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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
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