Their tenure of office is so
infirm that they dare not follow the dictates of wisdom, justice,
and the well calculated interests of their country. This vice, in the
English constitution, renders a dependance on that government very
unsafe. The feelings of their King, too, fundamentally averse to us,
have added another motive for unfriendliness in his ministers. This
obstacle to friendship, however, seems likely to be soon removed; and
I verily believe the successor will come in with fairer and wiser
dispositions towards us; perhaps on that event their conduct may be
changed. But what England is to become on the crush of her internal
structure, now seeming to be begun, I cannot foresee. Her monied
interest, created by her paper system, and now constituting a baseless
mass of wealth equal to that of the owners of the soil, must disappear
with that system, and the medium for paying great taxes thus failing,
her navy must be without support. That it shall be supported by
permitting her to claim dominion of the ocean, and to levy tribute
on every flag traversing that, as lately attempted and not yet
relinquished, every nation must contest, even _ad internecionem_. And
yet, that, retiring from this enormity, she should continue able to
take a fair share in the necessary equilibrium,of power on that element,
would be the desire of every nation.
I feel happy in withdrawing my mind from these anxieties, and resigning
myself, for the remnant of life, to the care and guardianship of others.
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