Our empire in India
is an awful thing. If we should come to be in a condition not only to
have all this ascendant in commerce, but to be absolutely able, without
the least control, to hold the commerce of all other nations totally
dependent upon our good pleasure, we may say that we shall not abuse
this astonishing and hitherto unheard-of power. But every other nation
will think we shall abuse it. It is impossible but that, sooner or
later, this state of things must produce a combination against us which
may end in our ruin.
As to France, I must observe that for a long time she has been
stationary. She has, during this whole century, obtained far less by
conquest or negotiation than any of the three great Continental powers.
Some part of Lorraine excepted, I recollect nothing she has gained,--no,
not a village. In truth, this Lorraine acquisition does little more than
secure her barrier. In effect and substance it was her own before.
However that may be, I consider these things at present chiefly in one
point of view, as obstructions to the war on Jacobinism, which _must_
stand as long as the powers think its extirpation but a _secondary_
object, and think of taking advantage, under the name of _indemnity_ and
_security_, to make war upon the whole nation of France, royal and
Jacobin, for the aggrandizement of the allies, on the ordinary
principles of interest, as if no Jacobinism existed in the world.
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