LECTURE XXXIII.

AMERICAN WAR.

You will have observed, from the extracts I have produced, that in the course of the debates in parliament, many members appear to have denounced to the ministers beforehand, the folly of their expectations, and the evil consequences by which their measures would be attended.

Such instances of peculiar wisdom in statesmen and in parties have at other times occurred, and they ought always to be considered as the proper subjects of meditation to those who are ambitious to be hereafter wise and virtuous legislators, or intelligent patriots themselves. It should be asked, how this superior wisdom was obtained, and why it was not successful.

It is sometimes said on these occasions, by those who have nothing else to say, that predictions of this kind are made, not from a spirit of wisdom, but from a spirit of opposition; that the ministers, having taken their course in one direction, their opponents necessarily proceed in the other; that it is the very study and occupation of those who are on one side the house to contradict the assertions and vilify the measures of those who are on the other; and that all denunciations of ruin and defeat are words of course-the mere terms of declamation and abuse, played off by those who are without, against the garrison within, of a fort which they are endeavouring to storm.

It must be observed therefore, in a few words, that the ministers have the first choice of their measures, and if they adopt those which lead to disappointment and defeat, they at least are wrong, and the proper objects of public censure,

whatever we may say of their opponents. But with respect to these last, that it by no means follows, if the ministers have gone to the left, that their opponents shall necessarily turn to the right; because whatever they do, they do, like the ministers themselves, at the hazard of their own characters at the risk of their credit with wise and good men. They who are out of office can only come into office by rising in the estimation of their sovereign and the public, very often of the public only; and one of the most obvious ways of rising in this estimation is by showing superior sagacity in the concerns of the empire. It must also be observed that what public men, whether in or out of office, must avoid, is the making of predictions. This is what is called, in their own language, "committing themselves," and is never done without the greatest caution and necessity; and, therefore, whenever public men choose to put themselves at issue with the ministers, and hazard predictions, they become from that moment entitled to the praise of superior wisdom or not, just as their expectations are or are not verified by the event. Indeed upon any other supposition the situation of our statesmen would be somewhat ludicrous, and any display of political wisdom would be impossible, if those who advise measures are to have credit when they succeed, and those who predict the folly of such measures are to have no credit when they fail.

This

The only point on the subject that can now remain seems to be this, whether the prediction has been occasioned, not by superior philosophy or wisdom, but by some particular whim, or passion, or prejudice in the speaker's mind. is a mere question of fact, and before such an explanation can be received, the case must be made out. This supposition, however, is out of the question, when they who have made predictions, are not a few, but many, and not rash or young men, but men of information, character, and experience.

It will always be found that those who not only have predicted, but have predicted truly, have drawn their principles

VOL. II.

EE

from deeper sources in human nature than their opponents have, have taken their views from more commanding heights, and have been better able to discern the philosophy of the case, and have probably not acquiesced in the popular or first notions of it; that is, in a word, have shown themselves men of greater capacity for the management of the affairs of mankind.

In the case, indeed, before us, these predictions were uttered, not only in the speeches of different statesmen, but in the pamphlets of different writers; and to the latter such objections as we have alluded to are even less reasonable than when applied to speakers in parliament.

I have now stated to you what I conceive to have been the causes that so unfortunately operated on this side the Atlantic to produce the civil war with America. I have endeavoured to illustrate my positions by a reference, first, to the debates of parliament; and, secondly, to the most noted pamphlets that appeared at the time, and more particularly to the speeches that were afterwards published as pamphlets, by Mr. Burke. I shall now endeavour to illustrate the same positions by a reference to one of the writers of America as well as one of our own; that is, I shall endeavour to make a comparison of the different views that were taken of the same measures and events by the Americans and ourselves; seeking for one in the pages of Dr. Ramsay, and for the other in those of the Annual Register; and I do this to-day, because I wish you to do it for yourselves hereafter. My present lecture I intend to be a specimen of what I mean when I advise you, as I now do, to note well what was thought by the two opposite parties in this dispute, that is, not only by ourselves, but by the Americans. You know the great precept of Christianity, the great maxim of morality, "Do unto others as you would they should do unto you." The more you accustom yourselves to this discipline of your feelings the better. Try it in the subject now before you; you will be the more able and the more willing to do it hereafter on

every public occasion that can occur; that is, you will not only be better men in the relations of private life, but, on the larger scale, you will be more rational advisers to your sovereign, or more useful members of the legislature, or more intelligent individuals, when you are to form your estimates from time to time, as you ought to do, of the measures of those who administer the government of your country.

No doubt all comparisons of this kind, of one book and one set of opinions with another, is a process somewhat tedious and repulsive; but you are, I hope, not now to learn the difference between reading and study, between what I may call passive reading and active reading, between sitting still to receive from a book the ideas and impressions it may give you, and stopping to reflect upon its opinions, occasionally examine its references, and compare and contrast its estimates and conclusions with those of other writers. It is a process of this last kind that can alone deserve the respectable name of study; but like every other process from which the human character is to acquire the attribute of merit, it implies something to be achieved and to be endured; some toil, some patience, some virtue, some valuable quality of the mind or temper to be exercised.

It is indeed the great business of this place to teach men the exercise of their understanding, and to initiate them in the duties and sacrifices by which all intellectual as well as moral improvement must be attained. Those young men have taken a very unworthy and mistaken view of our system, who suppose that they are only taught the sciences, for instance, for the immediate and appropriate value of the knowledge they convey, that nothing more is meant or accomplished. Let any man endeavour properly to pass through our examinations, no matter what be the subject, or whether he be successful or not, he will then have been taught to comprehend what it is to know a subject, and what it is only to be acquainted with it and only to suppose he knows it; and he will feel the benefit of his labours, or of his sufferings, if you

please, if he should ever have afterwards to engage in a profession, to take a part in our houses of legislature, to propose a measure on the most ordinary occasion at a town or county meeting or even to a committee of the subscribers to a public charity.

But I am insensibly travelling out of my more proper province.

The whole business and purport of these lectures, as I have from the first announced, is to assist you in reading history for yourselves; to enable you, as far as I am competent, to turn the materials before you to the best advantage, to some purpose of your present and future improvement. Occasionally, therefore, I must propose to you tasks of some labour and exertion. I do so now; but I have reduced it, as I think, to the smallest compass. The books I have selected are very concisely written, and I will now give you a slight specimen of what they contain, and of what I propose you to do hereafter for yourselves.

You have already seen what were the views of men on this side of the Atlantic; observe now what was thought on the other. I shall proceed, as I have already intimated, to give you some idea of the account furnished by Ramsay; I shall afterwards direct your attention to the Annual Register.

The work of Ramsay is short, and it is the American account. The author was a member of congress, and had access to all the official papers of the United States. He quotes not his authorities, though he proposes hereafter to do so, if it should then be necessary.

The author does not criticise with proper severity the conduct of congress; and he is disposed to palliate the defeats of the Americans in the field, not considering that the more difficult it was to bring militia and raw troops to face the regular armies of England, the greater was the merit of the generals and legislators who succeeded in procuring victory and independence for their country. But with these exceptions, the author appears to give a candid and intelligent