314 WANDERINGS IN 



FOURTH ver y suspicious of you as long as you retain 



possession of the West Indies, which are, as we 



may say, close to our door-steads. You must be 

 very cautious how you interfere with our politics ; 

 for, if we find you meddling with them, and by 

 that means cause us to come to loggerheads, 

 we shall be obliged to send you back to your 

 own homes, three or four thousand miles across 

 the Atlantic ; and then, with that great ditch 

 betwixt us, we may hope we shall be good 

 friends. He who casts his eye on the East 

 Indies, will there see quite a different state of 

 things. The conquered districts have merely 

 changed one European master for another; and 

 I believe there is no instance of any portion 

 of the East Indies throwing off the yoke of 

 the Europeans and establishing a government 

 of their own. 



Ye who are versed in politics, and study the 

 rise and fall of empires, and know what is good 

 for civilized man, and what is bad for him, or in 

 other words, what will make him happy and 

 what will make him miserable tell us how comes 

 it that Europe has lost almost her last acre in the 

 boundless expanse of territory which she so lately 

 possessed in the west, and still contrives to hold 

 her vast property in the extensive regions of the 

 east? 



But whither am I going ? I find myself on 

 a new and dangerous path. Pardon, gentle 



