CHAP. XXVII.

1783.

corrupted; yet, by their extensive commerce, the ftrength of their navy, their valor, their genius, and their induftry, they furmount all embarraffments with addrefs and facility, and rife fuperior to evils that would augur the downfal of any other nation on earth.

No country has produced men more learned and liberal, of more comprehenfive genius, virtue, and real excellence, than England; yet the contraft may as juftly be exhibited there, as in any part of the world. But the balance of real merit, both individual and national, muft be left to the all-pervading eye, which, with a fingle glance, furveys the moral and intellectual fyftem of creation. We now leave them to the rotations of time, and the re-action of human events, to the period which shall be pointed by the providential government of HIM, to whom a thousand years are as one day; when they alfo may be viewed a fpectacle of wo, by the remnant of nations, annihilated by their rapacity, ambition, and victorious arms.

Let us haften to turn our eyes from the miferable Mahrattas, the defolated tribes of Indoftan, and the naked Carnatic,* divested of every thing that had breathed, by the ravages of a

* See Mr. Burke's speech in the house of commons, relative to the defolation in the Carnatic.

1783.

relentless foe. A dead and dreary filence reigns CHAP. XXVII. over an extent of five or fix hundred miles of thefe once full peopled plains. Nor will we dwell longer on any of the proud projects of conqueft in the cabinet of Great Britain, either in the Eaft or the Weft; but carry the mind forward, and indulge a pleasing anticipation of peace and independence to the United States of America.

CHAP.XXVII.

1783.

1

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Peace proclaimed in America.--General Carleton delays the Withdraw of the Troops from New York.-Situation of the Loyalifts-Efforts in their Favor by fome Gentlemen in Parliament-Their final Destination-Their Diffatisfaction, and fubfequent Conduct.

THE difcordant founds of war that had long grated the ears of the children of America, were now fufpended, and the benign and heavenly voice of harmony foothed their wounded feelings, and they flattered themselves the dread fummons to flaughter and death would not again refound on their fhores. The independence of America acknowledged by the firft powers in Europe, and even Great Britain wil ling to re-fheathe the fword on the fame honorable terms for the United States, every prof pect of tranquillity appeared.

These were events for which the ftatefman had fighed in the arduous exertions of the cabinet; for which the hero had bared his breast, and the blood of the citizens had flowed in copious ftreams on the borders of the Atlantic, from the river St. Mary's to the St. Croix, on the eastern extreme of the American territory. Peace was proclaimed in the American army,

1783.

by order of the commander in chief, on the CAP.XXVIII. nineteenth of April, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three. This was just EIGHT YEARS from the memorable day, when the first blood was drawn in the conteft between the American colonies and the parent state, in the fields of Concord and Lexington.

The operation and confequences of the reftoration of peace, were now the fubject of contemplation. This opened objects of magnitude indeed, to a young republic, which had rapidly paffed through the grades of youth and puberty, and was faft arriving to the age of maturity :-a republic confifting of a number of confederated states, which by this time had received many as inhabitants, who were not originally from the ftock of England. Some of them, indeed, were from more free governments, but others had fled from the flavery of defpotic courts; from their numbers and abilities they had become respectable, and their opinions weighty in the political fcale. From these and other circumftances it might be expected, that in time, the general enthusiafm for a republican fyftem of government in America, might languish, and new theories be adopted, or old ones modified under different names and terms, until the darling fyftem of

CHAP.XXVIII. the inhabitants of the United States, might be loft or forgotten in a growing rabiosity for monarchy.

1783.

Symptoms of this nature, already began to appear in the language of fome interefted and ambitious men, who endeavoured to confound ideas, and darken opinion, by aflerting that republicanifm was an indefinite term. In focial circles they frequently infinuated, that no precife meaning could be affixed to a word, by which the people were often deceived and led to pursue a fhadow inftead of an object of any real stability. This was indeed, more the language of art than principle, and feemed to augur the decline of public virtue in a free state.

It required the utmoft vigilance to guard againft, and counteract defigns thus fecretly covered. It was not unexpected by the judi cious obfervers of human conduct, that many contingencies might arife, to defeat or to ren der fruitless the efforts that had been made on the practicability of erecting and maintaining a pure, unadulterated, republican government.

Time muft unfold the futility of fuch an expectation, or establish the fyftem on a bafis, that will lead mankind to rejoice in the fuccefs of an experiment that has been too often tried in vain. Thofe who have been nurtured in