he meant to take away half the crown of his neighbor, he lost
the whole of his own. Louis the Sixteenth could not with impunity
countenance a new republic. Yet between his throne and that dangerous
lodgment for an enemy, which he had erected, he had the whole Atlantic
for a ditch. He had for an outwork the English nation itself, friendly
to liberty, adverse to that mode of it. He was surrounded by a rampart
of monarchies, most of them allied to him, and generally under his
influence. Yet even thus secured, a republic erected under his auspices,
and dependent on his power, became fatal to his throne. The very money
which he had lent to support this republic, by a good faith which to him
operated as perfidy, was punctually paid to his enemies, and became a
resource in the hands of his assassins.

With this example before their eyes, do any ministers in England, do any
ministers in Austria, really flatter themselves that they can erect, not
on the remote shores of the Atlantic, but in their view, in their
vicinity, in absolute contact with one of them, not a commercial, but a
martial republic,--a republic not of simple husbandmen or fishermen, but
of intriguers, and of warriors,--a republic of a character the most
restless, the most enterprising, the most impious, the most fierce and
bloody, the most hypocritical and perfidious, the most bold and daring,
that ever has been seen, or indeed that can be conceived to exist,
without bringing on their own certain ruin?

Such is the republic to which we are going to give a place in civilized
fellowship,--the republic which, with joint consent, we are going to
establish in the centre of Europe, in a post that overlooks and
commands every other state, and which eminently confronts and menaces
this kingdom.

You cannot fail to observe that I speak as if the allied powers were
actually consenting, and not compelled by events, to the establishment
of this faction in France. The words have not escaped me. You will
hereafter naturally expect that I should make them good. But whether in
adopting this measure we are madly active or weakly passive or
pusillanimously panic-struck, the effects will be the same. You may call
this faction, which has eradicated the monarchy, expelled the
proprietary, persecuted religion, and trampled upon law,[36]--you may
call this Prance, if you please; but of the ancient France nothing
remains but its central geography, its iron frontier, its spirit of
am