striking as its dreadful and destructive
principles; I mean the instability of its Government,
which has been of itself sufficient to destroy all
reliance, if any such reliance could, at any time,
have been placed on the good faith of any of its rulers.
Such has been the incredible rapidity with which the