To send forth the merciless cannibal, thirsting for blood! Against whom? Your brethren! To lay waste their country, to desolate their dwellings, and extirpate their race and name, by the aid and instrumentality of these horrible hounds of war! Spain can no longer boast pre-eminence in barbarity. She armed herself with blood-hounds to extirpate the wretched natives of Mexico; we, more ruthless, loose these dogs of war against our countrymen in America, endeared to us by every tie that can sanctify humanity. I solemnly call upon your lordships, and upon every order of men in the state, to stamp upon this infamous procedure the indelible stigma of the public abhorrence. More particularly I call upon the holy prelates of our religion to do away this iniquity; let them perform a lustration, to purify the country from this deep and deadly sin.

LESSON 51.

FAMOUS SPEECHES.

II. GRATTAN: AGAINST NAPOLEON IN 1815.

adamant, that which cannot iota, a jot, the smallest

The proposition that we should not interfere with the government of other nations is true, but true with qualifications. If the government of any other country contains an insurrectionary principle, as France did when she offered to aid the insurrection of her neighbours, your interference is warranted; if the government of another country contains the principle of universal empire, as France did, and promulgated, your interference is justifiable. Gentlemen may call this internal government, but I call this conspiracy. If the government of another country maintains a predatory army, such as Buonaparte's, with a view to hostility and conquest, your interference is just. He may call

this internal government, but I call this a preparation for war. No doubt he will accompany this with offers of peace, but such offers are nothing more than one of the arts of war, attended most assuredly by charging on you the odium of a long and protracted contest, and with much commonplace, and many good saws and sayings of the miseries of bloodshed, and the savings and good husbandry of peace, and the comforts of a quiet life; but if you listen to this, you will be much deceived; not only deceived, but you will be beaten.

Again, if the government of another country covers more ground in Europe, and destroys the balance of power, so as to threaten the independence of other nations, this is a cause of your interference. Such was the principle upon which we acted in the best times; such was the principle of the grand alliance; such was the triple alliance, and such the quadruple; and by such principles has Europe not only been regulated, but protected. If a foreign government does any of those acts I have mentioned, we have a cause of war; but if a foreign power does all of them,-forms a conspiracy for universal empire, keeps up an army for that purpose, employs that army to overturn the balance of power, and attempts the conquest of Europe,attempts, do I say? in a great degree achieves it (for what else was Buonaparte's dominion before the battle of Leipsic ?)—and then receives an overthrow, owes its deliverance to treaties which give that power its life, and these countries their security, (for what did you get from France but security ?)— if this power, I say, avails itself of the conditions in the treaties which give it colonies, prisoners, and deliverance, and breaks those conditions which

give you security, and resumes the same situation which renders this power capable of repeating the same atrocity,-has England, or has she not, a right of war?

Having considered the two questions,-that of ability and that of right,—and having shown that you are justified on either consideration to go to war, let me now suppose that you treat for peace. First you will have peace upon a war establishment, and then a war without your present allies. It is not certain that you will have any of them, but it is that you will not have the same combination, while Buonaparte increases his power by confirmation of his title and by further preparation; so that you will have a bad peace and a bad war. Were I disposed to treat for peace, I would not agree to the amendment, because it disperses your allies and strengthens your enemy, and says to both, we will quit our alliance to confirm Napoleon on the throne of France, that he may hereafter more advantageously fight us, as he did before, for the throne of England.

Gentlemen set forth the pretensions of Buonaparte; gentlemen say that he has given liberty to the press; he has given liberty to publication, to be afterwards tried and punished according to the present constitution of France, as a military chief pleases; that is to say, he has given liberty to the French to hang themselves. Gentlemen say he

has in his dominions abolished the slave-trade: I am unwilling to deny him praise for such an act; but if we praise him for giving liberty to the African, let us not assist him in imposing slavery on the European. Gentlemen say, Will you make war upon character? But the question is, Will you trust a government without one? What will you

do if you are conquered, say gentlemen? I answer, the very thing you must do if you treat—abandon the Low Countries. But the question is, in which case are you most likely to be conquered-with allies or without them? Either you must abandon the Low Countries, or you must preserve them by arms; for Buonaparte will not be withheld by treaty. If you abandon them, you will lose your situation on the globe; and instead of being a medium of communication and commerce between the new and old, you will become an anxious station between two fires-the continent of America, rendered hostile by the intrigues of France, and the continent of Europe, possessed by her arms. It then remains for you to determine, if you do not abandon the Low Countries, in what way you mean to defend them—alone or with allies.

Gentlemen complain of the allies, and say they have partitioned such a country, and transferred such a country, and seized on such a country. What! will they quarrel with their ally who has possessed himself of a part of Saxony, and shake hands with Buonaparte who proposes to take possession of England? If a prince takes Venice, we are indignant; but if he seizes on a great part of Europe, and stands covered with the blood of millions and the spoils of half mankind, our indignation ceases; vice becomes gigantic, conquers the understanding, and mankind begin by wonder, and conclude by worship. The character of Buonaparte is admirably calculated for this effect: he invests himself with much theatrical grandeur; he is a great actor in the tragedy of his own government; the fire of his genius precipitates on universal empire, certain to destroy his neighbours or himself; better formed to acquire empire than to keep