254 
ka: arrogant claims were advanced, 
and softened down on the prospect of 
French resistance. Another armament 
took place against the Russians, for rea- 
sons as insufhcient, and with a retrogra- 
dation more humiliating.” It was be- 
sidesa wholly mistaken policy, a capital 
diplomatic blunder, to thwart the poli- 
tics of Russia. While the French were 
busying themselves at home, the pro- 
jected partition of Turkey would have 
saved Poland, strengthened Austria, 
and helped us quietly to Egypt. 
About the year 1790, the politics of 
the French, which already divided into 
factions the reading world of Great-Bri- 
tain, became topics of discussion in the 
British parliament, and produced a de- 
clared disunion, first of opinion then of 
conduct, between Mr. Burke and Mr. 
Fox. Mr. Burke and the Rockingham 
party went over to Mr. Pitt: Mr. Fox 
and the Lansdowne party remained in 
the opposition. 
From the moment of Mr. Burke’s ac- 
cession, the government began to lose 
its temporizing, accommodating, lenient 
cast of policy ; and to breathe only ma- 
lignity, intolerance, and persecution. 
The very temper of the nation seemed 
to change. Riots at Birmingham and 
‘elsewhere razed the houses of the enthu- 
siasts of liberty, and broke the gaz-jars 
and electric batteries of Priestley.— 
Proclamations were issued against re- 
publican pamphlets, as if the discussion 
of the most expedient form of govern- 
ment was not precisely the most valua- 
ble liberty of the press. Prosecutions 
for libel were successfully instituted. 
Aliens were deprived of the benefit. of 
law, and subjected to the arbitrary con- 
troul of ministers. An anti-jacobin war 
was undertaken, in concert with most of 
the sovereigns of Europe, accompanied 
with the mischievous renunciation of all 
established principles of warfare.* 
The project of parliamentary reform 
HISTORY, POLITICS, AND STATISTICS. 
suggested by the friends of the people 
was not honoured even with an inquiry 
into the allegations of their petition. 
Barracks were erected. The Habeas 
Corpus Act was suspended; and the 
faculties of speech and hearing were 
paralyzed by inquisitorial spies. The 
more popular arguers ven ministry 
were arrested, and calumniously in- 
dicted for high treason—Tooke, Hol- 
croft, Thelwall, and many others.— 
The pretended proofs of guilt were 
contemptuously thrown back at minis- 
ters, by a wondering jury. These trials 
cast an amusing light on the conspiracy 
of the clubs, which appeared to be 
.mere societies for political information, 
where a contrived preference was piven 
to pamphlets and speeches of a demo- 
cratic and republican tendency. Inthe 
represented towns these clubs were well 
adapted to turn the tide of popular fa- 
vour against ministerial candidates.— 
They formed convenient centers of ap- 
plication, when petitions were wanted 
to prop parliamentary motions: their 
continuance would probably have ena- 
bled the numerous classes to obtain the 
redress of several grievances, as a repeal 
of the laws prohibiting the combina- 
tions of journeymen, and other similar 
restrictions. The congratulatory ad- 
dresses to the French seem to have 
flowed from the vanity of consequence, 
but they tended to endanger purity of 
alleriance. 
By the preceding severities, the sove-' 
reign had been rendered unpopular ; by 
this mortifying defeat his unpopularity 
became notorious. Ministers affected 
to delight in the vulgar aversion now 
loose-tongued on all sides, Earl Fitz- 
william was recalled, for betraying a 
disposition to redress the grievances of 
the catholics. The king was insulted 
(on the 29th of October, 1795) in his 
way to the house of lords, with the 
hisses, groans, and peltings of a conspir- 
, * Mr. Burke had written, and was not disavowed by ministers in coalition with him, 
%. the following passage: ‘* If ever a foreign prince enters into France, he must enter it as 
‘into a country of assassins. The mode of civilised war will not be practised; nor are the 
| French, who act on the present system, entitled to expect it. 
‘ dified hostility. 
They must look for no mo- 
All war which is not battle, will be military execution. This will beget 
acts of retaliation, and every retaliation a new revenge. The hell-hounds of war on all 
sides wi!l be uncoupled, and unmuzzled.” This passage was pleaded in the French Con- 
' yention, as an excuse for passing the decree to give no quarter to prisoners : a decree which 
the French officers nobly refused to execute. 
‘The writings of Mr. Burke, as was well ob- 
served (surely by the excellent Mr. Hall, of Cambridge) contain all beauties but those of 
the heart. There is an Irish ferocity about them, a selection of crime and horror, as the 
favourite objects of contemplation, which is repulsive to benevolent natures. 
eS 
