MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 199 



I think, if there be a plurality of devils, ignor- 

 ance must be their king". The wretchedness which 

 ignorance has, from time to time, spread over the 

 world is truly appalling. This is a king that 

 should be deposed without loss of time ; and that 

 portion of mankind who are under the guidance 

 of his imps should have nothing to do with the 

 affairs of society, and should be carefully looked 

 to and kept out of every kind of command. Even 

 the poor, innocent, unreasoning animals should, 

 in mercy, not be allowed to be goaded, and to 

 suffer under folly and cruelty. 



To attempt giving anything like a detail of the 

 history of this eventful war would, in this place, 

 be useless : that must be left to the historian. It 

 appears to me that Mr. Pitt was urged into it 

 chiefly by ambition, and that disappointment broke 

 his heart. General Bonaparte, from his un- 

 paralleled victories, became in his turn blinded 

 by ambition, which ended in his being conquered 

 and banished to St. Helena for life. He had 

 divided and conquered, in victory after victory, 

 almost all his continental enemies, one after 

 another, and then mostly reinstated them in their 

 dominions. But this generosity would not do. 

 Despotism, urged on and supported by this 

 country, was rooted too deeply in the governments 

 of Europe to think of making any change to 

 better the condition of the people. It would 

 appear that that is a business they cannot think 

 of; and the old maxim, that the many are made 

 only to support the few, seems continually upper- 

 most in their resolves. If Bonaparte had been 

 as good a man as he was a great one, he had it 

 in his power to settle all this, and to have estab- 



