ty--and incalculable. Accordingly, from the moment
when these foreigners landed--men who had no interest, no business, in
the quarrel, but what the wages of their master bound him to, and he
imposed upon his miserable slaves;--nay, from the first rumour of their
destination, the success of the British was (as hath since been affirmed
by judicious Americans) impossible.

The British government of the present day have been seduced, as we have
seen, by the same commonplace facilities on the one side; and have been
equally blind on the other. A physical auxiliar force of thirty-five
thousand men is to be added to the army of Spain: but the moral energy,
which thereby _might_ be taken away from the principal, is overlooked or
slighted; the material being too fine for their calculation. What does
it avail to graft a bough upon a tree; if this be done so ignorantly and
rashly that the trunk, which can alone supply the sap by which the whole
must flourish, receives a deadly wound? Palpable effects of the
Convention of Cintra, and self-contradicting consequences even in the
matter especially aimed at, may be seen in the necessity which it
entailed of leaving 8,000 British troops to protect Portugueze traitors
from punishment by the laws of their country. A still more serious and
fatal contradiction lies in this--that the English army was made an
instrument of injustice, and was dishonoured, in order that it might be
hurried forward to uphold a cause which could have no life but by
justice and honour. The Nation knows how that army languished in the
heart of Spain: that it accomplished nothing except its retreat, is
sure: what great service it might have performed, if it had moved from a
different impulse, we have shewn.

It surely then behoves those who are in authority--to look to the state
of their own minds. There is indeed an inherent impossibility that they
should be equal to the arduous duties which have devolved upon them: but
it is not unreasonable to hope that something higher might be aimed at;
and that the People might see, upon great occasions,--in the practice of
its Rulers--a more adequate reflection of its own wisdom and virtue. Our
Rulers, I repeat, must begin with their own minds. This is a precept of
immediate urgency; and, if attended to, might be productive of immediate
good. I will follow it with further conclusions directly referring to
future conduct.

I will not suppose that any ministry of this country