214

CHAP. XXVI.

WAR WITH THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

It is imprudent to attack a people who are divided amongst themselves, with a view of conquering them, in consequence of their disunion.

There was such disunion in the Roman republic between the people and the nobility, that the inhabitants of Veii, together with the Etruscans, thought that they could extinguish the Roman name by taking advantage of these dissensions. Having raised an army therefore, and made incursions upon the territory of Rome, the senate sent against them Cneius Manlius and Marcus Fabius, whose army encamping near the enemy, the people of Veii did not cease from attacking, both by arms and by reproaches, the Roman name; and such was their rashness and insolence, that the Romans, who were disunited, became united, and engaging the enemy, defeated and routed them. We see, therefore, how much men deceive themselves, as we have before observed, in the line of conduct they adopt, and how it frequently happens that, in thinking to obtain an object, they lose it. The people of Veii believed, that by attacking the Romans disunited, they should defeat them; and the attack, on the contrary, caused the union of the Romans, and their own ruin: for the causes of dissension in republics are generally idleness and peace; the causes of union are fear and war. *** The people of Veii therefore were deceived in their opinion, and were, in short, in one day overcome by the

*

Romans.

And so for the future will be deceived whoever, in a similar way, and for a similar cause, shall think to oppress a nation.

MACHIAVEL, Discourses.

They

The people of this country loved their constitution. had experienced its benefits; they were attached to it from habit. Why then put their love to any unnecessary test? Their love by being tried could not be made greater; nor would the fresh burdens and taxes, which war must occasion, more endear it to their affection. If there was any danger from French principles, to go to war without necessity, was to fight for their propagation.

Fox's Speeches, Feb. 1. 1793.

THE war against France, undertaken in 1793, exemplified at its commencement the wise observations which I have quoted from Machiavel. The more apparent the attempts of the allied powers to regulate her internal government, the greater her vigour, the more brilliant her victories, and the more extensive her conquests. At length, tempted by military trophies, and successful treaties, she confided herself to a sovereign who abused his genius and his force, and endeavoured to make himself despotic lord of the whole continent of Europe. The Whig ministry of 1806, found it impossible to make

peace with him; and with few exceptions, all parties in England agreed in thinking the continuance of the war just and necessary. At length, drunk with unexampled power and glory, and irritated by a perpetual thirst of action, the Emperor of France carried his great army of conquerors to perish amid the frosts of Russia. The nations roused themselves, and he was hurled from the throne. The republic had triumphed, the monarchy was conquered.

By a singular fortune the end of the war, however different in character from the commencement, was equally destined to prove the sagacity of Fox. The few enthusiastic Jacobins of 1793 were converted, in 1817 and the following years, into hundreds of thousands of malcontents. The pressure of sixty millions of taxes have indisposed more sound and loyal men to the constitution of their country, than the harangues of Citizen Brissot, and the fraternising decree of November could have done in a hundred years.

217

CHAP. XXVII.

NATIONAL DEBT.

The common people do not work for pleasure generally, but from necessity. Cheapness of provisions makes them more idle; less work is then done, it is then more in demand, proportionally, and of course the price rises. Dearness of provisions obliges the manufacturer to work more days and more hours; thus more work is done than equals the usual demand; of course it becomes cheaper, and the manufactures in consequence. FRANKLIN'S Political Fragments.

THE favourite reproach which is made to the authors of the Revolution of 1688, is, that they commenced the funding system. As a reproach, however, peculiarly applicable to the government of England of that day, this censure is totally groundless. The system of borrowing and funding had been long before adopted both by Venice and Holland.

It is, indeed, a natural step, in the history of a free state, where commerce produces capital, and liberty establishes credit. Even the arbitrary monarchies of Europe have found means to borrow to a large extent. Austria has several times transacted large loans, and has been thus enabled to commit the most flagitious frauds on the creditors of the state. In England, Charles II. borrowed a large sum from the bankers, payable on the receipt of the taxes. When the taxes came in, he closed the door of the Exchequer, and refused to pay. The infamy of this swindling transaction was, in some measure, repaired in the reign of William III. when a large part, at least, of the sum owing was funded as stock in the national debt.

I shall not pursue any farther the defence of a measure, rendered necessary by the pressure of the great war in which we were engaged, and borrowed from Venice, the wisest, and Holland, the freest state in Europe. It is important, however, to cast our eye over the history of the national debt, from this time, and to examine its immediate and remote effects.