His nest brother, who had fled with him, and his third brother, who had fled before him, all the princes of his blood who remained faithful to him, and the flower of his magistracy, his clergy, and his nobility, continue in foreign countries, protesting against all acts done by him in his present situation, on the grounds upon which he had himself protested against them at the time of his flight,—­with this addition, that they deny his very competence (as on good grounds they may) to abrogate the royalty, or the ancient constitutional orders of the kingdom.  In this protest they are joined by three hundred of the late Assembly itself, and, in effect, by a great part of the French nation.  The new government (so far as the people dare to disclose their sentiments) is disdained, I am persuaded, by the greater number,—­who, as M. de La Fayette complains, and as the truth is, have declined to take any share in the new elections to the National Assembly, either as candidates or electors.

In this state of things, (that is, in the case of a divided kingdom,) by the law of nations,[30] Great Britain, like every other power, is free to take any part she pleases.  She may decline, with more or less formality, according to her discretion, to acknowledge this new system; or she may recognize it as a government de facto, setting aside all discussion of its original legality, and considering the ancient monarchy as at an end.  The law of nations leaves our court open to its choice.  We have no direction but what is found in the well-understood policy of the king and kingdom.

This declaration of a new species of government, on new principles, (such it professes itself to be,) is a real crisis in the politics of Europe.  The conduct which prudence ought to dictate to Great Britain will not depend (as hitherto our connection or quarrel with other states has for some time depended) upon merely external relations, but in a great measure also upon the system which we may think it right to adopt for the internal government of our own country.

If it be our policy to assimilate our government to that of France, we ought to prepare for this change by encouraging the schemes of authority established there.  We ought to wink at the captivity and deposition of a prince with whom, if not in close alliance, we were in friendship.  We ought to fall in with the ideas of Monsieur Montmorin’s circular manifesto, and to do business of course with the functionaries who act under the new power by which that king to whom his Majesty’s minister has been sent to reside has been deposed and imprisoned.  On that idea we ought also to withhold all sorts of direct or indirect countenance from those who are treating in Germany for the reestablishment of the French monarchy and the ancient orders of that state.  This conduct is suitable to this policy.

The question is, whether this policy be suitable to the interests of the crown and subjects of Great Britain.  Let us, therefore, a little consider the true nature and probable effects of the Revolution which, in such a very unusual manner, has been twice diplomatically announced to his Majesty.