hey have been boldly disregarded by that great man, who,
till lately, has long presided over the british councils. Machiavel has
asserted, that no country ought to declare war with a nation which, at
the time, is in a state of internal commotion; and that, in the
prosecution of a war, the refugees of a belligerent power ought not to
be confidentially trusted by the opposite nation which receives them.
Upon violating the former, those heterogeneous parties, which, if left
to themselves, will always embarrass the operations of their
government, become united by a common cause; and by offending against
the latter clause of this cautionary code, a perilous confidence is
placed in the triumph of gratitude, and private pique, over that great
love which nature plants and warmly cherishes in the breast of every
man, for his country. In extenuation of a departure from these political
maxims it may be urged, that the french excited the war, and that in the
pursuit of it, they displayed a _compound_ spirit, which Machiavel might
well think problematical, for whilst that country never averted its eye
from the common enemy, it never ceased to groan under the inflictions of
unremitting factions. Rather less can be said in palliation of the fatal
confidence, which was placed by the english government in some of the
french emigrants. I have mentioned these unhappy people in the
aggregate, with the respect which I think they deserve. To be protected,
and not to betray, was all that could in fairness, and with safety be
expected from them; it was hazarding too much to put swords in their
hands, and send them to their own shores to plunge them in the breasts
of their own countrymen: in such an enterprise

------------------"The native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought."

The brave have not frequently wept over such a victim as Sombrieul.

Whether the experiment of repelling those machinations which warred
against all established order, and all sanctioned usage, by a novel, and
unnatural opposition, is attributable to any other cause, than that of a
misjudging principle, must be decided by Him, whose mighty hand
suspended the balance of the battle, and whose eye can, at a glance,
pierce through the labyrinth of human obliquity, however compact,
shaded, or concealed. If the late minister is chargeable with a
prolongation of the war, if he is responsible for having misplaced his
confidence, and if bra