at least those that corrupt them and pay
them for their treachery, not to expose them to vengeance, to torture,
or to ruin; not to betray those crimes which they have hired them to
commit, or give them up to punishment, to which they have made
themselves liable only by their instigation, and for their advantage.

That private compacts between nations and sovereigns ought to be kept
inviolably secret, cannot be doubted by any man who considers, that
secrecy is one of the conditions of those treaties, without which they
had not been concluded; and, therefore, that to discover them is to
violate them, to break down the securities of human society, to destroy
mutual trust, and introduce into the world universal confusion. For
nothing less can be produced by a disregard of those ties which link
nations in confederacies, and produce confidence and security, and which
enable the weak, by union, to resist the attacks of powerful ambition.

How much it would injure the honour of our sovereign to be charged with
the dissolution of concord, and the subversion of the general bulwarks
of publick faith, it is superfluous to explain. To know the condition to
which a compliance with this motion would reduce the British nation, we
need only turn our eyes downwards upon the hourly scenes of common life;
we need only attend to the occurrences which crowd perpetually upon our
view, and consider the calamitous state of that man, of whom it is
generally known that he cannot be trusted, and that secrets communicated
to him are in reality scattered among mankind.

Every one knows that such a man can expect none of the advantages or
pleasures of friendship, that he cannot transact affairs with others
upon terms of equality, that he must purchase the favours of those that
are more powerful than himself, and frighten those into compliance with
his designs who have any thing to fear from him; that he must give
uncommon security for the performance of his covenants, that he can have
no influence but that of money, which will probably become every day
less, that his success will multiply his enemies, and that in
misfortunes he will be without refuge.

The condition of nations collectively considered is not different from
that of private men, their prosperity is produced by the same conduct,
and their calamities drawn upon them by the same errours, negligences,
or crimes; and therefore, since he that betrays secrets in private life,
indisputably