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them--their cruel insinuations against the com

petency of the nation to defend itself their

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factious intrigues in the moment of danger, contrasted with their shameful dereliction of their sovereign in the hour of adversity-the deep recollection of their insolence in office, and the over-bearing haughtiness of their family pride the arrogant and insulting pretension over a free nation, that they alone are capable of saving their country-the incalculable evils which would befal the constitution, from the toleration of a family oligarchy, claiming, by à species of hereditary right, to controul and direct the affairs of the state, in exclusion of genius, virtue, and ability the loyal indignation aroused, and never to be forgotten, against ingratitude and indifference towards a beloved monarch, manifested by those on whom he had conferred numberless pledges of his favor-the just pride of the nation, lest that injured sovereign should undergo the humiliation of being indebted to such men for the conduct of his government-the anxiety to put it out of the 'power of any individuals to dictate to their sovereign the conditions of their service-the assertion of the honor of the empire, by demonstrating to mankind that all its abilities and

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public worth, are not concentrated in one family, respectable only for its rank and bloated fortune the resentment of a brave and enlightened people, who have for three years been treated by this faction, as a servile herd of cattle, devoid of judgment, spirit, and animation.-All these, together with many other cogent motives which I could enumerate, if the limits of this letter would allow, render it IMPOSSIBLE that the people of the united empire can enduretheir return to office, without admitting the truth of the slanderous insinuations heaped upon them, and confessing that they are lost to every sentiment of the manly pride, honor, and native public spirit, which characterized their forefathers in days of yore, and which, I trust, will ever be the distinguishing qualities of Britons.

But, it is not enough that we all hold these principles; that we are bound to each other by a covenant of honesty and good will to retain them; it is our duty, likewise, to feel the solidity of the ground on which they rest; to protect ourselves from the circumventions of partyfraud and intrigue; and to prove, that if it be the property of good-nature to bear with much injury, it will never reconcile itself to insult. This, therefore, is the object of the following

sheets; and although I once thought the name of Windham could never be associated with such an execrable group of public defaulters; yet, under a different conviction, I hesitate not to hold you up to public animadversion, as an example from which, ingenuousness of character, genius, erudition, and patriotism, may take warning at the first approaches of that endemic contagion peculiar to one aspiring family, whose sole object is to render courage, elo quence, and zeal, the auxiliaries of its ambitious phrenzy, and the dupes of its sordid and kindred spirit of exclusive domination. If the Roman law, De Ambitu, be excluded from our code of free legislation, there is yet a penalty in reserve for political profligacy, which should make the most enterprizing partizan tremble→→→ it is PUBLIC HATE..

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therefore, not by way

*" but on the convic

"I address this to you, of insulting a falling man, tion that the statement of Facts which it contains, will confirm the confidence of a steadfast nation, and strengthen that unanimity, which it has been the business of your political life to

* See Cobbett's Register, May 28, 1803, from which the above is a parody.

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As popularity once for

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feited is seldom if ever regained, and as good opinion is succeeded by disgust when the mind is alienated from the object of its former admiration, I consider you in the light of a man already fallen, and shall deliver my sentiments with the freedom of one wholly estranged from all esteem of a public character, which I once contemplated with respect and enthusiasm. Your fall deserves neither pity nor regret; and I speak the voice of the public when I assert, that I never wish to see you rise again, unless it be to retrace your steps, to abandon your errors and connexions, to feel for the prosperity of your country, and to "lend all the weight of your talents*" in its service.

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-The commencement of your systematic hostility against ministers, may be traced to the signature of the preliminaries of peace; and as many persons (myself among the rest) gave you eredit for the inflexibility of your principles, and the integrity of your motives, the mere circumstance of opposition on that particular subject, rather encreased than deteriorated from our. admiration of your talents, and anti-gallican

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* Cobbett as above, July.

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spirit. Without dismay or chagrin, we heard: you pronounce the peace to be the death-warrant of our country*; we made all reasonable: allowances for the warmth and trepidation of a man who had become the proselyte of Burke, who had received his tone of thinking from the. alarming predictions, and governed his political faith according to the doctrinal lessons inculcat-: ed in the school of that enlightened senator, who retained all that jealousy and abhorrence of! regicides, which had excited the eloquént zeal, and distinguished the evening of the life of that great political prophet.

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But all this might have been admired, and more than this have been heard without surprise, had it not been accompanied by a marked dis position to shackle and impede all the operations, of government; a disposition which necessarily

"I speak in perfect plainness and sincerity, from the bottom of my heart, and with the solemnity of a death-bed declaration, (a situation much resembling that in which we all stand) when I declare, that my honourable friends, who, in a moment of rashness and weakness, have fatally put their hands to this treaty, have signed the death-warrant of their country. They have given it a blow, under which it may languish for a few years, but from which, I do not conceive how it is possible for it ever to recover." Pol, Reg. Vol. II. p. 1093.

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