[16] London, J. Dodsley, 1792, 3 vols. 4to.—­Vol.  II. pp. 324-336, in the present edition.

[17] See the history of the melancholy catastrophe of the Duke of Buckingham.  Temp.  Hen.  VIII.

[18] At si non aliam venturo fata Neroni, etc.

[19] Sir George Savile’s act, called The Nullum Tempus Act.

[20] “Templum in modum arcis.”—­TACITUS, of the temple of Jerusalem.

[21] There is nothing on which the leaders of the Republic one and indivisible value themselves more than on the chemical operations by which; through science, they convert the pride of aristocracy to an instrument of its own destruction,—­on the operations by which they reduce the magnificent ancient country-seats of the nobility, decorated with the feudal titles of Duke, Marquis, or Earl, into magazines of what they call revolutionary gunpowder.  They tell us, that hitherto things “had not yet been properly and in a revolutionary manner explored,”—­“The strong chateaus, those feudal fortresses, that were ordered to be demolished attracted next the attention of your committee. Nature there had secretly regained her rights, and had produced saltpetre, for the purpose, as it should seem, of facilitating the execution of your decree by preparing the means of destruction.  From these ruins, which still frown on the liberties of the Republic, we have extracted the means of producing good; and those piles which have hitherto glutted the pride of despots, and covered the plots of La Vendee, will soon furnish wherewithal to tame the traitors and to overwhelm the disaffected,”—­“The rebellious cities, also, have afforded a large quantity of saltpetre. Commune Affranchie” (that is, the noble city of Lyons, reduced in many parts to an heap of ruins) “and Toulon will pay a second tribute to our artillery.”—­Report, 1st February, 1794.

THREE LETTERS

ADDRESSED TO

A MEMBER OF THE PRESENT PARLIAMENT,

ON THE

PROPOSALS FOR PEACE WITH THE REGICIDE DIRECTORY OF FRANCE.

1796-7.

LETTER I.

ON THE OVERTURES OF PEACE.

My Dear Sir,—­Our last conversation, though not in the tone of absolute despondency, was far from cheerful.  We could not easily account for some unpleasant appearances.  They were represented to us as indicating the state of the popular mind; and they were not at all what we should have expected from our old ideas even of the faults and vices of the English character.  The disastrous events which have followed one upon another in a long, unbroken, funereal train, moving in a procession that seemed to have no end,—­these were not the principal causes of our dejection.  We feared more from what threatened to fail within than what menaced to oppress us from abroad.  To a people who have once been proud and great, and great because they were proud, a change in the national spirit is the most terrible of all revolutions.