THE YEAR 1817. [ By Robert Thomas Wilson ] THIRD EDITION. SERPENS NISI SERPENTEM COMEDERIT -NON SIT DRACO. LONDON: PRINTED FOR JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY. 1817. . Cory to age old adt THE tranquillity of Europe was the professed object and promise of the belligerent system pursued for twenty-five years by the British Cabinet: a tranquillity, not such as Tiberius or Sylla conferred on Rome, when the oppressed and the wretched were denied the utterance of their griefs, but one which should be the fruit of a policy conciliating the public feeling, and associating to its support the wise and the good of all countries-a tranquillity, which should possess the principles of self preservation, by connecting the powerful and the weak, the conquering and the conquered, in bonds of common interest. It would be a mockery of the public understanding to enter into an elaborate dis cussion for the purpose of proving, that this pledge has, in no one instance, been redeemed. Where is that peace accompanied with the blessings of peace? What injuries have been redressed by a disinterested act of justice?a ( What passions have been appeased by the generosity of power? The eye of the most resolute is daunted at the flashes of popular indignation-The throes of suffering humanity are accompanied with an expression of despair so fearful as to make foolish men to think, and thinking men to tremble.ae doting 4 "We have suffered affliction without gaining wisdom," and, severe as the late struggles have been, there is too much cause to apprehend "our warfare is not ac complished" that there may, be other struggles, which, if once begun, can ad mit of no compromise, since former dis |