will secure his friendship.  Otherwise it is a measure worse than thrown away.  It adds infinitely to the strength, and consequently to the demands, of the adverse party.  He has gained a fundamental point without an equivalent.  It has happened as might have been foreseen.  No notice whatever was taken of this recognition.  In fact, the Directory never gave themselves any concern about it; and they received our acknowledgment with perfect scorn.  With them it is not for the states of Europe to judge of their title:  the very reverse.  In their eye the title of every other power depends wholly on their pleasure.

Preliminary declarations of this sort, thrown out at random, and sown, as it wore, broadcast, were never to be found in the mode of our proceeding with France and Spain, whilst the great monarchies of France and Spain existed.  I do not say that a diplomatic measure ought to be, like a parliamentary or a judicial proceeding, according to strict precedent:  I hope I am far from that pedantry.  But this I know:  that a great state ought to have some regard to its ancient maxims, especially where they indicate its dignity, where they concur with the rules of prudence, and, above all, where the circumstances of the time require that a spirit of innovation should be resisted which leads to the humiliation of sovereign powers.  It would be ridiculous to assert that those powers have suffered nothing in their estimation.  I admit that the greater interests of state will for a moment supersede all other considerations; but if there was a rule, that a sovereign never should let down his dignity without a sure payment to his interest, the dignity of kings would be held high enough.  At present, however, fashion governs in more serious things than furniture and dress.  It looks as if sovereigns abroad were emulous in bidding against their estimation.  It seems as if the preeminence of regicide was acknowledged,—­and that kings tacitly ranked themselves below their sacrilegious murderers, as natural magistrates and judges over them.  It appears as if dignity were the prerogative of crime, and a temporizing humiliation the proper part for venerable authority.  If the vilest of mankind are resolved to be the most wicked, they lose all the baseness of their origin, and take their place above kings.  This example in foreign princes I trust will not spread.  It is the concern of mankind, that the destruction of order should not, be a claim to rank, that crimes should not be the only title to preeminence and honor.

At this second stage of humiliation, (I mean the insulting declaration in consequence of the message to both Houses of Parliament,) it might not have been amiss to pause, and not to squander away the fund of our submissions, until we knew what final purposes of public interest they might answer.  The policy of subjecting ourselves to further insults is not to me quite apparent.  It was resolved, however, to hazard a third trial.