e. What matters it whether a State is mortally wounded by the
hand of a foreign enemy, or dies by a consumption of its own vital
strength? Such a consumption will come upon Holland sooner than upon
England, because the latter has a greater radical force; but, great as it
is, that force at last will be so diminished and exhausted by perpetual
drains, that it may fail all at once, and those efforts, which may seem
most surprisingly vigorous, will be in reality the convulsions of death.
I don't apply this to your Majesty's government; but I speak with a view
to what may happen hereafter from the extensive ideas of negotiation and
war which you have established: they have been salutary to your kingdom;
but they will, I fear, be pernicious in future times, if in pursuing
great plans great Ministers do not act with a sobriety, prudence, and
attention to frugality, which very seldom are joined with an
extraordinary vigour and boldness of counsels.

DIALOGUE XIX.

M. APICIUS--DARTENEUF.

_Darteneuf_.--Alas! poor Apicius, I pity thee from my heart for not
having lived in my age and in my country. How many good dishes, unknown
at Rome in thy days, have I feasted upon in England!

_Apicius_.--Keep your pity for yourself. How many good dishes have I
feasted upon in Rome which England does not produce, or of which the
knowledge has been lost, with other treasures of antiquity, in these
degenerate days! The fat paps of a sow, the livers of scari, the brains
of phoenicopters, and the tripotanum, which consisted of three excellent
sorts of fish, for which you English have no names, the lupus marinus,
the myxo, and the muraena.

_Darteneuf_.--I thought the muraena had been our lamprey. We have
delicate ones in the Severn.

_Apicius_.--No; the muraena, so respected by the ancient Roman senators,
was a salt-water fish, and kept by our nobles in ponds, into which the
sea was admitted.

_Darteneuf_.--Why, then, I dare say our Severn lampreys are better. Did
you ever eat any of them stewed or potted?

_Apicius_.--I was never in Britain. Your country then was too barbarous
for me to go thither. I should have been afraid that the Britons would
have eaten me.

_Darteneuf_.--I am sorry for you, very sorry; for if you never were in
Britain you never ate the best oysters.

_Apicius_.--Pardon me, sir, your Sandwich oysters were brought to Rome in
my time.

_Darteneuf_.--They could not be fresh; they were good for nothin