Men start at the notion of a
natural enemy, and ask no other question. The cry obtains credit
like the alarm of a mad dog, and is one of those kind of tricks,
which, by operating on the common passions, secures their interest
through their folly.
But we, sir, are not to be thus imposed upon. We live in a large
world, and have extended our ideas beyond the limits and prejudices of
an island. We hold out the right hand of friendship to all the
universe, and we conceive that there is a sociality in the manners
of France, which is much better disposed to peace and negotiation than
that of England, and until the latter becomes more civilized, she
cannot expect to live long at peace with any power. Her common
language is vulgar and offensive, and children suck in with their milk
the rudiments of insult- "The arm of Britain! The mighty arm of
Britain! Britain that shakes the earth to its center and its poles!
The scourge of France! The terror of the world! That governs with a
nod, and pours down vengeance like a God." This language neither makes
a nation great or little; but it shows a savageness of manners, and
has a tendency to keep national animosity alive. The entertainments of
the stage are calculated to the same end, and almost every public
exhibition is tinctured with insult. Yet England is always in dread of
France,- terrified at the apprehension of an invasion, suspicious of
being outwitted in a treaty, and privately cringing though she is
publicly offending. Let her, therefore, reform her manners and do
justice, and she will find the idea of a natural enemy to be only a
phantom of her own imagination.
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