This is all, Sir, that I shall say upon our circumstances and our
resources: I mean to say a little more on the operations of the enemy,
because this matter seems to me very natural in our present
deliberation. When I look to the other side of the water, I cannot help
recollecting what Pyrrhus said, on reconnoitring the Roman camp:--"These
barbarians have nothing barbarous in their discipline." When I look, as
I have pretty carefully looked, into the proceedings of the French king,
I am sorry to say it, I see nothing of the character and genius of
arbitrary finance, none of the bold frauds of bankrupt power, none of
the wild struggles and plunges of despotism in distress,--no lopping off
from the capital of debt, no suspension of interest, no robbery under
the name of loan, no raising the value, no debasing the substance of the
coin. I see neither Louis the Fourteenth nor Louis the Fifteenth. On the
contrary, I behold, with astonishment, rising before me, by the very
hands of arbitrary power, and in the very midst of war and confusion, a
regular, methodical system of public credit; I behold a fabric laid on
the natural and solid foundations of trust and confidence among men, and
rising, by fair gradations, order over order, according to the just
rules of symmetry and art. What a reverse of things! Principle, method,
regularity, economy, frugality, justice to individuals, and care of the
people are the resources with which France makes war upon Great Britain.
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