THERE are stages in the business of serious life in which to amuse
is cruel, but to deceive is to destroy; and it is of little
consequence, in the conclusion, whether men deceive themselves, or
submit, by a kind of mutual consent, to the impositions of each other.
That England has long been under the influence of delusion or mistake,
needs no other proof than the unexpected and wretched situation that
she is now involved in: and so powerful has been the influence, that
no provision was ever made or thought of against the misfortune,
because the possibility of its happening was never conceived.
The general and successful resistance of America, the conquest of
Burgoyne, and a war in France, were treated in parliament as the
dreams of a discontented opposition, or a distempered imagination.
They were beheld as objects unworthy of a serious thought, and the
bare intimation of them afforded the ministry a triumph of laughter.
Short triumph indeed! For everything which has been predicted has
happened, and all that was promised has failed. A long series of
politics so remarkably distinguished by a succession of misfortunes,
without one alleviating turn, must certainly have something in it
systematically wrong. It is sufficient to awaken the most credulous
into suspicion, and the most obstinate into thought. Either the
means in your power are insufficient, or the measures ill planned;
either the execution has been bad, or the thing attempted
impracticable; or, to speak more emphatically, either you are not able
or heaven is not willing.
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