make to a supposed change in my political opinions. To the
scribblers in pamphlets and periodical publications who have heaped so
much obloquy upon myself and my friends Coleridge and Southey, I have
not condescended to reply, nor ever shall; but to you, my candid and
enlightened friend, I will say a few words on this subject, which, if we
have the good fortune to meet again, as I hope we may, will probably be
further dwelt upon.

I should think that I had lived to little purpose if my notions on the
subject of government had undergone no modification: my youth must, in
that case, have been without enthusiasm, and my manhood endued with
small capability of profiting by reflection. If I were addressing those
who have dealt so liberally with the words renegade, apostate, &c., I
should retort the charge upon them, and say, _you_ have been deluded by
_places_ and _persons_, while I have stuck to _principles_. _I_
abandoned France and her rulers when _they_ abandoned the struggle for
liberty, gave themselves up to tyranny, and endeavoured to enslave the
world. I disapproved of the war against France at its commencement,
thinking, which was, perhaps, an error, that it might have been avoided;
but after Buonaparte had violated the independence of Switzerland, my
heart turned against him, and against the nation that could submit to be
the instrument of such an outrage. Here it was that I parted, in
feeling, from the Whigs, and to a certain degree united with their
adversaries, who were free from the delusion (such I must ever regard
it) of Mr. Fox and his party, that a safe and honourable peace was
practicable with the French nation, and that an ambitious conqueror like
Buonaparte could be softened down into a commercial rival.

In a determination, therefore, to aim at the overthrow of that
inordinate ambition by war, I sided with the ministry, not from general
approbation of their conduct, but as men who thought right on this
essential point. How deeply this question interested me will be plain to
any one who will take the trouble of reading my political sonnets, and
the tract occasioned by the 'Convention of Cintra,' in which are
sufficient evidences of my dissatisfaction with the mode of conducting
the war, and a prophetic display of the course which it would take if
carried on upon the principles of justice, and with due respect for the
feelings of the oppressed nations.

This is enough for foreign politics, as influenci