XXI. 1796. CHAP. evident that the addition of such a force, and so able a commander, to the numerous bodies of Irish malecontents, would have engendered a dreadful domestic war, and that the whole energies of the empire might for a very long period have been employed in saving itself from dismemberment. When it is considered, also, how widely the spirit of discontent was diffused even through the population of Great Britain at that period, in what a formidable manner it soon after broke out in the mutiny at the Nore, and what serious financial embarrassments were already pressing upon the treasury, and preparing the dreadful catastrophe which led to the suspension of cash payments in the following spring, it must be admitted that the nation then stood upon the edge of an abyss; and that if ever Providence interferes in human affairs otherwise than by the energy which it infuses into the cause of justice, and the moral laws to which the deeds of free agents are rendered subservient, its protection never appeared in so remarkable a manner to the British islands since the winds dispersed the Spanish Armada. Nov. 10. Empress The close of this year was marked by the death of the Empress Catherine, and the accession of the Death of the Emperor Paul to the Russian throne; an event of no small importance to the future fate of the war, and destiny of the world. Shortly before her death, she had by art and flattery contrived to add Courland to her immense dominions: She had recently made herself mistress of Derbent in Persia; and the alliance with Great Britain and Austria secured to her the concurrence of these powers in her favourite project of dismembering the Turkish dominions, and placing her youngest son on the throne of Constantine. She thus seemed to be fast approaching the XXI. 1796. grand object of her ambition, and might have lived CHAP. to see the cross planted on the domes of St Sophia, when death interrupted all her schemes of ambition, in the sixty-seventh year of her age, and the thirtysixth of her reign. Her latest project was the formation of a powerful confederacy for the defence of Europe against the French Republic; and she had given orders for the levy of 150,000 men, destined to take a part in the German campaigns; a design which, if carried into effect by her firm and intrepid 'Ann. Reg. hand, might have accelerated by nearly twenty years 202. the catastrophe which closed the war. 1 1796, 200, ter. Few sovereigns will occupy a more conspicuous place in the page of history, or have left in their Her characconduct on the throne a more exalted reputation. Prudent in council, and intrepid in conduct; cautious in forming resolutions, but vigorous in carrying them into execution; ambitious, but of great and splendid objects only; passionately fond of glory, without the alloy, at least in public affairs, of sordid or vulgar inclinations; discerning in the choice of her counsellors, and swayed in matters of state only by lofty intellects; munificent in public, liberal in private, firm in resolution, she dignified a despotic throne by the magnanimity and patriotism of a more virtuous age. But these great qualities were counterbalanced by as remarkable vices-and more truly perhaps of her than of the Virgin Queen of England, it might be said, in Burleigh's words, "that if to-day she was more than man, to-morrow she would be less than woman." Vehement, sensual, and capricious in private life, she seemed, as a woman, to live only for the gratification of her passions; tyrannical, overbearing, and sometimes cruel in her administration, she filled her subjects with unbounded awe for her autho XXI. 1796. CHAP. rity. In the lustre of her administration, however, the career of her victories, and the rapid progress of her subjects under so able a government, mankind overlooked her dissolute manners, the occasional elevation of unworthy favourites, frequent acts of tyranny, and the dark transaction which signalized her accession to the throne; they overlooked the frailties of the woman in the dignity of the princess; and paid to the abilities and splendour of the Semiramis of the North that involuntary homage which commanding qualities on the throne never fail to acquire, even when stained by irregularities in private life. The end of the same year witnessed the resignaRetirement tion of the presidency of the United States of America of Washingby General Washington, and his voluntary retirement public life. into private life. Modern history has not so spotless a character to commemorate. ton from His perfect character, and admira to his coun Invincible in resolu ble valedic- tion, firm in conduct, incorruptible in integrity, he tory address brought to the helm of a victorious republic the simtrymen. plicity and innocence of rural life; he was forced into greatness by circumstances, rather than led into it by inclination, and prevailed over his enemies rather by the wisdom of his designs, and the perseverance of his character, than any extraordinary genius for the art of war. A soldier from necessity and patriotism, rather than disposition, he was the first to recommend a return to pacific councils when the independence of his country was secured, and beSee Ann. queathed to his countrymen an address on leaving their governments, to which there is no composition of unpers, 293. inspired wisdom which can bear a comparison.1* He 1 Sept. 17, 1796. Reg. 1796. * This great man observes, in that admirable composition: "Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanence of your present happy state, it is requisite not only that you discountenance irre was modest without diffidence; sensible to the voice of fame without vanity; independent and dignified without either asperity or pride. He was a friend to liberty, but not licentiousness; not to the dreams of enthusiasts, but to those practical ideas which Ame gular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect in the forms of the constitution alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments, as of other human institutions; that experiment is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the mere credit of hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigour as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is indeed little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property. "Let me now warn you in the most solemn manner against the bane. ful effects of the spirit of party generally. It is unfortunately inseparable from our nature, having its roots in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or oppressed, but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness, and it is truly their worst enemy. The alternate dominion of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a most horrid despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of a single individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able, or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this despotism to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty." What words to be spoken by the founder of the American Republic, the refuser of the American crown, at a time when the career of Napoleon had hardly commenced in Europe!-See Ann. Reg. xxxviii. 208; State papers. CHAP. XXI. 1796. CHAP. rica had inherited from her English descent, and which were opposed to nothing so much as the extravagant 1796. love of power in the French democracy. Accordingly, after having signalized his life by successful resistance to English oppression, he closed it by the warmest advice to cultivate the friendship of Great Britain; and by his casting vote, shortly before his resignation, ratified a treaty of friendly and commercial intercourse between the mother country and its emancipated offspring. He was a Cromwell without his ambition; a Sylla without his crimes: and after having raised his country, by his exertions, to the rank of an independent state, closed his career by a voluntary relinquishment of the power which a grateful people had bestowed. It is the highest glory of England to have given birth, even amidst Transatlantic wilds, to such a man; and if she cannot number him among those who have extended her provinces or augmented her dominions, she may at least feel a legitimate pride in the victories which he achieved, and the great qualities which he exhibited, in the contest with herself; and indulge with satisfaction in the reflection, that that vast empire which neither the ambition of Louis XIV. nor the power of Napoleon, could dismember, received its first rude shock from the courage which she had communicated to her own offspring; and that, amidst the convulsions and revolutions of other states, real liberty has arisen in that country alone, which inherited in its veins the genuine principles of British freedom. |