176 



Mrs. Barbauld's mind. Was it by degradation of 

 his country that Nelson infallibly led her sons to 

 victory f Is it by filling the minds of her sons 

 with gloom and despondence, that we would enable 

 them to support her through the present arduous, 

 unequal, and dreadful conflict ? Shall that being 

 dare to assume the name of patriot, who shall call 

 it guilt in Britain to contend with the giant-power 

 of France ? Or shall a mortal pretend to read the 

 decrees of the Almighty, and declare that he has 

 doomed the fall of Britain ? 



Columbia, too, is the land of freedom ! the tem- 

 ple of science ! Pray tell me how has she im- 

 proved in science since she lost her Franklin ? and 

 how has the pristine vigour of her constitution, and 

 its freedom, been preserved, since she lost her great, 

 her truly exalted Washington ? What are her le- 

 gislators now ? One half of them servile knaves, 

 sold, for the most ignoble of all rewards, to the 

 despot of Europe ; the other and more virtuous 

 half, distracted by jarring interests, and feeble and 

 disunited in their councils. 



America, from her extent of territory, her con- 

 siderable and increasing population, and the abun- 

 dance she possesses of all the necessaries of life, 

 can never reasonably be the object of conquest : 

 any attempt to subdue her must increase her moral 

 and physical strength by cementing her civil union. 

 Discord is her great and only danger. She may, 

 and probably will in time, become a great nation ; 

 but she is at present only in her youth ; strong and 

 agile, I grant, but with a head not sufficiently ener- 



