to
offend Great Britain now, whilst America alone employs more than her
whole natural force, how they will be able to contend with her when at
peace and on good terms, perhaps in alliance with America.

Universal monarchy has at many periods been feared from the House of
Bourbon, and England has been exhausted to prevent it; she has engaged
allies pretendedly to keep the balance of power in Europe, as it is
ridiculously and unintelligibly termed by European politicians; but
you will permit an American to give his sentiments; they may at least
divert and make you smile. From the period when the feudal system
prevailed over all Europe, when every lord was sovereign, to this
hour, the number of kingdoms or distinct powers in Europe has been
decreasing, and if we look three centuries back, and reckon up the
distinct powers then existing and compare them with those of the
present, and extend our view forward, the whole must at some not very
distant period be brought into one; for not an age passes, and scarce
a single war without annihilating or swallowing up several of them.
But from what quarter is this universal empire in Europe to originate?
I answer negatively; not from the House of Bourbon, though formidable
for its connexions and alliances in the South; but I will venture to
predict, that if Great Britain, by forming an accommodation of
friendship and alliance with the United States, renders herself, as by
that measure she easily can, mistress of that world, by taking the
affairs of the East Indies into her own hands, she will be in
possession of exhaustless treasure, and in 1780 the charter of the
East India Company expires, when both the territory and commerce will
be at her disposal. Add to all this her strict and close alliance
with Russia. I say, that laying these circumstances together, it is
easy to foresee, that Great Britain, America, and Russia united, will
command not barely Europe, but the whole world united.

Russia like America is a new State, and rises with the most
astonishing rapidity. Its demand for British manufactures, and its
supplies of raw materials, increase nearly as fast as the American;
and when both come to centre in Great Britain, the riches as well as
power of that kingdom will be unparalleled in the annals of Europe, or
perhaps of the world; like a Colossus with one foot on Russia and the
East, and the other on America, it will bestride, as Shakspeare says,
your poor European world, an