For the stuff that is talked about
freedom, democracy, march of intellect, and so forth, I have nothing to
say, except to bid you look at the result among themselves. Is there a
man in France whose body is his own if he can carry arms, or his soul if
it ventures to seek its own good? As for mind--there is only the mind
of one man; a large one in many ways; in others a small one, because it
considers its owner alone.
"But we of England have refused to be stripped of all that we hold dear,
at the will of a foreign upstart. We have fought for years, and we still
are fighting, without any brag or dream of glory, for the rights of
ourselves and of all mankind. There have been among us weak-minded
fellows, babblers of abstract nonsense, and even, I grieve to
say--traitors. But, on the whole, we have stood together, and therefore
have not been trodden on. How it may end is within the knowledge of the
Almighty only; but already there are signs that we shall be helped, if
we continue to help ourselves.
"And now for the occasion of our meeting here. We rejoice most heartily
with our good host, the vigilant Defender of these shores, at the
restoration to his arms--or rather, to a still more delightful
embrace--of a British officer, who has proved a truth we knew already,
that nothing stops a British officer. I see a gentleman struck so keenly
with the force of that remark, because he himself has proved it, that I
must beg his next neighbour to fill up his glass, and allow nothing to
stop him from tossing it off.
Pages:
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643