serve also to explain another circumstance which frequently subjects him to still greater odium. Can it be allowable, it may be asked, that any person shall point out the errors or the faults of his own country and its rulers, and pass over without still greater reprobation the misconduct of other nations with which she is at enmity; the crimes of whose people and whose governments are of the deepest dye?-The answer is, that it is allowable; and for this very reason; that our country has a claim upon our services which a foreign country has not. The one bears ́a near resemblance to that self examination, without which the sense of morals in individual character would soon be lost; the other is the admonishing of a stranger, of whose motives we can only imperfectly judge, and for whose conduct we are not accountable. But it may be said that virtue and vice admit of degrees, and that however we may ourselves have erred, it may be proper to shew that the guilt of other nations has far exceeded our own. To what purpose? Will the crimes of others be an apology for ours? and is it desirable that we should diminish the sense of our own misconduct by comparing it with the more enormous offences of others?

This however is the fashion of the present day.

If any one should suggest, that some particular measure of our government is of an unjusti fiable or a doubtful nature, he is told in reply, to look at the conduct of our enemies. The atrocities that have unhappily been perpetrated in other countries, are continually recalled to sight; and the tyranny and crimes of their present rulers, and the debasement and subjugation of the people, serve at the same time to gratify malignity and to justify abuse. Not content with this, we are daily imposed upon by many of those who have obtained an influence over the public mind, by the grossest falsehoods, and the most absurd exaggerations. And, after all, what is the inference that we are called upon to derive from these representations? Is it that we ought to convert them into lessons of utility? That if such be the dreadful consequences of slavery, we should be doubly watchful in the preservation of our own liberties from the incroachments of arbitrary power? That if the treachery, the cruelty, and the injustice of our enemies, have excited the detestation of mankind, we should set an example of magnanimity, of lenity, of fidelity, in all our transactions, which should place us at the greatest

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possible distance from those whose misconduct we so justly reprobate and abhor? this, in fact, the use that is attempted to be made of them? or is there not, on the contrary, too much reason to apprehend, that the enormities of others are only dwelt upon as a pattern and a justification of our own? That the commission of certain crimes, on the part of our enemies, may be supposed to render it necessary that similar crimes should be committed by ourselves? And that as long as we have not plunged into those depths of guilt and depravity which we presume our neighbours to have done, we may congratulate ourselves on our superiority, and boldly challenge the favour of heaven?

In arraigning our own misconduct there is but little reason to fear that we shall treat ourselves with too much severity; but in pointing out the errors and the crimes of others, there are some grounds to apprehend that the feelings of hostility may warp our judgments, and disqualify us from forming an impartial decision. In speaking of other governments, our praise or our censure is too often distributed, not according to their positive deserts, but according to the attachment or enmity which they manifest towards

ourselves. It may perhaps be said, that it is necessary to keep up the spirit of our naval and military defenders, by frequent representations of the misconduct and the guilt of our enemies; and that even if these be exaggerated, it is one of those pious frauds which are justified by the circumstances of the times, and the necessity of providing for our own defence. Is it then requisite that in order to excite the courage of our countrymen we must inspire them with the feelings of animosity and re venge? Have they not a sufficient motive to call forth all the powers, both of their mind and body, in the reflection that they are defending their sovereign, their freedom, and their country? The abhorrence of guilt, in itself so laudable, is of all passions the most liable to be carried to excess, and to become the unsuspected pretext of crimes yet more If, however, it should still be thought necessary to display before the British public the abominations of France, there are those who find it too consistent with the gratification of their passions, and too conducive to their profit, to suffer us to grow languid for want of their exertions. But the more impartial observer, whilst he condemns the excesses of others, will not fail to inquire

enormous.

into the circumstances that have given rise to them; and the professed advocate for peace will scarcely be expected to counteract his own purpose, by expatiating on the causes of dissension and seeking for new and problematical reasons of alienation and ill-will.

In addition to these observations, it may be further necessary to remark, that although our country has the first claim to our affections and our services, this ought by no means to prevent us from regarding with sentiments of justice and of friendship the rest of mankind. Even the feelings of hostility against our avowed enemies should be only of a temporary nature, to be discarded from our bosoms whenever we may be enabled to induce them to a reconciliation. True patriotism is a wise and enlightened sentiment, which leads us to promote the welfare of our country by just and allowable means; but that factitious feeling which prompts us to obtain advantages by acts of injustice and oppression, is not patriotism, but the worst extreme of selfishness. Can the man who has divested himself, in a great degree, of that selfishness which is almost a part of his nature, be expected to feel for the community that unjust preference