Louis the Fourteenth over-ran Holland and the Palatinate to plant the white flag, and lay the inhabitants under contribution—­the republic send an army to plant the tree of liberty, levy a don patriotique, [Patriotic gift.] and place garrisons in the towns, in order to preserve their freedom.—­Kings have violated treaties from the desire of conquest —­these virtuous republicans do it from the desire of plunder; and, previous to opening the Scheldt, the invasion of Holland, was proposed as a means of paying the expences of the war.  I have never heard that even the most ambitious Potentates ever pretended to extend their subjugation beyond the persons and property of the conquered; but these militant dogmatists claim an empire even over opinions, and insist that no people can be free or happy unless they regulate their ideas of freedom and happiness by the variable standard of the Jacobin club.  Far from being of Hudibras’s philosophy,* they seem to think the mind as tangible as the body, and that, with the assistance of an army, they may as soon lay one “by the heels” as the other.

             * “Quoth he, one half of man, his mind,
               “Is, sui juris, unconfin’d,
               “And ne’er can be laid by the heels,
               “Whate’er the other moiety feels.”

Hudibras.

Now this I conceive to be the worst of all tyrannies, nor have I seen it exceeded on the French theatre, though, within the last year, the imagination of their poets has been peculiarly ingenious and inventive on this subject.—­It is absurd to suppose this vain and overbearing disposition will cease when the French government is settled.  The intrigues of the popular party began in England the very moment they attained power, and long before there was any reason to suspect that the English would deviate from their plan of neutrality.  If, then, the French cannot restrain this mischievous spirit while their own affairs are sufficient to occupy their utmost attention, it is natural to conclude, that, should they once become established, leisure and peace will make them dangerous to the tranquillity of all Europe.  Other governments may be improved by time, but republics always degenerate; and if that which is in its original state of perfection exhibit already the maturity of vice, one cannot, without being more credulous than reasonable, hope any thing better for the future than what we have experienced from the past.—­It is, indeed, unnecessary to detain you longer on this subject.  You must, ere now, be perfectly convinced how far the revolutionary systems of France are favourable to the peace and happiness of other countries.  I will only add a few details which may assist you in judging of what advantage they have been to the French themselves, and whether, in changing the form of their government, they have amended its principles; or if, in “conquering liberty,” (as they express it,) they have really become free.