412 - 
enemies—themselves the slaves of a 
foreign usurper ! 
* We look on this great crisis 
without dismay. We have the most 
firm reliance on the spirit and virtue | 
of the people of this country. We 
believe that there exists a firmer as 
‘well as nobler courage than any 
which rapine can inspire; and we 
cannot entertain such gloomy and 
unworthy apprehensions of the mo- 
ral order of the world, as to think 
that 'so admirable a quality can be 
the exclusive attribute of freeboo- 
ters or slaves. We fight for our 
laws and liberties—to defend the 
dearest hopes of our children—to 
maintain the unspotted glory which 
we have inherited from our ances- 
tors—to guard from outrage and 
shame those whom nature has en- 
trusted to our protection—to pre- 
serve the honour and existence of 
the country that gave us birth.— 
We fight for that constitution and 
system of society, which is at once 
the noblest monument and the firm- 
est bulwark of. civilization !—We. 
fight to preserve the whole earth from 
the barbarous yoke of military des- 
potism !—We fight for the indepen- 
dence of all nations, even of those 
who are the most indifferent to our 
fate, or the most blindly jealous of 
our prosperity ! 
** In so glorious a cause—in de- 
fence of these dearest and most sacred 
objects, we trust that the God of 
our fathers will inspire us with a va- 
lour which will be more than equal 
to the daring ferocity of those who 
are lured, by the hope of plunder, to 
fight the battle of ambition, 
_ © Tlis majesty is about to call 
upon his people to arm in their own 
defence. We trust, and we believe, 
that he will not call on them in vain 
—that the freemen of this land, go- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1803, ’ 
ing forth in the righteous cause of 
their country, under the blessing of 
Almighty God, will inflict the most 
signal chastisement. on those who 
have dared to threaten our destruc- 
tion—a chastisement, of which the 
memory will long guard the shores 
of this island, and which may not 
only vindicate the honour, and esta- 
blish the safety of the empire, but 
may also, to the latest posterity, serve 
as an example to strike terror into ty- 
rants, and to give courage and hope 
to insulted and oppressed nations. 
‘¢ For the attainment of these 
great ends, it is necessary that we 
shoald not only all be unanimous, 
but a zealous, an ardent, and un- 
conquerable people—that we should 
consider the public safety as the 
chief interest cf every individual— 
that every man should deem the sa- 
crifice of his fortune and his life to 
his country. as nothing more than his 
duty—that no man should murmur 
at any exertions or privations which 
this awful crisis. may impose upon 
him—that we should regard faint- 
ness or languor in the common cause 
as the basest treachery—that we 
should go into the field with an un- 
shaken resolution to conquer or to die 
—and that we should look upen no- 
thing as a calamity compared with 
the subjugation of our country. 
‘* We have the most sacred duties 
to perform—we have most invaluable 
blessings to preserye—we have to 
gain glory and safety, or to incur 
indelible disgrace, and to fall inte 
irretrievable ruin. Upon our efforts 
will depend the triumph of liberty 
over despotism—of national inde- 
pendence over projects of universal 
empire—and, finally, of civilization 
itself, over barbarism. 
*¢ At such a moment we deem it 
our duty solemnly to hind ourselves 
te 
