onquest of France. The leaders of that sect secured _the
centre of Europe_; and that secured, they knew, that, whatever might be
the event of battles and sieges, their _cause_ was victorious. Whether
its territory had a little more or a little less peeled from its
surface, or whether an island or two was detached from its commerce, to
them was of little moment. The conquest of France was a glorious
acquisition. That once well laid as a basis of empire, opportunities
never could be wanting to regain or to replace what had been lost, and
dreadfully to avenge themselves on the faction of their adversaries.

They saw it was _a civil war_. It was their business to persuade their
adversaries that it ought to be a _foreign_ war. The Jacobins everywhere
set up a cry against the new crusade; and they intrigued with effect in
the cabinet, in the field, and in every private society in Europe. Their
task was not difficult. The condition of princes, and sometimes of first
ministers too, is to be pitied. The creatures of the desk and the
creatures of favor had no relish for the principles of the manifestoes.
They promised no governments, no regiments, no revenues from whence
emoluments might arise by perquisite or by grant. In truth, the tribe of
vulgar politicians are the lowest of our species. There is no trade so
vile and mechanical as government in their hands. Virtue is not their
habit. They are out of themselves in any course of conduct recommended
only by conscience and glory. A large, liberal, and prospective view of
the interests of states passes with them for romance, and the principles
that recommend it for the wanderings of a disordered imagination. The
calculators compute them out of their senses. The jesters and buffoons
shame them out of everything grand and elevated. Littleness in object
and in means to them appears soundness and sobriety. They think there is
nothing worth pursuit, but that which they can handle, which they can
measure with a two-foot rule, which they can tell upon ten fingers.

Without the principles of the Jacobins, perhaps without any principles
at all, they played the game of that faction. There was a beaten road
before them. The powers of Europe were armed; France had always appeared
dangerous; the war was easily diverted from France as a faction to
France as a state. The princes were easily taught to slide back into
their old, habitual course of politics. They were easily led to consider
the fla