these chances of death or disappointment. That is, that we should
first let England plunder us, as she has been doing for years, for fear
Bonaparte should do it; and then ally ourselves with her, and enter into
the war. A conqueror, whose career England could not arrest when aided
by Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal, she is now
to destroy, with all these on his side, by the aid of the United States
alone. This, indeed, is making us a mighty people. And what is to be
our security, that when embarked for her in the war, she will not make a
separate peace, and leave us in the lurch? Her good faith! The faith
of a nation of merchants! The _Punica fides_ of modern Carthage! Of the
friend and protectress of Copenhagen! Of the nation who never admitted a
chapter of morality into her political code! And is now boldly avowing,
that whatever power can make hers, is hers of right. Money, and not
morality, is the principle of commerce and commercial nations. But,
in addition to this, the nature of the English government forbids, of
itself, reliance on her engagements; and it is well known she has been
the least faithful to her alliances of any nation of Europe, since
the period of her history wherein she has been distinguished for her
commerce and corruption, that is to say, under the houses of Stuart and
Brunswick. To Portugal alone she has steadily adhered, because, by her
Methuin treaty, she had made it a colony, and one of the most valuable
to her. It may be asked, what, in the nature of her government, unfits
England for the observation of moral duties? In the first place, her
King is a cipher; his only function being to name the oligarchy which is
to govern her. The parliament is, by corruption, the mere instrument
of the will of the administration. The real power and property in the
government is in the great aristocratical families of the nation. The
nest of office being too small for all of them to cuddle into at once,
the contest is eternal, which shall crowd the other out. For this
purpose they are divided into two parties, the Ins and the Outs,
so equal in weight, that a small matter turns the balance. To keep
themselves in, when they are in, every stratagem must be practised,
every artifice used, which may flatter the pride, the passions, or power
of the nation. Justice, honor, faith, must yield to the necessity of
keeping themselves in place. The question, whether a measure is moral,
is never asked