e 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 hi