occupations of commerce and husbandry, and the pursuits of the arts and sciences would have continued as before; the political effervescence would have subsided, the sober and well intentioned would have gained the ascendancy, the king of France would have preserved his power, with some salutary modifications, no war would have ensued, France would have continued subject to her national debt and her tythes,-and Great Britain would have discharged the whole or a great part of her financial burthen, and been, at this moment, the first in rank and power among the European states. But the war made France a nation of armed men, with all the energy and resources, which, in a time of anarchy and revolution, a foreign war always gives to the triumphant party, by putting them into possession of the absolute sovereignty, the power, the armies, the offices, and the treasure of the kingdom. Besides, continue the admirers of Mr. Fox,ought not Mr. Pitt to have felt how seldom coalitions have succeeded? Ought he not to have foreseen that, from the known aversion which the Austrians and Prussians had for each other, and the hatred which all the powers proposed to be coalesced bore to the English, there were more than sufficient seeds of discord in the original construction of the coalition to work its ruin?-But, if the war was wise, was it, they ask, wisely conducted?--To say nothing of the Walcheren, the Quiberon, and the other disastrous expeditions, so disgraceful to the councils

of Great Britain. Was not the general plan of the war misconceived? Was it not evidently such as must lead every Frenchman to believe that the coalesced powers had selfish views, and that the dismemberment, not the restoration of the monarchy, was their real aim?

On these topics the friends of Mr. Fox will ever love to dwell. They will also notice his unvarying exertions in favour of civil and religious liberty, and remark that, though from year to year, Mr. Pitt advocated, with the most splendid eloquence, the abolition of the slave trade, applying both to its justice and its policy the strongest expressions of abhorrence and reprobation, he yet permitted his cabinet, though uniformly subservient to him on every other occasion, to vote for its continuance; but that Mr. Fox was scarcely seated in office, when the glorious and salutary measure was instantaneously carried, as it were by acclamation.

On this, however, and even on the failure of Mr. Pitt's war projects, his advocates will not be without some plausible topics of defence. On the unavailing effusions of Mr. Pitt's eloquence for the abolition of the slave trade, compared with the instantaneous abolition of it by Mr. Fox's administration, they will notice the difference between their cabinets, Mr. Pitt's strenuously resisting, Mr. Fox's as strenuously co-operating with the minister. On the failure of Mr. Pitt's war project, they will suggest that it does not follow that, because the experiment

failed, it should not have been tried: that, because Mr. Fox's plans were the reverse of Mr. Pitt's, they were therefore wise, or would have succeeded; or that, because Mr. Pitt's measures were not successful in all their parts, their general result was not highly beneficial to his country : They engaged us, it will be admitted, in a ruinous expenditure, and ended in a portentous territorial aggrandizement of France; but it will be asked, if they did not save our constitution, crush the commercial and colonial strength of our rival, destroy all the navies of Europe, secure to England the empire of the sea, and leave her, at the end of the contest, in a state of power, influence and fame, unenjoyed by her in any former period:-Add to this, Mr. Pitt's advocates will also say, that the war with France was not volunteered by Mr. Pitt; it was forced upon him this, they will contend, is demonstrated by Dr. Marsh, in his excellent "History of the "Politics of Great Britain and France, from "the time of the Conference at Pilnitz, till the "declaration of war against Great Britain."

Thus the argument seems to have stood at the close of the war. A state of things wholly new and unforeseen, has followed, and Great Britain is now in a condition of public and private exhaustion and distress, unequalled in the annals of her history. To what is it owing? Is it attributable to Mr. Pitt or his war?-If not, what is its true cause? and, (a much more useful inquiry), what is its remedy? It would be the

extreme of presumption in the Reminiscent to pretend to answer any of these questions. The last is the most important;-and unfortunately, the solution of it appears to baffle the wisest men.

Unfortunately, however, for Great Britain, another state of things may arise which may be still more unpropitious to her than the present. The exhaustion and distress, which she now experiences are felt, in a high degree at least, by every European nation. Should they as

universally subside, and agriculture and commerce as universally revive, will the consequence verify the prediction of Napoléon*, that "such "then must be the pressure on England from "her immense national debt, and such the necessary decrease of her trade, from the "stimulus given to the commerce of other con"tinental nations, that her descent into the "rank of secondary states must be near at "hand."

It was the good fortune of the Reminiscent to have the honour of spending a day tête-à-tête with Mr. Fox at St. Ann's Hill. The Reminiscent mentioned, what certainly was of no consequence, that "he had never read Adam Smith's "celebrated work on the Wealth of Nations."

To tell you the truth," said Mr. Fox, "nor "I either. There is something in all these sub"jects, which passes my comprehension ;-some

* Ante, p. 175.

failed, it should not have been tried: that, because Mr. Fox's plans were the reverse of Mr. Pitt's, they were therefore wise, or would have succeeded; or that, because Mr. Pitt's measures were not successful in all their parts, their general result was not highly beneficial to his country: They engaged us, it will be admitted, in a ruinous expenditure, and ended in a portentous territorial aggrandizement of France; but it will be asked, if they did not save our constitution, crush the commercial and colonial strength of our rival, destroy all the navies of Europe, secure to England the empire of the sea, and leave her, at the end of the contest, in a state of power, influence and fame, unenjoyed by her in any former period:-Add to this, Mr. Pitt's advocates will also say, that the war with France was not volunteered by Mr. Pitt; it was forced upon him: this, they will contend, is demonstrated by Dr. Marsh, in his excellent "History of the "Politics of Great Britain and France, from "the time of the Conference at Pilnitz, till the "declaration of war against Great Britain."

Thus the argument seems to have stood at the close of the war. A state of things wholly new and unforeseen, has followed, and Great Britain is now in a condition of public and private exhaustion and distress, unequalled in the annals of her history. To what is it owing? Is it attributable to Mr. Pitt or his war?-If not, what is its true cause? and, (a much more useful inquiry), what is its remedy? It would be the