Memoir of Arthur Young, Esq> 303 



world is lull of those who consider military glory as the proper 

 object of the ambition of monarchs, who measure regal merit 

 by the millions that are slaughtered, by the public robbery 

 and plunder that are dignified by the titles of victory and 

 conquest, and who look down on every exertion of peace and 

 tranquillity, as unbecoming those who aim at the epithet great, 

 and unworthy of men who are born the masters of the globe. 

 But I believe the period is advancing with accelerated pace, 

 that shall exhibit characters in a light totally new ; that shall 

 rather brand than exalt the virtues hitherto admired — that 

 shall pay more homage to the memory of a prince that gave 

 a ram to a farm.er, than for wielding the sceptre obeyed alike 

 on the Ganges and the Thames." In the early part of the year 

 1793, he became alarmed at the state of the public mind in 

 this country, and published his celebrated pamphlet, entitled, 

 " The Example of France, a Warning to Britain." This was 

 one of the most opportune and successful essays that ever ap- 

 peared ; it was a season of turbulence and terror, and the manly 

 and honest warmth with which he vindicated our national prin- 

 ciples, and deprecated those of revolutionary France, which he 

 exposed in all the fulness of their deformity, and in the terrors 

 of their operation, offered an appeal to our best feelings and 

 passions, that was irresistible. The effect was electric ; and 

 votes of thanks poured in upon him from every patriotic asso- 

 ciation in the kingdom. It was to be expected, that a writer 

 of such caliber would incur the bitter reproaches of those po- 

 litical partizans who maintained opposite opinions. Mr. Young 

 accordingly has been accused of changing his political prin- 

 ciples, and the charge has been supported by the production of 

 passages from his Travels in France, which shew him to have 

 been a friend to the Revolution. But hear his own defence :— - 

 " The Revolution, before the 10th of August, was as different 

 from the Revolution after that day, as light from darkness ; as 

 clearly distinct in principle and practice, as liberty and slavery. 

 For the same man, therefore, to approve of both, he must 

 cither be uncandid, or changeable ; uncandid, in his approba- 

 tion before that period, — changeable, in his approbation after it. 



