to men even of the most unimproved understandings, that I looked upon it as an idle and fruitless effort, either in foreign or domestic incendiaries, to endeavour to persuade the bulk of the people to consent to an alteration of it in favour of a republic.  I knew, indeed, that in every country the flagitious dregs of a nation were always ripe for revolutions; but I was sensible, at the same time, that it was the interest, not only of the opulent and powerful, not only of the mercantile and middle classes of life, but even of honest labourers and manufacturers, of every sober and industrious man, to resist the licentious principles of such pestilent members, shall I call them, or outcasts of society.  Men better informed and wiser than myself thought that the constitution was in great danger.  Whether in fact the danger was great or small, it is not necessary now to inquire; it may be more useful to declare that, in my humble opinion, the danger, of whatever magnitude it may have been, did not originate in any encroachments of either the legislative or executive power on the liberties or properties of the people; but in the wild fancies and turbulent tempers of discontented or ill-informed individuals.  I sincerely rejoice that, through the vigilance of administration, this turbulency has received a check.  The hopes of bad men have been disappointed, and the understandings of mistaken men have been enlightened, by the general and unequivocal judgment of a whole nation; a nation not more renowned for its bravery and its humanity, though justly celebrated for both, than for its loyalty to its princes, and, what is perfectly consistent with loyalty, for its love of liberty and attachment to the constitution.  Wise men have formed it, brave men have bled for it; it is our part to preserve it.

R. LANDAFF.

London, Jan. 25, 1793.

II.  THE CONVENTION OF CINTRA,

1809.

NOTE.

On the ‘Convention of Cintra’ see Preface in the present volume.  G.

CONCERNING THE RELATIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN, SPAIN, AND PORTUGAL, TO EACH
OTHER, AND TO THE COMMON ENEMY, AT THIS CRISIS; AND SPECIFICALLY AS
AFFECTED BY THE CONVENTION OF CINTRA: 

The whole brought to the test of those Principles, by which alone the Independence and Freedom of Nations can be Preserved or Recovered.

* * * * *

Qui didicit patriae quid debeat;--------
Quod sit conscripti, quod judicis officium; quae
Partes in bellum missi ducis.

* * * * *

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

* * * * *

London: 

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

* * * * *

1809.

Bitter and earnest writing must not hastily be condemned; for men cannot contend coldly, and without affection, about things which they hold dear and precious.  A politic man may write from his brain, without touch and sense of his heart; as in a speculation that appertaineth not unto him;—­but a feeling Christian will express, in his words, a character of zeal or love. Lord Bacon.