y mind, when I began with asserting, that this Convention
is among the most important events of our times:--an assertion, which
was made deliberately, and after due allowance for that infirmity which
inclines us to magnify things present and passing, at the expence of
those which are past. It is my aim to prove, wherein the real importance
of this event lies: and, as a necessary preparative for forming a right
judgment upon it, I have already given a representation of the
sentiments, with which the people of Great Britain and those of Spain
looked upon each other. I have indeed spoken rather of the Spaniards
than of the Portugueze; but what has been said, will be understood as
applying in the main to the whole Peninsula. The wrongs of the two
nations have been equal, and their cause is the same: they must stand or
fall together. What their wrongs have been, in what degree they
considered themselves united, and what their hopes and resolutions were,
we have learned from public Papers issued by themselves and by their
enemies. These were read by the people of this Country, at the time when
they were severally published, with due impression.--- Pity, that those
impressions could not have been as faithfully retained as they were at
first received deeply! Doubtless, there is not a man in these Islands,
who is not convinced that the cause of Spain is the most righteous cause
in which, since the opposition of the Greek Republics to the Persian
Invader at Thermopylae and Marathon, sword ever was drawn! But this is
not enough. We are actors in the struggle; and, in order that we may
have steady PRINCIPLES to controul and direct us, (without which we may
do much harm, and can do no good,) we ought to make it a duty to revive
in the memory those words and facts, which first carried the conviction
to our hearts: that, as far as it is possible, we may see as we then
saw, and feel as we then felt. Let me therefore entreat the Reader
seriously to peruse once more such parts of those Declarations as I
shall extract from them. I feel indeed with sorrow, that events are
hurrying us forward, as down the Rapid of an American river, and that
there is too much danger _before_, to permit the mind easily to turn
back upon the course which is past. It is indeed difficult.--But I need
not say, that to yield to the difficulty, would be degrading to rational
beings. Besides, if from the retrospect, we can either gain strength by
which we can overcom