1^1 TRAVELS IN 
his irascible and vindictive temper will not allow him to keep 
on any terms of friendship with us. He is well aware that 
Gur commerce is our great support, that, as Mr. Delacroix 
observed, it enabled us to subsidize all Europe against them ; 
and that if he could once break up our commerce to India 
and China, and shut us out from the Mediterranean, the grand 
bulwark that stands between him and universal sovereignty 
would, in a great degree, be removed. 
Should his views, unhappily for the world, ever be accom- 
plished, an age of barbarism would return, ten limes darker 
than that which followed the irruption of the northern hordes. 
A deadly blow would be struck at once to the liberty of the 
press ; nothing would be written, nor printed, nor tolerated, 
but what the sovereign despot should find conducive to his 
universal sw^ay. The time would then come when hg'it ut cle- 
riciis, instead of saving a man from death, would be the sure 
means of brin";ino; him to his end. 
It behoves his Majesty's Government then to be upon its 
guard, and to watch the points where we are most vulnerable, 
in our commercial concerns, with unremitting attention ; but 
above all, to secure the possession of every post that might 
favour the designs of the French upon India. The first 
step towards the accomplishment of this desirable object 
is the recovery of the Cape of Good Hope ; for, without the 
possession of this out-work, our Indian Empire can never be 
considered as secure. While the enemy is allowed to keep 
the key, the house is all at times liable to be plundered. 
