The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 03 (of 12)Hazlitt, William
General
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 03 (of 12)
Hazlitt, William
English essays -- 19th century
‘_The stupid impertinence_’ (charged on the attacks made upon him) ‘has
no relation to _The Morning Chronicle_, with which I am disposed to part
in peace. One feels a tolerance towards that paper, for the talents
which once adorned it; and of the continuance of which I should rejoice
to see more proof in its late attacks on Vetus. We have little common
faith in politics, but we have, I trust, a common stake in the spirit
and dignity of the press.’
We are obliged to Vetus for this amicable offer, of the sincerity of
which we entertain no doubt. As to the talent shown in our attacks on
him, we are ready to admit that it is little enough; but we at the same
time think that if it had been greater, it would have been more than the
occasion required. We have no enmity to Vetus, but to his extravagance,
and if he will correct that, he will save us the trouble of correcting
it for him. We are ready to believe that this writer has talents and
acquirements which might be made useful to the public, if he would
forego his mistaken pretensions to extraordinary wisdom and eloquence.
The qualities of profound thought and splendid imagery are seldom found
singly in the same person, and the union of both together is an
undertaking much beyond the capacity of Vetus. And now we leave him to
return to his indigestions with ‘what appetite he may.’[15]
ON THE LATE WAR
_April 3, 1814._
The systematic patrons of eternal war are always returning, when they
dare, to the point from which they set out twenty years ago; the war
with them has not yet lost its original character: they have long
memories: they never lose sight of their objects and principles. We
cannot but admire their candour as well as their consistency, and would
wish to imitate it. It is deemed necessary by the everlasting
war-faction to prove in their own justification, ‘that the march to
Paris was not chimerical in 1793,’ by carrying it into effect now, and
to blot France out of the map of Europe, three-and-twenty years after
the event had been announced by that great prophet and politician, Mr.
Burke. This splendid reverie is not yet accomplished. The triumph of the
Pitt-school over the peace-faction is not yet complete; but we are put
in complete possession of what is required to make it so. As the war
with them was a war of extermination, so the peace, not to fix a lasting
stigma on their school and principles, must be a peace of extermination.
This is what we always said and thought of those principles and that
school. This is their triumph, their _only_ triumph—the true crown of
their hopes, the consummation of their utmost wishes, nothing short of
which can satisfy their proud pretensions, or finish this just and
necessary war, as it was begun. Otherwise, no peace for them; otherwise,
they will have failed in both branches of that happy dilemma, hit upon
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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