There is something in meanness which excites a species of resentment
that never subsides, and something in cruelty which stirs up the heart
to the highest agony of human hatred; Britain has filled up both these
characters till no addition can be made, and has not reputation left
with us to obtain credit for the slightest promise. The will of God
has parted us, and the deed is registered for eternity. When she shall
be a spot scarcely visible among the nations, America shall flourish
the favorite of heaven, and the friend of mankind.
For the domestic happiness of Britain and the peace of the world,
I wish she had not a foot of land but what is circumscribed within her
own island. Extent of dominion has been her ruin, and instead of
civilizing others has brutalized herself. Her late reduction of India,
under Clive and his successors, was not so properly a conquest as an
extermination of mankind. She is the only power who could practise the
prodigal barbarity of tying men to mouths of loaded cannon and blowing
them away. It happens that General Burgoyne, who made the report of
that horrid transaction, in the House of Commons, is now a prisoner
with us, and though an enemy, I can appeal to him for the truth of it,
being confident that he neither can nor will deny it. Yet Clive
received the approbation of the last Parliament.
When we take a survey of mankind, we cannot help cursing the wretch,
who, to the unavoidable misfortunes of nature, shall wilfully add
the calamities of war.
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