high-minded Englishmen may regard the termination with complacency; while the regret they must feel, will not be, that their government was foiled in the attempt, but that it was ever undertaken. Unquestionably, the greatest statesmen, and a very choice, though not numerous part of the nation, felt it to be a civil war, in which they took side with the party oppressed. The results, contrary indeed to expectation, have been so advantageous to England, that none but the most slavish bigot to arbitrary government, can do otherwise than rejoice at them.

It never fell to the lot of a braver, more humane, or more virtuous people to contend in a cause, that would ultimately effect the condition of every country. Their leaders were fitted for the station that was assigned to them, and when in after times, their inextinguishable principles and unfading example, shall make their destined way throughout the world, they will be revered by future ages among the general benefactors of mankind.

Even now, though placed too near their colossal merit to discern all its excellent proportions, some idea may be formed of their value, by considering the miserable scenes of rapine, cruelty, fickleness, and apostacy, that have been exhibited by the various actors in revolutions before the eyes of the pre

sent generation. The revolutionary patriots of America were courageous, moderate, plain, and incorruptible, and imbued with a deep sense of religion, which guided and guaranteed all their conduct. They were, in fact, "the men of Plutarch," formed in a school of primitive simplicity and unyielding principle, which made them the ornaments of their own age, and will secure to them the admiration of posterity.

To those persons who have not fully examined the events and the characters that prepared the American revolution, this anticipation may seem too confident, perhaps extravagant. But if they will trace back the currents of public opinion on all subjects of political reform and amelioration, they will find how many of them began their course on this continent, between the years 1760 and 1776; though their primary fountains must at last be sought in the reformation, the commonwealth of England, and the English revolution. It will be found what vast consequences have followed the exertions of American patriotism, what excitement has been caused by its example, and how much human happiness has been increased by its labours. When the consideration of these high services shall be divested of all the envy and the familiarity of contemporaneous observation, it is not difficult to imagine in what scale

they will be placed, compared with the great actions of history. It is a quaint and trite remark, that no man is a hero to his own servant, and on the same principle, the number of servile or of feeble minds, that fill up the ranks of society, can never overlook the petty infirmities which come within their scope of intellect; and are quite incapable of estimating the character of eminent men, whose memory will be preserved, when the surrounding crowds shall have passed into the same oblivion that has covered the innumerable millions of their predecessors.

While the plain principles of justice were contended for on this side the water, in the most distinct and open manner, and with a steadiness and inflexibility suited to the occasion, the conduct of the ministry was encroaching, disingenuous and obscure, arrogant at one moment, and hesitating at another, Most of the illustrious names in modern English history were to be found on the side of opposition.

The ministry were, through the whole period, destitute of any elevated or extensive views, though they held the reins of power at a moment, when these qualities were peculiarly desirable. They seem throughout to have been composed of intriguing courtiers, or mere business men, without genius or energy enough to carry into effect, even their own narrow and tyrannical system. This judgment has

been too often passed upon them to be now reversed. The instances of it are familiar to every reader, but the following description, while it is less known, is not inferior in force and truth to most others. Sir Samuel Romilly, in a speech in parliament in 1780, thus described the administration that produced and prosecuted the American war.

"As statesmen, it is not easy to distinguish their characters; for no one minister has appeared to be the author of any particular measure. All that has

been done, has had the apparent approbation of the whole administration, and there are persons who go so far as to assert, that the real authors of all the proceedings against America are still behind the curtain. Of the whole administration, however, taken together, the principal characteristics are want of system and irresolution. The latter, indeed, is but a consequence of the former. Having little, confined views, they seem never from the first to have formed any comprehensive plan, and this original defect has proportionally increased with ill success; perplexed and confounded with the mazes and dangers into which they have run, like children, they rather turn away from what affrights them, than endeavour to prevent it. They ward off the present evil that presses on them, but leave the morrow to provide for itself; and may be truly

said, according to the latin phrase, in diem vivere. Their plan of operations, (for systems, they have none,) changes with every new occurrence. With every various accident, every various passion takes its turns to rule them. Regarding only the immediate object before them, they magnify its importance, and are now confident of success, now plunged into despair. The idol they erected yesterday, is cast down to day, and perhaps, will be enshrined again to-morrow. In prosperity, they are proud, contemptuous, and overbearing; in adversity, supple, mean and abject. At the commencement of the struggle with America, they treated the refractory colonists as a despicable gang of ruffians; but the moment a league was formed with France, they prostrated themselves at the feet of those rebels they had spurned, and offered them much more than had ever been demanded. But the panic was soon dissipated by a gleam of success; ministers resumed confidence, and one of them was imprudent enough to hint even in the house of commons, that unconditional submission was alone to be listened to-quid libet impotens sperare, fortunaque dulci ebrius. Nay, but last winter, flushed with the successes of lord Cornwallis, they were in imagination masters of all the southern provinces, and masters so absolute, that