earer into an opinion that the construction
of the new fabric was an object of admiration, as well as the demolition
of the old. Mr. Fox, however, has explained himself; and it would be too
like that captious and cavilling spirit which I so perfectly detest, if
I were to pin down the language of an eloquent and ardent mind to the
punctilious exactness of a pleader. Then Mr. Fox did not mean to applaud
that monstrous thing which, by the courtesy of France, they call a
Constitution. I easily believe it. Far from meriting the praises of a
great genius like Mr. Fox, it cannot be approved by any man of common
sense or common information. He cannot admire the change of one piece of
barbarism for another, and a worse. He cannot rejoice at the destruction
of a monarchy, mitigated by manners, respectful to laws and usages, and
attentive, perhaps but too attentive, to public opinion, in favor of the
tyranny of a licentious, ferocious, and savage multitude, without laws,
manners, or morals, and which, so far from respecting the general sense
of mankind, insolently endeavors to alter all the principles and
opinions which have hitherto guided and contained the world, and to
force them into a conformity to their views and actions. His mind is
made to better things.

That a man should rejoice and triumph in the destruction of an absolute
monarchy,--that in such an event he should overlook the captivity,
disgrace, and degradation of an unfortunate prince, and the continual
danger to a life which exists only to be endangered,--that he should
overlook the utter ruin of whole orders and classes of men, extending
itself directly, or in its nearest consequences, to at least a million
of our kind, and to at least the temporary wretchedness of a whole
community,--I do not deny to be in some sort natural; because, when
people see a political object which they ardently desire but in one
point of view, they are apt extremely to palliate or underrate the evils
which may arise in obtaining it. This is no reflection on the humanity
of those persons. Their good-nature I am the last man in the world to
dispute. It only shows that they are not sufficiently informed or
sufficiently considerate. When they come to reflect seriously on the
transaction, they will think themselves bound to examine what the
object is that has been acquired by all this havoc. They will hardly
assert that the destruction of an absolute monarchy is a thing good in
itself, witho