deserted the columns of her daily and weekly Journals—but
as he has left no Successor, as there is no foreign
Tyrant of sufficient importance to attract hatred
by exciting fear, many honest English Patriots must
either find, or set up, something at home for the
employment of those affections. This is too natural
to occasion surprise; thousands are so framed, that
they are but languidly conscious of their love of
an object, unless while they feel themselves in an
active state of aversion to something which they can
regard as its opposite.—Thus we see Men,
who had been proud of their attachment to his Majesty’s
Ministers, during the awful struggle, as soon as it
was over, allowing on the first temptation that proud
attachment to be converted into immoderate suspicion,
and a long experienced gratitude into sudden alienation.—Through
this infirmity, many were betrayed into taking part
with the Men whom they had heretofore despised or condemned;
and assisted them in reviling their own Government
for suffering, among the States of the Continent,
institutions to remain which the respective nations
(surely the best, if not the only judges in the case)
were unwilling to part with; and for having permitted
things to be done, either just and proper in themselves,
or if indeed abuses, abuses of that kind which Great
Britain had neither right to oppose, nor power to
prevent. Not a Frenchman is in arms in Spain!
But (alas for the credit of the English Cabinet!)
Ferdinand, though a lawful, appears to be a sorry
King; and the Inquisition, though venerated by the
People of Spain as a holy tribunal, which has spread
a protecting shade over their religion for hundreds
of years, is, among Protestants, an abomination!
Is that, however, a reason why we should not rejoice
that Spain is restored to the rank of an Independent
nation; and that her resources do not continue at
the disposal of a foreign Tyrant, for the annoyance
of Great Britain? Prussia no longer receives
decrees from the Tuilleries; but nothing, we are told,
is gained by this deliverance; because the Sovereign
of that Country has not participated, as far as became
him, a popular effervescence; and has withheld from
his subjects certain privileges which they have proved
themselves, to all but heated judgments, not yet qualified
to receive. Now, if numbers can blame, without
cause, the British Cabinet for events falling below
their wishes, in cases remote from their immediate
concerns, the reasonableness of their opinions may
well be questioned in points where selfish passion
is touched to the quick.—Yes, in spite of
the outcry of such Men to the contrary, every enlightened
Politician and discerning Patriot, however diffident
as to what was the exact line of prudence in such
arduous circumstances, will reprobate the conduct of
those who were for reducing public expenditure with
a precipitation that might have produced a convulsion
in the State. The Habeas Corpus Act is also our
own near concern; it was suspended, some think without