time, he affirms, that the war waged against her was, in a liberal interpretation of the words, just and necessary.  At all events our Nation viewed it in this light.  A large majority of the Inhabitants of Great Britain called for the war; and they who will the end will the means:  the war being deemed necessary, taxes became indispensible for its support.  Some might prefer one mode of raising them—­some another; but these are minor considerations.  Public men, united in bodies, must act on great principles.  Mutual deference is a fundamental requisite for the composition and efficiency of a Party:  for, if individual judgment is to be obtruded and insisted upon in subordinate concerns, the march of business will be perpetually obstructed.  The leaders will not know whom they can depend upon, and therefore will be at a loss what to recommend, and how to act.  If a public man differs from his Party in essentials, Conscience and Honour demand that he should withdraw; but if there be no such difference, it is incumbent upon him to submit his personal opinion to the general sense.  He, therefore, who thought the prosecution of the war necessary, could not condemn the public Imposts; on this consequence the steady adherents of Ministers rest their claim to approbation, and advance it boldly in defiance of the outcry raised against the Government, on account of the burthens which the situation of Europe compelled it to lay upon the people.

In matters of taste, it is a process attended with little advantage, and often injurious, to compare one set of artists, or writers, with another.  But, in estimating the merits of public men, especially of two Parties acting in direct opposition, it is not only expedient, but indispensible, that both should be kept constantly in sight.  The truth or fallacy of French principles, and the tendency, good or bad, of the Revolution which sprang out of them; and the necessity, or non-necessity—­the policy, or impolicy—­of resisting by war the encroachments of republican and imperial France; these were the opposite grounds upon which each Party staked their credit:  here we behold them in full contrast with each other—­To whom shall the crown be given?  On whom has the light fallen? and who are covered by shade and thick darkness?

The magnanimity which resolved, that for principle’s sake no efforts should be spared to crush a bestial despotism, was acknowledged by every manly spirit whom Party degenerating into Faction had not vitiated.  That such was the dictate of confiding wisdom had long been inwardly felt; and the prudence of the course was evinced by the triumphant issue; but to the very completeness of this triumph may be indirectly attributed no small portion of the obloquy how heaped upon those advisers through whom it was achieved.  The power of Napoleon Buonaparte was overthrown—­his person has disappeared from the theatre of Europe—­his name has almost