Selected Speeches on British Foreign Policy 1738-1914 — John Shaqi
Selected Speeches on British Foreign Policy 1738-1914
History
Selected Speeches on British Foreign Policy 1738-1914
Great Britain -- Foreign relations; Speeches, addresses, etc., English
wonderful conduct was reserved for this glorious conspiracy
in favour of the true and genuine rights and interests
of men. Happy people, if they know how to proceed
as they have begun! Happy prince, worthy to begin
with splendour, or to close with glory, a race of patriots and
of kings: and to leave
A name, which ev'ry wind to heav'n would bear,
Which men to speak, and angels joy to hear.
To finish all. This great good, as in the instant it is, contains in
it the seeds of all further improvement, and may be considered as in a
regular progress, because founded on similar principles, towards the
stable excellence of a British constitution.
Here was a matter for congratulation and for festive
remembrance through ages. Here moralists and divines
might indeed relax in their temperance, to exhilarate their
humanity.
Such, Mr. Sheridan said, was the description which the right
honourable gentleman gave to that revolution. Was it to be supposed
that he would afterwards say, that this ought to have been trampled
upon and destroyed, or should suffer such an event to happen, and
never utter a word upon the subject? He did not think that monarchs of
the present day had fulfilled the promises that some persons had made,
and which had been expected from them, so that their names might
be handed down to posterity as a glorious example of integrity and
justice. With respect to the future views of the different Powers,
they might best be conjectured by what had already happened. The
Empress of Russia, upon the sincerity of whose motives, and integrity
of whose actions, there could be no doubt, previous to the attack on
Poland, among other things in her manifesto, said by her Minister:
From these considerations, Her Imperial Majesty, my
most gracious mistress, as well to indemnify herself for her
many losses, as for the future safety of her Empire and the
Polish dominions, and for the cutting off at once, for ever,
all future disturbances and frequent changes of government,
has been pleased now to take under her sway, and to
unite for ever to her Empire, the following tracts of land,
with all their inhabitants.
This was the language for which the confederates were to justify
perhaps the future taking under their sway, and uniting for ever to
their Empire, part of the dominions of France. We had heard much of
the abominable system of affiliation adopted by the French; but this
was a Russian impartial affiliation, and no doubt the confederate
Powers approved of it. In like manner will they affiliate all France,
if they can. So will they England, when they have it in their
power; and he was sorry to say, that if we joined in that infamous
confederacy, and the people agreed to it, England would deserve to be
so treated. The Empress then proceeded to state what she expected for
the favour she had conferred:
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