19^ ANNUAL REGISTER, 1794. 



etrried on vrith very little, or even 

 mthout any money, as the French 

 had already proved. The enthusi- 

 asm of liberty, though not properly 

 speaking, itself a resource, conducts 

 men, by its native heat and light, 

 to the discovery and invention of 

 reiources. It excites every latent 

 faculty of the soul ; and tiie ener- 

 ries of the mind, in full exertion, 

 fall upon means which it would 

 haTC wholly ovrrlooked in a state 

 of inaction. Though in the pre- 

 sent advanced state of commerce 



it is a resource that enables them 

 to spread oppression and desolation 

 far and near. The Arabs did not 

 conquer so large a portion of Asia 

 and Africa, and even part of Eu- 

 rope, by money. The Tartan, or 

 Scythians, had uo money, not even 

 assignats ; yet they subdued the 

 Roman empire, as the Romans 

 themselves had by their hardihood 

 and military discipline and valour 

 triumphed over the money and nu- 

 merous mercenaries of Carthage. 

 in our own times we have seen a 



money be a general representative, people without money defeatmg 

 and equivalent for commodities of the richest nation at present on 



all kinds, among which we reckon 

 military stores and military services, 

 the order of nature by which all 

 things are procured by industry 

 and exertion, is not inverted. In 

 times of peace men pursue the me- 

 dium of exchanging the sign of 

 commodities. In times of war 

 they sometimes, nay, verj' frequent- 

 ly, pursue by more compendious 

 ways the thing signified. In war 

 it sometimes happens that courage 

 and rage supply the want of ordi- 

 nary arms. Xenophon, in his Cy- 

 ropxdia, has observed, that iron 

 commands gold. The French, 

 when their assignats fail, tis it is 

 predicted that they will do, may 

 plunder their neighbours. It must 

 be allowed that plunder is but a 

 fleeting source : yet when a nation 

 has abandoned habits of peace and 

 industry, and acquired the views 

 and manners of predatory warriors, 



earth. Are we certain that when 

 the resource of the assignats shall 

 be exhausted, the energy of liberty 

 and the fertility of French inven- 

 tion will not be able to open others ? 

 The resources of commerce ars 

 fleeting and transient; but never, 

 in the divided state of individuals 

 and nations, can there be a conjec- 

 ture in which courage and num- 

 bers may not alarm the fears, and 

 political intrigues, in various ways, 

 practise on all the various passions 

 of human nature. It is not possi- 

 ble, said Mr. Fox, to imagine wha6 

 new means of continuing the war 

 may be invented by an ingeni- 

 ous people, actuated by a spirit of 

 national independence and ho- 

 nour : and he deplored from the 

 b- ttom of his heart the fatal error 

 which administration was at so 

 much pains, in various ways*, to 



propagate. 



Mr. 



* Alluding probably to certain pamphlets that were published at this time, en- 

 deavouring to prove hat the certain ruin of the French assignats would be the cer- 

 tiin ruin ot the French republic. It was some tinK" after this, however, that Sir 

 Francis d'lvernois (author of a tract [lublished in 17 81, and another in 1795, respect- 

 ing revolutions, at those periods, in Geneva) published his reflections " Sur la 

 Cuetre," and his *' Etat dcs Finances," &c. In the first of these work his object 

 is to shew, 1st, That the French republic will be ruined, just as the monarchy 

 w&< by the ittte of tlie finances ; and thv bffore ths cx|)ii;aiion of the year 1795, 



at 



