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world is passing away; when old things are changed and all things are becoming new; when empires, and kingdoms, and nations are rolled together as a scroll, and wrapped in all the horrors of a more than Stygian darkness, are lost in the dread profound of tyranny and death; when the fiercest of all the fiends, that feed upon the misery of man, is cutting down every bridge, by which honour and humanity can retreat into the society of men ; when that fiend is blotting the sun with clouds of carnage, and is laying for ever low, in an untimely tomb, all that dignity, and tenderness, and wisdom, and charity, and affection, and confidence, can add of lusture and of love to the human race; it is incumbent upon religion, and morality, and literature, and policy to join hand in hand in one common bond of indissoluble amity and concord, and raise an effectual barrier to stem the rolling of that tide of desolation which has swept away its ancient mounds, and threatens to deluge the fair face of earth with the waters of bitterness and of death.

The last twenty years have presented to the world the important and the awful spectacle of a great and a mighty people, rising in all the fury of revolutionary phrenzy, and shaking off, like dew-drops from a lion's mane, the incumbrances of a despotism systematized and regulated by the polished, but the unrelenting hand of a specious and a deceitful refinement ;— of a people running the whole circle of human misery; cradling all the elements of society in blood; performing all the revolutions of governmental existence, from the wildest and the most lawless anarchy to the dreadful, the soul-benumbing calm of individual despotism; of all the royal and princely potentates, of all the dominations, and kingdoms, and thrones in Europe combining and confederating together to destroy that people of the enterprizing energy, and the irresistible enthusiasm, with which that people, so hemmed in with foes, and so begirded round about with enemies, put back all their assailants, and, under the daring auspices of the colossal mind, and the giant-grasp of one man, have placed themselves upon the pinnacle of human power, already dictate laws to half the world, and are, now, proceeding, with hasty strides, to cast. the chains of their horrible dominion over the remainder of the earth,

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How were all these events produced?—Hear the words of one of the greatest statesmen, which the world has ever produced, in ancient or in moden times; of that statesman, on whose wisdom and magnanimity are now turned the eyes of all the friends of humanity and of social order, as a rock of refuge, and a strong tower of defence, against the evils and the dangers, which encompass them round about.

"I would, really, wish to ask, if Gentlemen have never heard of a people called the Romans, a set of republicans, who conquered the world in the old time; and whom the modern Romans take as their model in every respect?—Among the nations that fell under the Roman yoke, there were but few, whom they were able to fetch down at a blow,-to reduce in the course of a single war. All their greater antagonists were not reduced 'till after repeated attacks, 'till after several successive and alternate processess of war and peace; a victorious war preparing the way for an advantageous peace; and an advantageous peace again laying the foundation of a successful war.

"This was, at least, the conduct of a great people; a people not to be put aside from their purposes by every transient blast of fortune. They had vowed the destruction of Carthage; and they never rested from their design, 'till they had seen it finally accomplished.

"The emulators of their fortune in the present day, are, in no less degree, the emulators of their virtues; at least of those quali ties, whatever they may be, that give to man a command over his fellows. When I look to the conduct of the French Revolutionary rulers, as compared with that of their opponents; when I see the grandeur of their designs; the wisdom of their plans; the steadiness of their execution; their boldness in acting; their constancy in enduring; their contempt of all small obstacles, and temporary embarrassments; their inflexible determination to perform such and such things; and the power, which they have displayed, in acting up to that determination; when I contrast these with the narrow views, the paltry interests, the desultory and wavering conduct, the want of all right feeling and just conception, that characterise so generally the governments and nations opposed to them, I confess, I sink down in despondency, and am fain to admit, that if they shall have conquered the world, it will be by qualities, by which they deserve to conquer it. Never were there persons who could shew a fairer title to the inheritance which they claim

"The great division of mankind, made by a celebrated philoso pher of old, into those, who were formed to govern, and those who were born only to obey, was never more strongly exemplified than by the French nation, and those who have sunk, or are sinking, under their yoke. Let us not suppose, therefore, that, while these qualities, combined with these purposes, shall continue to exist, they will ever cease, by night or by day, in peace or in war, to

work their natural effect; to graviate towards their proper centre; or that the bold, the proud, the dignified, the determined, those who will great things, and will stake their existence upon the accomplishment of what they have willed, shall not finally prevail over those, who act upon the very opposite feelings; who will never push their resistance beyond their convenience; who ask for nothing but ease and safety; who look only to stave off the evil for the present day, and will take no heed of what may befall them on the morrow"

But it does not, therefore follow, that it would be better for the world, that France should possess the sceptre of universal empire. We all know what was the condition of the kingdoms of the earth, when they were reduced into provinces of the Roman republic; a condition full of misery, and full of anguish, of barren sorrow, and irretrievable destitution.

When no nation exists to check oppression, or to oppose ty-. ranny, what is to prevent them from exerting their baneful influence in its fullest extent ?-If Britain fall in the present contest, in which she is engaged, the other nations of the earth fall with her; for what is to resist the combined force of France and of Britain, wielded by the giant-arm of the foremost man of all this world?--Listen, yet once again, to the warning voice, and while you listen, pause, and ponder upon the words of wisdom and of truth.

"Do we expect, that, from some cause or other, from some combination of passions and events, such as no philosophy seems capable of explaining, and no history probably can furnish an example of, the progress of the French Revolution will stop where it is; and that Bonaparte, like another Alexander, or rather like that adviser of Alexander, whose advice was not taken,-instead of proceeding to the conquest of new worlds, will be willing to sit down contented in the enjoyment of those which he has already?

"The great objection to this hope, to say nothing of its baseness, is it utter extravagance. On what possible ground do we believe this? Is it in the general nature of ambition! Is it in the nature of French ambition? Is it in the nature of French revolutionary ambition? Does it happen, commonly, to those, whether nations, or individuals, who are seized with the spirit of aggrandizement and acquisition, that they are inclined rather to count what they possess than to look forward to what remains to be acquired?

"If we examine the French revolution, and trace it correctly to its causes,we shall find that the scheme of universal empire was from the beginning, that which was looked to as the real consummation of its labours; the object, first in view, though last to be accom

plished, the primum mobile, that originally set it in motion, and has since guided and governed all its movements.

"The authors of the Revolution wished to destroy morality and religion. They wished those things as ends; but they wished them also as means, to a higher and more extensive design. They wished for a double empire; an empire of opinion, and an empire of political power; and they used the one of these as a mean of effecting the other.

"What reason have we to suppose, that they have renounced those designs, just when they seem to touch the moment of their highest and fullest accomplishment? When there is but one country between France and the empire of the world, is it, then, the moment, in which we choose to suppose, that all opposition may be withdrawn, and that the ambition of France will stop of its own accord? It is impossible not to see in these feeble and sickly Imaginations, that fatal temper of mind, which leads men to look for help and comfort from any source rather than from their own exertions."

It is not, now, the question, whether or not Britain is to preserve her independence, as a nation; but whether or not all the countries of the earth are to receive laws, and ordinances, and imposts, and burdens, and chains, and fetters, and all the bitterness of irremediable slavery from the Emperor of the French? What kindness, what favour, has America, a republic, a country breathing the spirit of liberty and of independence, a country, the excellence of whose government is a standing reproach to, and a broad libel upon the horrible features of despotism, to expect from him, who has waded through slaughter to a throne, and has shut the gates of mercy on mankind? And now, therefore, even now, , is the hour come, when every American must lay his hand upon his heart, and say,"we will suffer no foreign power to intermeddle with our laws and our government. That tree of liberty which our fathers planted in this extended continent, and bade its foliage overspread the land; that tree, which these, our fathers, watered with their blood; that tree, to defend which against all the deadly attempts of the most infatuated and perverse despotim, that ever degraded the character of man, they repaired to the field, clad in iron garments; we will not suffer to be hewn down, and cast into the fire, by the merciless and the vindictive sword of another Caligula, who wishes that mankind had but one neck, in order that he might exterminate the VOL. II.

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whole human race at one blow; by the sword of one who rears the structure of his fame, and builds the temple of his honour, on the destruction and annihilation of all the rights, and all the privileges of insulted and degraded humanity; of one, who clothes the colossal form of his imperial sway in the subjugation of a prostrate and an abased world."

At this rough, this trying, hour, when every thing upon every side, is full of traps and of mines, when earth below shakes, and heaven above menaces, when ruin's unfathomed gulph yawns beneath, and all the elements of social safety are dissolved; in the midst of this chaos of plots and of counterplots; in the midst of this complicated warfare against public opposition, and private treachery, the Americans are called upon to preserve themselves, and every thing that can be near and dear unto their hearts, against the unrelenting fury of another Attila, who has led forth his swarms of barbarians conquering and to conquer; and has commanded his hordes of banditti to lay waste the earth.

The fiend of carnage goeth before his van, and desolation hovers on his rear; his foot-steps are floated in human blood, his eye knoweth no pity; neither does his heart feel any mercy. He hath cried havoc and let slip the dogs of war upon a panting and a wearied world. And it is not the feeble arm of submission or of fear, that can, again, put the muzzle upon their mouths, and, again, throw the chain around their necks; it can only be done by the resistless energy of national glory, and of generous indignation, the unconquerable mind, and freedom's ardent flame.

Are we to learn ought from the page of history; is experience of the past to regulate our future conduct; or is the understanding of man drunken, so that it cannot perceive ;— is the common sense of all the human race asleep, so that it cannot feel, neither can it be taught any thing conducive to life, and light, and health, and peace, and safety from destruction? If it be not yet too late, consult the volume of former times, and learn, that a military conqueror is, of all the pests, and all the scourges of humanity, the direst and the worst.

When the bastard of Normandy, more commonly known by the name of William the Conqueror, had subdued England

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