The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes.Wordsworth, William
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The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes.
Wordsworth, William
English literature -- 19th century
demonstrations of joy, inward disgust and depression? These reflections
interrupted the satisfaction of many; but more from fear of future
consequences than for the immediate enterprize, for here success seemed
inevitable; and a happy and glorious termination was confidently
expected, yet not without that intermixture of apprehension, which was
at once an acknowledgment of the general condition of humanity, and a
proof of the deep interest attached to the impending event.
Sir Arthur Wellesley's dispatches had appeared in the Gazette on the 2d
of September, and on the 16th of the same month suspence was put an end
to by the publication of Sir Hew Dalrymple's letter, accompanied with
the Armistice and Convention. The night before, by order of ministers,
an attempt had been made at rejoicing, and the Park and Tower guns had
been fired in sign of good news.--Heaven grant that the ears of that
great city may be preserved from such another outrage! As soon as the
truth was known, never was there such a burst of rage and
indignation--such an overwhelming of stupefaction and sorrow. But I will
not, I cannot dwell upon it--it is enough to say, that Sir Hew
Dalrymple and Sir Arthur Wellesley must he bold men if they can think of
what must have been reported to them, without awe and trembling; the
heart of their country was turned against them, and they were execrated
in bitterness.
For they had changed all things into their contraries, hope into
despair; triumph into defeat; confidence into treachery, which left no
place to stand upon; justice into the keenest injury.--Whom had they
delivered but the Tyrant in captivity? Whose hands had they bound but
those of their Allies, who were able of themselves to have executed
their own purposes? Whom had they punished but the innocent sufferer?
Whom rewarded but the guiltiest of Oppressors? They had reversed every
thing:--favour and honour for their enemies--insult for their
friends--and robbery (they had both protected the person of the robber
and secured to him his booty) and opprobrium for themselves;--to those
over whom they had been masters, who had crouched to them by an open act
of submission, they had made themselves servants, turning the British
Lion into a beast of burthen, to carry a vanquished enemy, with his load
of iniquities, when and whither it had pleased him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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