quality of their venom, they become objects of the greatest terror. A
spider in his natural size is only a spider, ugly and loathsome; and his
flimsy net is only fit for catching flies. But, good God! suppose a
spider as large as an ox, and that he spread cables about us, all the
wilds of Africa would not produce anything so dreadful:--

Quale portentum neque militaris
Daunia in latis alit esculetis,
Nec Jubae tellus generat, leonum
Arida nutrix.

Think of them who dare menace in the way they do in their present state,
what would they do, if they had power commensurate to their malice? God
forbid I ever should have a despotic master!--but if I must, my choice
is made. I will have Louis the Sixteenth rather than Monsieur Bailly, or
Brissot, or Chabot,--rather George the Third, or George the Fourth,
than. Dr. Priestley, or Dr. Kippis,--persons who would not load a
tyrannous power by the poisoned taunts of a vulgar, low-bred insolence.
I hope we have still spirit enough to keep us from the one or the other.
The contumelies of tyranny are the worst parts of it.

But if the danger be existing in reality, and silently maturing itself
to our destruction, what! is it not better to take _treason_ unprepared
than that _treason_ should come by surprise upon us and take us
unprepared? If we must have a conflict, let us have it with all our
forces fresh about us, with our government in full function and full
strength, our troops uncorrupted, our revenues in the legal hands, our
arsenals filled and possessed by government,--and not wait till the
conspirators met to commemorate the 14th of July shall seize on the
Tower of London and the magazines it contains, murder the governor, and
the mayor of London, seize upon the king's person, drive out the House
of Lords, occupy your gallery, and thence, as from an high tribunal,
dictate to you. The degree of danger is not only from the circumstances
which threaten, but from the value of the objects which are threatened.
A small danger menacing an inestimable object is of more importance than
the greatest perils which regard one that is indifferent to us. The
whole question of the danger depends upon facts. The first fact is,
whether those who sway in France at present confine themselves to the
regulation of their internal affairs,--or whether upon system they
nourish cabals in all other countries, to extend their power by
producing revolutions similar to their own. 2.