Happy people, if they
know to proceed as they have begun! Happy prince, worthy to begin with
splendor or to close with glory a race of patriots and of kings, and to
leave
A name, which every wind to heaven would bear,
Which men to speak, and angels joy to hear!
To finish all,--this great good, as in the instant it is, contains in it
the seeds of all further improvement, and may be considered as in a
regular progress, because founded on similar principles, towards the
stable excellence of a British Constitution.
Here was a matter for congratulation and for festive remembrance through
ages. Here moralists and divines might indeed relax in their temperance,
to exhilarate their humanity. But mark the character of our faction.
All their enthusiasm is kept for the French Revolution. They cannot
pretend that France had stood so much in need of a change as Poland.
They cannot pretend that Poland has not obtained a better system of
liberty or of government than it enjoyed before. They cannot assert that
the Polish Revolution cost more dearly than that of France to the
interests and feelings of multitudes of men.
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