The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1804-06-27

no other titles to empire, than fo,tune ard bis
fword. No man of modern, and fcarcely one
OF ancient times, can be compared to him, Whole
life, ihort, brilliant, and glorious, r,ie moies
nance rather than hitory WHO has iubjuys-
ted the reflefs genius of the ration over which
lac rules by means of military government,
who holds confutas for the regulation Of DIFF
tant tates, and forms codes for the direction Of
nations hitherto independent.
The exertions of Britain during the revoluti-
onary war are unequalled perhaps III the annals
of any nation. Two hundred .al OF iine-oi-bat
tie ihips, a military force of more than half 4
million of men, near twenty millions fterIiBg
paid III loans and fubiidies, public dsot, tetore
deemed intolerable, enlarged in frishtful mag
nitude, and an immenfe annual taxation doub-
led fuch have been the efforts OF a people
who had acquired vigour by the wholeioms ipi-
| rit of their ancient inftitutons, generous love
of liberty, liberal federation in refpett to re-
gion, the cultivation of manufactures, and an
unreitrained commerce.
No nation ever FILTERED equal privations with
greater manfulncis. The ftockhoder beheld his
capital diminiihed more than one half, the pea
FAINT faw the price of his loaf alnlcR triped,
withouta murmur while the opuient cheer
| fully yielded to the fifcal regulations known by
the Detected names of the triple afieiiinent and
| the mcome-tax. But enlightened men were
ihocked at the miferies inflicted by thofe who
reclined their heads on pillows of down, While
their fellow fubieess were frequently arrelted On
| fufpicon, confined for months without trial, or
| tried without crime. 1t was coDEd ered as as
| mtoerable outrage, that the puniihment reisrv~
ed for convicted felons ihould be applied 10 UNI
| convicted traitors; and hiRory has to record,
without buth, that folitary imprisonment, for
| the frf time iince the Revolution, was pracii-
fed in one country by the cxprefS order, and
| torture inflicted in another by the tacit permit
! hon, of Engliihmen.
During the courfe ofthis confe, Britain was
| victorious in every fea and fucceiSful in eYerP
naval battle the capture of near five hundred
| men-of-war, of which upwards OF eighty were
ihbs of the line, fully atteits this memorable
fact, and exhibits nobler trophies than were ever
won before by any other nation. Nor was any
quarter of the globe exempt from her conquefts.
In America ihe acquired Tobago, part OF ST.
Domingo, the whole of Martinico, ST. Lucis,
and Guadalupe, from the French Trinidad
| from the Spaniards; Demerary, lfequibo, Su-
rinam, Curacao, Berbice, and st. Euftatia, from
the Dntch. in the Raf Indies, PondicGcrry,
Malacca, Ceylon, Amboyna, and Banda, yieIo,-
ed either to her arms or influence. In Africa,
Goree, the Cape of Coop Hope, Malta, and E.
gypt, by turns confefied the fway of the CON-
queror; while in Europe, Toulon, Minorca,
Corfica, aud Malta, either surrendered by Capi-
| tulation, or were fubjugated by force.
| Z.
I Scarcely any fate in want OF treafure or aifii-
lance, but was either fuppfed by the wealth, CT
protected by the fleets and armies, of this natl
on and no lefs than two emperors, three kings,
one queen. with multitude of petty but inde-
pendent princes, were occaiionally ranked a
mong her fubfdiaries.
In addition to this. and by rare inftance of
good fortune hitherto unexampled in any hifto-
| ry, although the manufactures of England droop-
ed and many of her artifans were forced by dire
neceffity to WELD thofe arms they had before
| fabricated, yet her commerce lourifhed and G.
ven encreafed during the war.
This tide of PROPERTY, however, has been
productive of bat little permanent advantage;
for after the expenditure OF at leaf one hundred
and fifty thoufand lives, and fome hundreds os
| millions of money, the iliand of Ceylon in the
Indian, and that of Trinidad in the Atlantic,
ocean, are all that remain of her numerous con-
quets: nor ought it to be forgotten. that one
of her allies has been ftripped of his domnions
| on the continent another has been driven into
exile and that the reft have confented to the
mof humiliating facrihccs to obtain fafety and
peace.
Ever prepared to avenge infulted honour, or
redreis national wrongs, 1t is to be hoped, that
| Britain will continue to combat by means the
fame arms which have 70 frequently enfured flc-
cefs and that with the extended trident of Nep-
tune flle will, as before, beat down the boaited
| fpear of Minerva.
But, with thefe exceptions alone, it is her in
tereft to facrifce at the altar ofpeace to ply
the loom and the 1huttle TO cultivate the earth
for the purpofes of agriculture to raife the mi
nerals from its bowels for the fervice of focal
life; to unbend the fail ofcommerce to the gale;
TO cover the ocean with her fleets and never
to engage in any but a juft, necefary, and po-
pular war, the aim of which is defined, and the
object attainabe.
| (0) Lo,d Ha9vet6wy.
| ~ Colonel LavJ9on.
(eJ See Ippendix.
| M Lord Green7,ihs and Mr.. Windba,1.
1 ri The Gl,n nf $4,000 hinttret I. tn be trnnE