g commerce; it will pay its benefactors with ingratitude."[87]
Mr. Adams also records in his diary, under date of 14th December, 1779,
on his landing at Ferrol in Spain, that, according to the report of
various persons, "the Spanish nation in general have been of opinion
that the Revolution in America was of bad example to the Spanish
colonies, and dangerous to the interests of Spain, as the United States,
should they become ambitious, and be seized with the spirit of conquest,
might aim at Mexico and Peru."[88] All this is entirely in harmony with
the memoir of the Count d'Aranda.

BURNS.--1788.

From Count d'Aranda to Robert Burns,--from the rich and titled minister,
faring sumptuously in the best house of Paris, to the poor ploughboy
poet, struggling in a cottage,--what a contrast! Of the poet I shall say
nothing, except that he was born 25th January, 1759, and died 21st July,
1796, in the thirty-seventh year of his age.

There is only a slender thread of Burns to be woven into this web, and
yet, coming from him, it must not be neglected. In a letter _dated 8th
November, 1788_, after saying a friendly word for the unfortunate house
of Stuart, he thus prophetically alludes to our independence:--

"I will not, I cannot, enter into the merits of the cause, but I dare
say the American Congress, in 1776, will be allowed to be as able and as
enlightened as the English Convention was in 1688; _and that their
posterity will celebrate the centenary of their deliverance from us, as
duly and sincerely as we do ours from the oppressive measures of the
house of Stuart_."[89]

The year 1788, when these words were written, was a year of
commemoration, being the hundredth from the famous revolution by which
the Stuarts were excluded from the throne of England. The "centenary" of
our independence is not yet completed; but long ago the commemoration
began. On the coming of that hundredth anniversary, the prophecy of
Burns will be more than fulfilled.

FOX.--1794.

In quoting from Charles James Fox, the statesman, minister, and orator,
I need add nothing, except that he was born 24th January, 1749, and died
13th September, 1806, and that he was an early friend of our country.

Many words of his, especially during our Revolution, might be introduced
here; but I content myself with a single passage of a later date, which,
besides its expression of good-will, is a prophecy of our power. It will
be found in a speech on his mot