forth,
conquering and converting, eastward to the Bay of Bengal, and westward
to the Pillars of Hercules. The higher and middle classes of England
were animated by zeal not less fiery than that of the Crusaders who
raised the cry of Deus vult at Clermont. The impulse which drove the two
nations to a collision was not to be arrested by the abilities or by the
authority of any single man. As Pitt was in front of his fellows, and
towered high above them, he seemed to lead them. But in fact he was
violently pushed on by them, and, had he held back but a little more
than he did, would have been thrust out of their way or trampled under
their feet.

He yielded to the current: and from that day his misfortunes began. The
truth is that there were only two consistent courses before him. Since
he did not choose to oppose himself, side by side with Fox, to the
public feeling, he should have taken the advice of Burke, and should
have availed himself of that feeling to the full extent. If it was
impossible to preserve peace, he should have adopted the only policy
which could lead to victory. He should have proclaimed a Holy War for
religion, morality, property, order, public law, and should have thus
opposed to the Jacobins an energy equal to their own. Unhappily he tried
to find a middle path; and he found one which united all that was
worst in both extremes. He went to war: but he would not understand the
peculiar character of that war. He was obstinately blind to the plain
fact, that he was contending against a state which was also a sect, and
that the new quarrel between England and France was of quite a different
kind from the old quarrels about colonies in America and fortresses
in the Netherlands. He had to combat frantic enthusiasm, boundless
ambition, restless activity, the wildest and most audacious spirit of
innovation; and he acted as if he had to deal with the harlots and fops
of the old Court of Versailles, with Madame de Pompadour and the Abbe
de Bernis. It was pitiable to hear him, year after year, proving to an
admiring audience that the wicked Republic was exhausted, that she could
not hold out, that her credit was gone, and her assignats were not worth
more than the paper of which they were made; as if credit was necessary
to a government of which the principle was rapine, as if Alboin could
not turn Italy into a desert till he had negotiated a loan at five
per cent., as if the exchequer bills of Attila had been a