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OPINIONS In 1805. ; 
Peace will soon be restored to the 
Continent, by. the utter defeat of the 
present coalition; but, if no repeated ex- 
perience can convince this country of 
the fatal mischiefs of her belligerent prin- 
ciples, they will soon bring on the loss of 
Ireland, and ‘the’ rapidl succeeding 
downfal of British independence.” 
The stimulant idea, which ministers 
have excited amongst the people, that 
Buonaparte is bent upon the destruction 
of England, ‘appears to me a dangerous 
illusion. Our rulers, probably, know it 
to be such; and if their dread is sincere, 
Tam afraid it-will ptove another instance 
of the truth of the adage which says, 
“ Fear is'a bad counsellor.” 
I feel assured that the French emperor 
is only bent’ upon obtaining a share in 
the commerce’ ofthe East and West In- 
dies; and that’ we’ ought to fulfil the 
treaty of Amiens, by resigning our exclu- 
» Sive’ pretension to Malta. Concessions 
in those respeets' would, Tam convinced, 
satisfy hin; and better, surely, that we 
should share with France ‘our colonial 
possessions, than that we become a vas- 
sal to that empire. I see no alternative, 
I can hear none suggested, even by the 
loudest clamourers for continued war, 
The day-spring of security will never 
break upon us through the sanguinary 
clouds raised by the breath of ministerial 
infatuation, ; 
oP taniann 4 § 
Secure on the Jap of restoring peace, 
and with our alliance courted by all the 
surrounding nations, Mr, Pitt tound us, 
in, 1784, when we resigned ourselves to 
his protection ; and, with ovt revived 
commerce, flourishing more and’ more 
beneath. the shade of ‘the olive. Per- 
., @eiving, as he must, the blessings that 
peace was regaining for us, he early 
panted to exchange them for the curses 
of war, -in a quarrel with Spain about a 
barren.‘and: useless. territory. ‘He was 
happily. unsuccessful in. that sangainary 
attempt. . Would to God-he had been 
so also in the second !—After gbsti- 
natély ‘persevering in unsuccessful war- 
fare through fourteen years, he dies, and 
leaves us with the national debt trebled, 
€very port jn Europe shut against us, 
our internal trade perishing by bankrupt- 
cies, owing to that arrested intercourse, 
and the consequent impossibility of being 
paid by those European cities to which 
our merchants had sent their goods; our 
taxes more than trebled; our shores meé= 
1 
Letters of Anna Sewards 
naced with invason; oar Opfiortunities: 
of making a safe peace all gone hy !— 
and how stands Mr. Pitt’s administration, 
the test of the philosopher? The tree is’ 
_ known by its fraits. Strange that any’ 
one should mistake the apples of the man- 
chineal for the bread tree! 
GEORGE I. ANDI}. 
In the course of the last winter and 
spring Miss Fern read to me Lord Or-" 
ford’s Posthumous Works, and Godwin’s’ 
Life of Chaucer. His lordship’s letters 
possess the arch-chymie power, for they’ 
turn the lead of common-life themes and’ 
domestic occurrences to sterling gold.’ 
They are a perfect luxury of wit and hu- 
mour.. His.reminiscences familiarize us’ 
with the interior of the court of Pape 
the First and Second, and display, in full’ 
light, the numskullism of both those regal 
personages, . ate 
‘© How oft at royalty.poor folk must scoff, 
Were distance not the foil which sets it off!’ 
4 
REVIEWS. 
When I had the highly-prized happi+ 
ness of your conversation, you sy ressed’ 
+4" Oa yA T Th ya22 . 
surprise at my dWning that, except in 
miscellaneous colléctions, my Courage to 
encounter the trouble and anxiety of 
renewed publication had. been appalled 
by the injustice which authors, muchuny 
superiors, had met from the reviewers. 
You politely asserted that they could not 
injure my compositions in the opinion of 
the public; but indeed I knew by expe- 
rience, that they can retard their sale, 
and what is poetic fame but the multi- 
plication of editions ? 1 am 
You afterwards confessed that your 
desire, regularly and attentively to-pe- 
ruse Madoc, had been chilled and re 
ctaget by the hootings of those name-+ 
ess critics who, like their prototypes of 
the feathéred race, shut their eyes on the 
sun, and cry, “there is no daylight.” 
If they can influence Dr. Mansel, ‘when 
so great a poet is their subject, well may 
I be conscious of their power to blight 
the less-noble fruits of my imagination. 
Tn years long past I heard Lucy Por- 
ter tell Dr. Johnson that she should like 
sometimes topurchase new publications, 
and ask him if she might’ trust the re- 
viewers. “ Infallibly, dear Lucy,” he 
replied, * provided you buy what they 
abuse, and never any thing they praise.” 
OPINIONS IN 1807.- i 
Ah, yes, England has at last, toward 
the continent at least, completed the 
: measure 
