There never was a political contest, upon better or worse grounds, that by the heat of party-spirit may not ripen into civil confusion.  If ever a party adverse to the crown should be in a condition here publicly to declare itself, and to divide, however unequally, the natural force of the kingdom, they are sure of an aid of fifty thousand men, at ten days’ warning, from the opposite coast of France.  But against this infusion of a foreign force the crown has its guaranties, old and new.  But I should be glad to hear something said of the assistance which loyal subjects in France have received from other powers in support of that lawful government which secured their lawful property.  I should be glad to know, if they are so disposed to a neighborly, provident, and sympathetic attention to their public engagements, by what means they are to come at us.  Is it from the powerful states of Holland we are to reclaim our guaranty?  Is it from the King of Prussia, and his steady good affections, and his powerful navy, that we are to look for the guaranty of our security?  Is it from the Netherlands, which the French may cover with the swarms of their citizen-soldiers in twenty-four hours, that we are to look for this assistance?  This is to suppose, too, that all these powers have no views offensive or necessities defensive of their own.  They will cut out work for one another, and France will cut out work for them all.

That the Christian religion cannot exist in this country with such a fraternity will not, I think, be disputed with me.  On that religion, according to our mode, all our laws and institutions stand, as upon their base.  That scheme is supposed in every transaction of life; and if that were done away, everything else, as in France, must be changed along with it.  Thus, religion perishing, and with it this Constitution, it is a matter of endless meditation what order of things would follow it.  But what disorder would fill the space between the present and that which is to come, in the gross, is no matter of doubtful conjecture.  It is a great evil, that of a civil war.  But, in that state of things, a civil war, which would give to good men and a good cause some means of struggle, is a blessing of comparison that England will not enjoy.  The moment the struggle begins, it ends.  They talk of Mr. Hume’s euthanasia of the British Constitution gently expiring, without a groan, in the paternal arms of a mere monarchy.  In a monarchy!—­fine trifling indeed!—­there is no such euthanasia for the British Constitution.

* * * * *

The manuscript copy of this Letter ends here.

FOOTNOTES: 

[9] Here I have fallen into an unintentional mistake.  Rider’s Almanack for 1794 lay before me; and, in troth, I then had no other.  For variety, that sage astrologer has made some small changes on the weather side of 1795; but the caution is the same on the opposite page of instruction.