STEPHBNS’S HISTORY OF THE LATE WARS. 
the annals of any nation. ‘I'wo hundred sail 
of line-of-battle ships, a military foree of 
more than halfa million of men, neartwenty 
millions sterling paid in loans and subsidies, 
a public debt, before deemed intolerable, 
piles cel toa frightful magnitude, and an im- 
mense annual taxation doubled: such have 
been the efforts of a people who had aequired 
vigour by the wholesome spirit of their an- 
cient institutions, a generous love of liberty, 
2 liberal toleration in respect to religion, the 
cultivation of manufactures, and an unre- 
strained commerce. 
«© No nation ever suffered equalprivations 
with greater manfulness. he stockholder 
beheld his capital diminished more than one 
half, the peasant saw the price of his loaf 
lmost tripled, without a murmur; while the 
opulent Bheentilly yielded to the fiscal regu- 
lations known by the detested names of the 
triple assessment and the income-tax. But 
enlightened men were shocked at the mise- 
ries inflicted by those who reclined their heads 
‘on pillows of down, while their fellow sub- 
jects were frequently arrested on suspicion, 
confined for months without trial, or tried 
without crime. It was considered as an in- 
tolerable outrage, that the punishment re- 
served for convicted felons should be applied 
to unconvicted traitors ; and history has to 
record, without a blush, that solitary impri- 
sonment, for the first time since the revolu- 
tion, was practised in one country by the ex- 
press order, and torture inflicted in another 
by the tacit permission, of Englishnien. 
«* During the course of this conflict, Bri- 
tain was victorious in every sea, and success- 
ful in every naval battle; the capture of near 
500 men-of-war, of which upwards of eighty 
were ships of the line, fully attests this me- 
morable fact, and exhibits nobler trophies 
than were ever won before by any other na- 
tion. Nor was any quarter of the globe ex- 
empt from her conquests. In America, she 
acquired Tobago, part of St. Domingo, the 
whole ef Martinice, St. Lucia, and Guada- 
doupe, from the French; Trinidad from the 
Spaniards; Dewerary, Issequibo, Surinam, 
a, Berbice, and St. Eustatia, from the 
Dutch. In the East Indies, Pondicherry, 
Malacca, Ceylon, Amboyna, and Banda, 
yielded either to her arms er influence. In 
Africa, Goree, the Cape of Good Hope, 
Malta, and Egypt, by turns confessed the 
sway of the conqueror; while in Europe, 
Toulon, Minorca, Corsica, and Malta, either 
surrendered by capitulation, er were subju- 
gated by force. 
“* Searcely any state in want of treasure 
or assistance, but was either supplied with 
the wealth, or protected by the desta and ar- 
mies, of this nation; and no less than two 
emperors, three kings, one queen, with a 
multitude of petty but independent princes, 
were occasionally ranked among her subsi- 
diaries. 
263 
** Tn addition to this, and by a rare in- 
stance of good fortune hitherto unexampled 
in any history, although the manufactures of 
England drooped, and many of her artisans 
were forced by dire necessity to wield those 
arms they had before fabricated, yet her com- 
merce flourished and even increased during 
the war. 
“ This tide of prosperity, however, has 
been productive of but little permanent ad- 
vantage; for after the expenditure of at least 
one hundred and fifty thousand lives and 
some hundreds of millions of money, the is- 
land of Ceylon in the Indian, Bat that of 
Trinidad in the Atlantic, ocean, are all that 
remain of her numerous conquests: nor 
ought it to be forgotten, that one of her allies 
has been stripped of his domiuvions on the 
continent; another has been driven into ex- 
ile ; and that the rest have consented to the 
most humiliating sacrifices to obtain safety 
and peace. 
«* Ever prepared to avenge insulted honour, 
or redress national wrongs, it is to be hoped, 
that Britain will continue to combat by 
means of the same arms which have so fre- 
quently ensured success ; and that with the 
extended trident of Neptune she will, as_be- 
fore, beat down the boasted spear of Mi- 
nerva. 
«© But, with these exceptions alone, it is 
her interest to sacrifice at the altar of peace; 
to ply the loom and the shuttle ; to cultivate 
the surface of the earth for the purposes of 
agriculture; to raise the minerals from its 
bowels for the service of social life; to un- 
bend the sail of commerce to the gale ; to co- 
ver the ocean with her fleets; and never -to 
engage in any but a just, necessary, and po- 
pular war, the aim of which is defined, and 
the object attainable.” 
The appendix contains the state-papers 
which were most necessary to elucidate 
the narrative: the requisite maps are 
inserted in their proper places. The 
whole work will be perused with interest 
and approbation.- No ordinary dili- 
gence, no inferior talents, could have so 
speedily collected, so fitly arranged, so 
justly estimated, so strikingly compress- 
ed, this immense mass of transaction. 
‘To the contemporary it will be a favou- 
rite book of reference, when he wishes 
to recall before his memory the leadin 
incidents of that war of the gods, witch 
shook the pillars of surrounding society. 
To posterity it will prove, that there 
were Englishmen who saw, while it 
lasted, the madness of their country’s 
interference, and who opposed in vain 
the wild counsels of the anti-jacobin 
furies. 
‘ 
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