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Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin: Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems, of the Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford, the Earl of Carlisle, and Others.

History

Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin: Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems, of the Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford, the Earl of Carlisle, and Others.

English poetry; France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Poetry; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1789-1820

The relation in which we may stand to the other States of Europe, or
they to each other, is comparatively of little moment. They may
reciprocate Missions, and propose Treaties,—the _Ligurian Republic_ may
make Peace or War with the _Cisalpine_; the _Cisalpine_ with the
_Roman_;—either of them with the KING of SARDINIA, with _Tuscany_, or
with _Naples_; and the greater Powers may mediate, or embroil the
quarrel, may offer their protection, and talk of their Dignity:—But the
question does not lie there.—_France_ has the power and the will to
controul, to oppress them altogether; to limit or extend their
Boundaries, as she sees good; to approve or annul their Internal
Regulations, as well as their stipulations with each other: And while
she has that power, whether it be by strength in herself, or by the
sufferance of others; whether she may choose to vex and harass them in
mass, or detail; to keep peace between them, or to set them at variance;
to work their revolutions by her own arms, or to delegate that sacred
office to their neighbours; or, finally, to insist upon their performing
it each for themselves;—the result to us is the same. The People of
Europe are equally enslaved;—it matters not whether they are manacled
separately, or bolted to the links of a long chain which connects and
coerces them in a fellowship of misery.

                               _Mortalia corda
                   Per gentes humilis stravit pavor._

To Us, the relation of these unhappy Powers, is either that of Friends
forced into a Foreign Army to fight against us, or placed, hand-cuffed,
on the Deck of a Line of Battle Ship to receive our fire—or it is that
of a Captive languishing in a Dungeon against which We are making an
attack, and who does not dare to acknowledge his Friend, till he can
hail him as his Deliverer.

The Contest between _Great Britain_ and _France_, then, is not for the
existence of the former only, but for the Freedom of the World. To look
to partial Interests, to talk of partial Successes, as bearing upon the
main object and general issue of the War, is to take a narrow and
pitiful view of the most momentous and most tremendous subject that ever
was brought under the consideration of mankind.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin: Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems, of the Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford, the Earl of Carlisle, and Others.

English poetry; France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Poetry; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1789-1820

The relation in which we may stand to the other States of Europe, or
they to each other, is comparatively of little moment. They may
reciprocate Missions, and propose Treaties,—the _Ligurian Republic_ may
make Peace or War with the _Cisalpine_; the _Cisalpine_ with the
_Roman_;—either of them with the KING of SARDINIA, with _Tuscany_, or
with _Naples_; and the greater Powers may mediate, or embroil the
quarrel, may offer their protection, and talk of their Dignity:—But the
question does not lie there.—_France_ has the power and the will to
controul, to oppress them altogether; to limit or extend their
Boundaries, as she sees good; to approve or annul their Internal
Regulations, as well as their stipulations with each other: And while
she has that power, whether it be by strength in herself, or by the
sufferance of others; whether she may choose to vex and harass them in
mass, or detail; to keep peace between them, or to set them at variance;
to work their revolutions by her own arms, or to delegate that sacred
office to their neighbours; or, finally, to insist upon their performing
it each for themselves;—the result to us is the same. The People of
Europe are equally enslaved;—it matters not whether they are manacled
separately, or bolted to the links of a long chain which connects and
coerces them in a fellowship of misery.

                               _Mortalia corda
                   Per gentes humilis stravit pavor._

To Us, the relation of these unhappy Powers, is either that of Friends
forced into a Foreign Army to fight against us, or placed, hand-cuffed,
on the Deck of a Line of Battle Ship to receive our fire—or it is that
of a Captive languishing in a Dungeon against which We are making an
attack, and who does not dare to acknowledge his Friend, till he can
hail him as his Deliverer.

The Contest between _Great Britain_ and _France_, then, is not for the
existence of the former only, but for the Freedom of the World. To look
to partial Interests, to talk of partial Successes, as bearing upon the
main object and general issue of the War, is to take a narrow and
pitiful view of the most momentous and most tremendous subject that ever
was brought under the consideration of mankind.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin: Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems, of the Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford, the Earl of Carlisle, and Others.

Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin: Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems, of the Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford, the Earl of Carlisle, and Others.

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