a ge ee ee er ee a 
454 JAMES WATT. 
sion, imposes on me the duty of being methodical. In 
order that my sentiments may not be mistaken, I will at 
once declare aloud that independence, that national lib- 
erty, are in my opinion the greatest possible good ; that 
to defend them against foreigners, or against internal 
enemies, is our first duty; and that to have defended 
them at the cost of our blood, is the highest title to pub- 
lic gratitude. Raise, raise splendid monuments to the 
memory of the soldiers who fell on the glorious ramparts 
of Mayence, on the immortal fields of Zurich, of Marengo, 
and certainly my offering shall not be waited for; but do 
not require me to do violence to my reason, to the senti- 
ments that Nature has implanted in the human heart ; do 
not hope that I will ever consent to place all military 
services on the same level. 
What Frenchman possessed of a heart, even in the 
reign of Louis XIV., would have sought for an example 
of courage either among the scenes of cruelty in the 
Dragonnades, or among the whirlwinds of flame that 
devoured the towns, the villages, and the rich country 
of the Palatinate ? 
Not long since, after a thousand prodigies of patience, 
of cleverness, of bravery, our valiant soldiers penetrated 
into the half-destroyed Saragossa, and reached the door 
of a church where the preacher was still making the ears 
of the resigned crowd ring with these magnificent words : 
“Spaniards, I am going to celebrate your funerals!” I 
know not, but I think that at such a moment the true 
friends of our national glory, comparing the various 
merits of the conquerors and the vanquished, would 
willingly perhaps have inverted the address ! 
But I consent to your laying aside the question of 
morality. Submit the personal claims of some gainers 
