508 
haps more than enough, to a man of Dr. 
Weatfon’s liberality and Chriftian feel- 
ings. 
It is not my defign to notice all the 
contents of the pamphlet in queftion, 
etherwife I fhould advert with pleafure to 
his Lordfhip’s kberality of fentiment re- 
Jative to the Englifh Diffenters and the 
Erifh Catholics ; though, with regard to 
the Jatter, Juftice would perhaps go a lit- 
tle further, did not Policy hold her hands, 
than to give the teachers of that religion 
which “* the great majority of a nation 
prefer,”” a {mall elymofinary fhare of, the 
money raifed in their own country for the 
maintenance of an eltablifhment. But 
this is tender ground ; a Bifhop in an 
Englifh Houfe éf Lords could not have 
faid more: the meafure propofed is a po- 
Icy commendably liberal, and there ts no 
doubt but, it would be attended with the 
heft eff-&s. 
One word more upon the principle 
which is held out in juftificatign of the 
prefent war, and which involves a dee 
sad dificult quefiion in morals as well as 
m policy. How farit may be wife, as 
politicians—how far it may be lawful, as 
Chriitians—to engage in war, merely to 
poll down the rifing greatnefs of a flou- 
rifhing nation, muft furely be confidered 
as very dubious. At any rate, we can- 
not allow it to -be decided by authority, 
either of Bifhop Wation’s, or of him 
whom he calls ‘* the greateft of man- 
kind.” Atany rate, this zation will do 
well to paufe before fhe efablithes a rule 
which might iacreafe the jealoufy already 
felt, according to the Bifhop’s own ac- 
count, by the refit’ cf Europe, towards 
the fovereigns of the {cas, the heirs of the 
throne of Goiconda, the power that fets 
up and pulls downat pleafure the dufky 
herd of tributary princes, whofe colonies 
people new continents, and whofe manu- 
factures clothe equally the favage on the 
Jake of Ontario, and the mandarin‘of Chi- 
na. London! proud and wealthy Lon- 
don, into whofe bofom flows the wealth 
and luxuries of the world, fhould at leatt 
paufe before fhe encourages fuch a doc- 
trine—T he words of Bacon are—‘* Whe- 
ther by increafe of territory, or by em- 
bracing of trade.’ To attack a nation 
merely becaule fhe is profperous—if that 
profpertty has arilen from the fair confe- 
quences of talent and indultry, and has 
not led her to any aéts of aggreffion upon 
her neighbours—cannot, JF think, be vin- 
dicated, Would it be right in the Spa- 
biards to bombard the towns of the Unit- 
Remarks on the Bifhop of Landaff’s Speech. 
* and population 
[Jen. ty 
ed States, if they were able to do its 
merely becaufe they double their wealth 
every five-and-twenty 
years, and ina courle of time may proba~- 
bly fupplant them in their American pof- 
fefGicns. In the cafe of France, indeed, it 
muft be allowed that her aggreffions on 
the European States are obvious enough ; 
and were it poflible to reducé her with- 
in bounds as eafily as to talk about it, no 
friend of liberty or juflice would be againft 
it. But enterprizes of this nature aré 
hazardous and uncertain. The power t6 
be reduced is, by the ftatement of the 
cafe, formidable from its overgrown 
sreatnefs. | Who is then to reduce it ? 
Not any one of the powers its rivais, fince 
that would be to {et a weaker to attack 4 
fironger potentate. It miuft, therefore, 
bedone by a combination. But the hif- 
tory of all combinations, and, amoneft 
others, of that in which we have been re- 
cently engaged, fhows the prebable futi- 
lity of fuch an expedient. Suppofing that 
crufades of this nature fet out witha pret- 
ty flrong general fentiment, and make 
fome impreffion upon the common enemy, 
the coalefced powers fcon come to follow 
each their own petty interefis ; new ob-- 
jects become prominent in the turns and 
changes cf political warfare; and before 
many campaigns dre over, the original 
purpofe cf ithe war is completely forgot- 
ten. The power that fights fingle-hand- 
ed, end for itfelt alone, has dlways the 
advantage over 2n ill-cemented confede- 
racy ; and at the end of the warfare, ei= 
ther all lie down bleeding and exhaufted, 
or the great power, having its military 
{pirit exercifed, and kept in play, becomes 
greater ftill; or, perhaps, fome thew 
power, fofiered by the circumftances cf 
the time, farts up, and becomes. more 
formidable than the one it was engaged to 
oppofe. In the mean time, death and de- 
firu€lionare laying wafte the works of © 
God and man, bad paffions are nourifhed, 
and mifery is felt, much more than Na- 
ture neceffarily entails upon her off- 
fpring. ’ ag Be 
It fhould feem, therefore, that the fafett 
way, both in a moral and a prudential. 
light, would be to confine ourfelves very 
nearly to the refitance of a&tual aggreffion, 
either againit ourfelves, or an ally whom 
we have engaged to proteét ; arid I fulpect 
that nation will not .often be attacked, © 
that commits no acts of injuftice itfelf, and 
never gives occafion to a foreign power ta 
get footing within it by intermeddling in 
its internal debates. 1 am; Scar 
X. Vas 
Te 
j 
; 
\ 
