which occurs to such a man, when he has got a business for
others into his hands, is, how to make his own fortune out of it. The
person he is to treat with is not, with him, an adversary over whom he
is to prevail, but a new friend he is to gain; therefore he always
systematically betrays some part of his trust. Instead of thinking how
he shall defend his ground to the last, and, if forced to retreat, how
little he shall give up, this kind of man considers how much of the
interest of his employer he is to sacrifice to his adversary. Having
nothing but himself in view, he knows, that, in serving his principal
with zeal, he must probably incur some resentment from the opposite
party. His object is, to obtain the good-will of the person with whom he
contends, that, when an agreement is made, he may join in rewarding him.
I would not take one of these as my arbitrator in a dispute for so much
as a fish-pond; for, if he reserved the mud to me, he would be sure to
give the water that fed the pool to my adversary. In a great cause, I
should certainly wish that my agent should possess conciliating
qualities: that he should be of a frank, open, and candid disposition,
soft in his nature, and of a temper to soften animosities and to win
confidence. He ought not to be a man odious to the person he treats
with, by personal injury, by violence, or by deceit, or, above all, by
the dereliction of his cause in any former transactions. But I would be
sure that my negotiator should be _mine_,--that he should be as earnest
in the cause as myself, and known to be so,--that he should not be
looked upon as a stipendiary advocate, but as a principled partisan. In
all treaty it is a great point that all idea of gaining your agent is
hopeless. I would not trust the cause of royalty with a man who,
professing neutrality, is half a republican. The enemy has already a
great part of his suit without a struggle,--and he contends with
advantage for all the rest. The common principle allowed between your
adversary and your agent gives your adversary the advantage in every
discussion.

Before I shut up this discourse about neutral agency, (which I conceive
is not to be found, or, if found, ought not to be used,) I have a few
other remarks to make on the cause which I conceive gives rise to it.

In all that we do, whether in the struggle or after it, it is necessary
that we should constantly have in our eye the nature and character of
the enemy we have